On-campus policy of medical pot creates problem for students

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After spending years running cross country in high school, physiology freshman Chris Hall developed chronic lower back pain. Physical therapy wasn’t effective, and the various medications he was prescribed left him unable to function.

“It would make it so I couldn’t do anything throughout the entire day,” Hall said.

Last summer, Hall was issued a medical marijuana card. Using medical marijuana dulls the pain, but because he is a freshman and required to live in the dorms, Hall has struggled for the past year to get the help he needs.

When his back pain flares up, Hall is not able to medicate in his dorm, a process that usually involves taking an edible form of the marijuana or a rub with cannabis tincture in it. Instead of being able to medicate from his dorm, Hall has to wait for a friend to drive him to Okemos, where his caregiver lives or go to a friend’s home off campus, a 45-minute walk.

“It’s an inconvenient process,” Hall said. “I have to go through great lengths in order to use it.”

MSU’s official policy states that students and employees cannot use medical marijuana on campus. However, the university will waive the requirement for freshmen to live on campus for some students with a card, according to a statement from university spokesman Kent Cassella.

Hall said despite his attempts to explain his situation to residence housing, Olin Health Center and MSU police, he was
told nothing could be done.

Media information and advertising sophomore Shane Cann had a similar problem last year. Cann used medical marijuana for Crohn’s disease, which causes abdominal pain that occasionally leaves him unable to move.

Last year, when he had to live in the dorms and did not yet have his card, Cann was arrested for smoking outside of the dorms. Cann said he initially delayed getting a card because he was afraid it would affect his chances of future employment, but eventually decided it was more important to get the card.

“(Marijuana) helps me live my normal life,” said Cann, who had tried other drugs that had done little to dull the pain. “All I was doing was smoking outside.”

Robin Schneider is the director of the Capitol City Compassion Club. The club works to match medical marijuana patients with caregivers as well as provide education about medical marijuana. Schneider said MSU is within its rights to ban the drug on campus and encourages its members to respect those rules.

“Our advice has always been to keep it off of campus,” Schneider said. “Certainly don’t ever do a transaction on campus.”

Hall said he has met about 25 students at MSU who also have their medical marijuana cards and said the university eventually will have to work out a policy that accommodates the students.

“I feel slightly discriminated against,” Hall said. “As this law has more time to be looked at by the state and the university, they’ll have time to accommodate students like me.”

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