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School board treating marijuana like alcohol

Board trying to be positive with its messaging
cannabis

With recreational marijuana legalized, the public school board is treating it the same way it does alcohol.

It is now legal for people 19 and older to buy, use, possess and grow recreational marijuana in Ontario.

District School Board Ontario North East (DSBONE) has been taking steps to prepare for the legislation change by updating wording in its policies, and issuing an announcement to students and staff.

“For our students, it’s forbidden. It’s not to be in their possession, they are not to be under the influence, it’s not something that at lunch that they’re engaging in. And of course that’s for our staff as well,” said Lesleigh Dye, DSBONE director of education. “For our students the huge messaging is, it’s the exact same as alcohol.”

The board’s policies referring to illicit drugs have also been updated to now say “illegal, controlled and/or restricted substances”. The policies affected are the substance abuse and related behavior, student code of conduct, and Safe Schools: Student discipline, bullying prevention and intervention.

Dye said the board is trying to be positive in its messaging.

“We know that sometimes there are messages that are outside of the school board that might be fear tactics in terms of the negative impact and we know that those fear-driven ways of communicating actually do not have a positive impact on students. So we need to teach students what to do, not what not to do,” said Dye.

She said child and youth workers already do full-class programming with students.

“It’s about healthy choices, it’s about self-care, it’s about meditation, it’s about giving students at a very young age strategies so that they know themselves and when they’re feeling not as calm as they might normally feel, what strategies could they try,” she said.

This week, the Know More tour is being held at Timmins High and Vocational School.  

At the session, students will engage in five digital stations to learn more about opioids.

“At this point, we’re only able to offer it at Timmins High as it is a partnership with a federal agency, although we’re hoping that we can have more of our schools involved in the spring,” said Dye.