- Jack Splitt won over lawmakers to make medical marijuana legal in schools
- He made news when teacher ripped off his cannabis skin patch in 2015
- The 15-year-old with cerebral palsy died of his condition on Wednesday
- His mother Stacey Linn paid tribute to her ‘brave tropper’ son
Associated Press
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A 15-year-old Colorado boy who helped pass a law requiring schools to allow students to use medical marijuana has died.
Jack Splitt used marijuana to treat pain from cerebral palsy.
In February 2015, he and his mother, Stacey Linn, made headlines after a teacher ripped off his cannabis-laced skin patch.
Stacey and Jack hit out at the teacher and began pushing for what ultimately became known as Jack’s Law in June this year.
On Wednesday, just weeks after the historic bill, Jack’s debilitating muscle contractions worsened and he died.
Brave: Jack Splitt pictured with his mother Stacey outside their home in Lakewood, Colorado, in April. He was the inspiration for ‘Jack’s Law’, passed in June, which gives school districts the authority to give children marijuana treatment on campus
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, left, congratulates then-14-year-old Jack, right, after signing a bill named after the teen to crack down on the state’s medical marijuana industry
He had just started the new term at Wheat Ridge High School days earlier.
‘Jack had a tough life, but he was a trooper and a very brave young man,’ his mother Stacey told The Denver Post.
‘When he smiled at you, it changed your life. I’ve had people tell me that when Jack smiled at them a year ago, they can still remember his smile.’
The law, which was signed by Gov. John Hickenlooper in June, requires schools to allow a parent or caregiver to administer medical marijuana on campus.
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Previously the law allowed school districts to permit medical marijuana treatments for students under certain conditions but advocates said it was useless because none of the state’s 178 school districts used that authority.
School officials opposed the law, fearing they could lose millions in federal funds for allowing the use of a drug illegal under federal law.
But parents told lawmakers about how their children were unable to attend school because of the ban on marijuana treatments.
Medical marijuana has been legal in several states for two decades but school districts and lawmakers nationwide are only now starting to grapple with thorny issues about student use.
New Jersey also requires that schools accommodate medical pot as long as it is in a non-smokable form and is administered by a nurse or caregiver.
School officials testified against the requirement, saying marijuana remains illegal under federal law.
Kathleen Sullivan, a lawyer for the Colorado Association of School Boards, said the requirement could endanger about $433 million in federal money that goes to Colorado public schools.
‘This is a bill that asks you to gamble with local money,’ Sullivan said.
On Wednesday, Jack’s debilitating muscle contractions worsened and he died
But dozens of parents packed a hearing in April to say their children are unable to attend school because schools forbid marijuana treatments.
‘This is not about two kids smoking a joint between cars in a parking lot,’ said Jennie Stormes, mother of a teenage boy suspended from school last year for having yogurt mixed with cannabis pills to treat a disease that gives him seizures.
‘They need to make reasonable accommodations so that children who need medical marijuana can go to school,’ said Stacey, Jack Splitt’s mother Linn.
Finally, lawmakers were swayed by testimony from Jack himself.
‘Say yes so I can go to school like every other kid,’ he said.
The bill passed 10-3.
Medical marijuana has been legal in several states for two decades.
But school districts and lawmakers nationwide only started to grappling with thorny issues about student use of a drug still illegal under federal law this year.
Colorado is one of three states where medical marijuana is legal that has any rules for use in schools, according to the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project.
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