Edmonton mom hopes 15-year-old daughter can smoke medical marijuana at school

DeniseCrissis asking the Edmonton public school board to allow her 15-year-old daughterto smoke marijuana between classes inside Victoria School of the Arts.

Crisssays she has good reasons for the unusual request. Her daughter, Autum Bibaud-Keech, a Grade 10student, uses the drug for medical purposes.

Criss'svoice cracks with emotion as she explains why her daughter uses a drug that would typicallyget studentsin a lot of trouble.

"My daughter hasscoliosisin her back and it causes a lot of the muscles in her back to be really tense and be really sore so she has chronic back pain from that and she's been diagnosed with a mood disorder including OCD, anxiety and depression," she said.

A learning experience

Using marijuana to treat these issues has been a learning experience for both mom and daughter.

"I personally used to use it when I was a teenager like a lot of people have.I used it for purposes of having fun so it was different for me," saidCriss, who was open-minded when her daughter brought up the idea of using it medically.

"We went and talked to a doctor. I thought at first it would just be the oils and stuff, but it seems that smoking the medical marijuana seems to be helping her more than what the oils do."

Medical marijuana can be either smoked, vaporized or consumed orally. Different strains are said to have different impacts, with some causing more psychoactive effects than others. The daughtermedicates both orally and through combustion or burning.

According toCriss, it's made a big difference.

"With the back pain, it gets rid of it right after she smokes it, up to two to three hours," saidCriss.

"When she has an anxiety attack or if she's got the obsessive thoughts, when she smokes it, it just calms her down and she's able to relax and not have to think so much."

Autum is still taking anti-anxiety and anti-psychotic drugs.

ButCrisssaidthey, and their doctor, are hopeful the marijuana will enable her to stop using them. As for the back pain,Crisssaidthey tried just about everything else.

"She had a physiotherapist, acupuncturist, chiropractor, massage therapist, they did x-rays and everything they can, and they can't fix her back," saidCriss, adding that her daughter refuses to take painkillers classified as narcotics.

"She wants to do things naturally, she doesn't want to ruin her liver at such a young age."

A daily routine

They've established a daily routine for her marijuana.

"She uses the CBD (cannabidiol)oil in the morning and then she has her medicinal marijuana with the THC in it that she smokes before she leaves for the bus for school," saidCriss.

"Then she does the same when she gets home, and then before bed she has a CBD/THC oil and it helps her sleep."

Now her daughter wants to be able to smoke or vaporize marijuana while at school because they believe it's more effective than consumingoil orally.

"She would like to. It would help a lot," saidCriss.

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The school board seems willing to accommodate the request.

In anemail, spokespersonRaquelMaurierwrites: "We work with the family to get proper documentation in place, such as a Medication Management Plan, and support the family as we would with any student who has prescription medication that needs to be taken. We also have a conversation with the family about how the medication is supposed to be administered or taken."

Crissdescribedhow it mightwork in her daughter's case.

"She'll be supervised by a staff member in the office in a room," saidCriss"So she'll be able to go in there for 15 minutes when she needs to, whether her back is hurting or she's having an anxiety attack, and then before her art classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

It's a relief forCriss, who was concerned her daughter would have to go outside to take her medication.

"She's in a downtown school in Edmonton," saidCriss. "I didn't want people that aren't associated with the school knowing that she has her medicinal marijuana and jumping her or hurting her or asking her for it and making her feel uncomfortable."

Like any prescription

The Edmonton Catholic school board also appears to be open to students using medical marijuana.

Spokesperson LoriNagysaidit would be treated like any other prescription medication, and pointedout that they do allow Indigenous smudging ceremonies in schools which also produce smoke.

The Canadian Pediatric Society seems to have a different opinion when it comes to children smoking marijuana.

On itswebsite, the organization calls it "unacceptable" and says "children should explore alternative delivery systems to provide safe and consistent drug concentrations."