Smoking marijuana at school would earn most students a quick suspension — and possibly arrest — but Noah Kirkman is actually encourage to smoke pot at Western Canada High School.

Kirkman, 15, is a licensed medical marijuana patient; he’s found that cannabis is a much more effective treatment for Tourette Syndrome and attention deficit disorder than the prescription pharmaceuticals he’d been using, reports Jeremy Nolais at Metro.

“It doesn’t have any withdrawal effects and I can’t overdose on it,” explained Noah, who wants to be a photojournalist. “It helps keep me calm; it helps keep me focused.”

Noah got his medical marijuana card in September, and he and his mother Lisa said they asked the Calgary Board of Education to discuss how he could use his medicine on school property.

It was eventually agreed that Noah could stop by the vice-principal’s office and use his cannabis vaporizer three times a day: before class, at lunch and after class.

“I’m extremely proud of my son for speaking out,” Lisa, also a licensed medical marijuana patient, told Hemp News Sunday night. “The cannabis has replaced a ridiculous amount of pharmaceuticals that he’s had to use since he was four years old, simply to be able to function, let alone succeed in school.”

“Noah is an above-average student who participates in several extracurricular activities,” Lisa told me. “That can be difficult for any teen these days, particularly with medical challenges, especially one who is challenged by the stigmas around both mental health conditions and cannabis use.

“I hope other parents with children facing similar issues consider cannabinoid therapy as a viable option and that doctors and educators also make the same considerations,” Lisa told Hemp News.

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