Imagine if you had a bad headache and you were forced to leave campus to take Advil because the university’s regulations didn’t allow it on campus.

This is the case for students at California Lutheran University that have a medicinal marijuana card prescribed to them for pain.

The rules about medical marijuana need to change to better account for the presence of students with recommendations for medical marijuana.

Will Haddock who is a junior at Cal Lutheran and lives on campus was prescribed medical marijuana for anxiety and depression.

He said that he used to have panic attacks his freshman year of college.

“My depression basically killed my motivation,” Haddock said.

Haddock said he goes to a friend’s house off a a-campus to smoke medical marijuana to help him relax and destress.

According to the Cal Lutheran 2017-2018 Student Handbook, “Medically recommended marijuana is not recognized by federal law or by the University as a legal prescription. Therefore, possession of marijuana on campus for any reason is strictly prohibited.”

According to the Ventura County Star editorial, “Ventura County behind the marijuana curve,” California Proposition 64 or the Adult Use of Marijuana Act legalized the recreational possession of medicinal marijuana.

Cal Lutheran must follow federal laws due to federal funding, in which neither recreational nor medicinal uses of marijuana are legal, rather than state laws in which both are now legal.

According to medicalmarijuana.com, marijuana can relieve symptoms of mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, insomnia and even Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD).

I have ADHD and if the medication I take was prohibited on campus it would be a huge burden to leave campus to use it.

In a poll done by The Echo on Twitter, 65 percent of the 250 voters said that Cal Lutheran should allow students with medicinal marijuana cards to smoke on campus.

Students using medical marijuana for pain, ADHD or nausea need to be able to use it without leaving campus. Leaving campus is an unnecessary burden on students just trying to relieve physical or emotional pain.

Rissa Gross
Reporter