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[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]H[/dropcap]aving a child with a serious medical ailment is devastating. When that ailment is something difficult to treat, such as seizures, it’s even more heart-wrenching and difficult. So when parents find what many consider to be a miracle cure like CBD, they’ll fight tirelessly to ensure that their children receive their treatment and improve their quality of life.

And that’s just what some Washington parents of special needs kids are doing. Once again, patient advocates and members of the Washington State legislature are fighting for pediatric patients’ right to use medical cannabis in school. House Bill 1060, known as “Ducky’s Bill,” (the official title is “Concerning the administration of marijuana to students for medical purposes”) is in its third session.

Among the bill’s sponsors is Rep. Brian Blake. Blake told CULTURE about his inspiration for sponsoring the bill, which comes from the experience of John Barclay, one of Blake’s constituents. Barclay has a daughter named River (affectionately known as Ducky) who suffers from severe health issues that cause her to have severe and frequent seizures. Ducky wasn’t responding well to her previous treatments, so John sought out some other treatments to help his daughter make it through the day.

Barclay found CBD to be the best treatment option for his daughter. But this caused Barclay to run into issues when it came to Ducky’s education. Barclay could administer his daughter’s medicine in the morning, but because it was CBD, she could not take her medicine during the school day without him taking her off campus. So, Barclay would take Ducky off campus to administer her medicine.

However, convincing Ducky to go back to school once she’d returned home was a challenge. She would often end up staying home for the rest of the day, and ended up missing out on her education. HB-1060 aims to help solve this problem. “The bill is an effort to facilitate children like River being able to receive this medication, basically a cookie with drops of CBD oil, on their school campus,” Blake told CULTURE.

Barclay and River are far from the only folks who would benefit from this. Meagan Holt, author, medical cannabis advocate and fellow Washington state resident, has been a longtime proponent of allowing cannabis treatment in schools. Her daughter Maddie suffers from a severe neurological disorder, and wasn’t expected to live long enough to go to school, but CBD has prolonged her life and drastically improved her quality of life.

“The bill is an effort to facilitate children like River being able to receive this medication, basically a cookie with drops of CBD oil, on their school campus.”

 

Holt has seen first-hand how cannabis helped her own daughter, and has high hopes for the success of HB-1060. “This [bill] is now the third session that we’ve been fighting for cannabis to be allowed to be administered to pediatric patients in schools,” Holt told CULTURE. “For me, it’s super exciting. Because for Maddie, if it wasn’t for cannabis, she wouldn’t even be here. So going to school with her diagnosis was something I never even thought was possible. For her to have that right to use that medicine, the only thing that kept her here long enough to even be able to go to school is really exciting.”

It’s a surprise that this bill, which has bipartisan support, has been so difficult to pass. Michigan, Colorado, and even New Jersey have laws on the books allowing medical cannabis to be administered in schools in special circumstances. The fact that Washington has not been able to pass this bill into law in years prior is detrimental to student patients and their parents alike.

Washington parents like Barclay and Holt are hoping the third time’s a charm, and H.B. 1060 will finally see passage into law.

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