Source: The Oakland Tribune

SANTA CRUZ: School officials are considering whether to snuff out a 13-year-old girls' science project that examines medical uses for marijuana. 

The junior high schooler was allowed to present her report to classmates Thursday, but afterward school officials confiscated her props -- including a marijuana-laced muffin and a spray bottle of pot-steeped rubbing alcohol. 

The girl's father, Joe Morris, said Mission Hill Junior High officials gave initial clearance for the project and should have said something earlier if they objected.  "Don't children have constitutional rights?" Morris said.  "In a way, it's censorship and that's not acceptable." But he said he might have erred in letting his daughter take the props to school. 

"I should have used better judgment," he said, noting he was grateful the school returned the props to him, rather than calling law enforcement. 

Morris said his daughter became interested in the subject because her aunt is a caregiver for a woman who uses marijuana as a medicine.  The girl didn't advocate marijuana use, he said, but instead researched the project with library books and patient surveys and analyzed and graphed her findings. 

Officials haven't decided if the girl can display her "Mary Jane for Pain" project next week when judges from U.C.  Santa Cruz and the NASA/Ames Research Lab award prizes.  "I'm going to have to take a look at the science to see if it fits the criteria," Principal Cathy Stefanki-Iglesias said.  "I'm not so convinced it does at the moment."

Valerie Corral, executive director of a group that provides medical marijuana, told the Santa Cruz Sentinel the project was a good one but it was inappropriate to let the girl take the prescriptive pot to school.