LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Some Kentucky students will soon be able to use medical cannabis at school. Jefferson County Public Schools will allow the use of the medicinal treatment for the upcoming school year. 

Medical marijuana will be legal in Kentucky starting Jan. 1, 2025. The state’s largest school district voted to allow the use of medical marijuana in JCPS. 

“This means is that students that we have who need this medication and are prescribed medicinal marijuana will be able to receive that medication during the school day, if that is what their prescription says from their doctor,” Carolyn Callahan, JCPS chief of communications, said. 

Gov. Andy Beshear, D-Ky., signed into law the legalization of medical cannabis during the 2023 legislative session. Diagnoses such as cancer, epilepsy or other seizure disorders, and Sickle Cell Anemia are a few of the medical conditions which would warrant a medical marijuana card. 

“This will be mostly for students who have seizure disorders. That is what we are expecting. Most of our students with this, we anticipate, will be taking this medication at home either before or after the school day. But we do understand that some doctors are going to prescribe this and say that it needs to be administered times during the school day, so now we will be able to do that,” Callahan said. 

Callahan says JCPS nurses helped about 900 students take prescribed tightly controlled substances last school year, like Ritalin and Adderall. Nurses will be trained to administer medical cannabis that can be consumed through gummy, pill or oil form. Vaping and smoking will not be allowed. 

“We will be keeping this out of sight. No other student will see another student taking these. This is not something where a student is going to be smoking or vaping anything,” Callahan explained.

Callahan says if a nurse does not feel comfortable administering the medication, the student’s guardian can administer the medication under the supervision of a school nurse. Irritable Bowel Disease, including Chron’s Disease, Muscular Dystrophy, and terminal illnesses are also among the conditions which could qualify a patient for a medicinal cannabis card.