Page 2 - Florida Sentinel 12-24-19

Features
Attorney Donates Toward Playground Canopy For School
Citizens Learn More About Medical Marijuana From FAMU’s Education And Research Team
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
Earlier this year, Attorney Warren Dawson learned that the Parent & Teachers As- sociation at an elementary school was hosting a fundraiser. The PTA was rais- ing the money to purchase a playground canopy for Daw- son Elementary School.
Attorney Dawson
quickly agreed that the school named in his honor needed the canopy. In a letter addressed to Ms. Melissa Snively, Chair- person of the Hillsborough County School Board, Attor- ney Dawson said the canopy was “a much-needed item and that it would contribute greatly to the outdoor physical educa-
ATTORNEY WARREN HOPE DAWSON
tion and other student activi- ties.”
As the school prepared for the Winter Break, Attorney Dawson was made aware that
DAWSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
the PTA, through its effort, was half-way to reaching the fundraising goal. In an effort to help the PTA reach its goal quickly, Attorney Dawson vol- untarily donated $1,000 to- ward the purchase of the canopy.
The letter was signed by Attorney Dawson’s daugh- ter, Ms. Wendy Dawson Bostic, treasurer of the War- ren Hope Dawson Elementary School Foundation, Inc.
Attorney Dawson is a native of Mulberry, Florida. He graduated from Florida A & M University, and obtained his law degree from Howard Uni- versity in 1966.
In 1974, Attorney Daw- son became the lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the now fa- mous Manning vs. the School Board of Hillsborough County. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the African American children in Hillsborough County, chal- lenged segregation in educa- tion.
During his lengthy career, Attorney Dawson has been the recipient of numerous awards, commendations, and honors.
The Hillsborough County School Board named a new school in his honor. Located at 23961 Boggy Creek Drive, in Riverview, the Warren Hope Dawson Elementary School opened in August of 2017.
Derrick McLaughlin is its principal.
Left to right: Harrison Peters, Hillsborough County Public Schools chief of schools; Patricia Green-Powell, interim execu- tive director, FAMU Medical Marijuana Education and Research Initiative; Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan; Dr. Kelly Ennix King; Dr. Andrew Mobley; and Rev. Dr. Barron Banks.
BY KENYA WOODARD Sentinel Feature Writer
While Floridians can ac- cess medical marijuana, it re- mains unregulated and there’s much to learn about its benefits.
Members of the commu- nity on Thursday got the chance to hear from medical and academic professionals and public service officials at Robert Saunders, Sr. Pub- lic Library about the issues surrounding medical mari- juana at a forum hosted by FAMU’s Medical Marijuana Education and Research Ini- tiative, also known as MMERI.
Funded by the state legis- lature through the Florida Department of Health, MMERI’s focus is educating the state’s minority commu- nities about medical mari- juana and the consequences of illegal use of the drug.
It was the last of several townhalls held around the state to introduce the initia- tive and provide communities of color with information about medical marijuana, which has grown in popular- ity to treat a variety of ail- ments including glaucoma, epilepsy, and chronic pain.
Medical marijuana be- came legal in 2018 in Florida after the passage of Amend- ment 2 by voters, making the state one of 33 that has legal- ized marijuana in some form. About 2,000 physicians are certified to prescribe medical marijuana to patients who have a medical marijuana card.
Dr. Kelly Ennix King,
of Tampa, is among that number. Medical marijuana isn’t just resigned to smoking, a common use. Tinctures, creams, edibles, and patches are other forms of effective treatment, she said.
An internist, she uses medical marijuana to treat both child and adult patients who suffer serious maladies including from HIV, Chron’s disease, and lupus.
Those patients have ex- perienced great results, and many have been able to re-
duce their total medication intake, Dr. King said.
“When they come back to me, they’re feeling better, they’re sleeping better,” she said.
However, medicinal mar- ijuana isn’t regulated by the federal government so doc- tors must be careful that herbal and pharmaceutical medications don’t conflict, said Dr. Andrew Mobley, a pharmacist.
Despite the changing nar- rative on marijuana, one thing remains the same, said Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan.
“It’s illegal to possess and use marijuana,” he said. “It’s socially accepted and obvi- ously there’re medical rea- sons to have it, but technically it’s still illegal unless you have a prescription to carry it.”
Usage of medical mari- juana may be gaining more acceptance, but it still pres- ents a conflict with older peo- ple who still associate it as a bad drug, said Rev. Dr. Bar- ron Banks, a dentist.
But, “with education, the older generation will come around to it,” he said. “They just haven’t gotten there yet.”
Dispelling myths with ed- ucation and research is the goal of the Medical Marijuana Education and Research Ini- tiative, said interim executive director Patricia Green- Powell.
“There is a lot we still don’t know about medical marijuana,” she said. “This is an opportunity to find an- swers to the questions.”
As the information be- comes available, it will be up- loaded into a database that can be accessible via the MMERI website, www.mmeri.famu.edu.
Education and research are important, but so are jobs that this new boom industry can produce to help sustain minority communities, and more information is needed about that, said Carol Ran- som.
“We hope everybody gets cured,” she said. “But in the meantime, where is the money and where is it going?”
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