By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — Electronic cigarettes and CBD oil are presenting some of the biggest challenges in enforcing the Colfax school district’s middle school and high school athletic code.
Electronic cigarettes are also known as “vaping” devices because of the vapor that is inhaled, and CBD oil, described as “non-intoxicating,” refers to cannabidiol, which is an extract from the flowers and buds of marijuana or hemp plants.
Vaping is “not like smoking a cigarette,” said William C. Yingst Jr., school district administrator, at the Colfax Board of Education’s July 15 meeting.
Yingst talked about vaping and CBD oil as part of the school board’s review of the athletic code.
When students are smoking cigarettes, the smell of the smoke is easy to detect, but the vaping devices are odorless, he said.
Students tend to get caught when the vaping device, or the small container of liquid put into the vaping device, falls out of a shirt or a shoe, Yingst said.
Some of the devices are very small, and they have made enforcing the athletic code more difficult, he said.
“We are trying to monitor (the vaping devices). They are our biggest nemesis,” Yingst said.
As for CBD oil, which has been touted as useful in relieving pain or for alleviating the symptoms of a variety of ailments, “you don’t know what’s in the bottle,” Yingst said.
Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd has reported that some of the CBD oil found in Dunn County has tested as high as 94 percent TCH, compared to 18 percent THC in marijuana, he said.
Tetrahydrocannabinol — THC — is the chemical in marijuana that produces a “high.”
There are no quality standards for producing CBD oil. According to on-line information, CBD oil should not contain any THC and is described as a “non-psychoactive compound.”
According to the Colfax school district’s athletic code, “an athlete shall be suspended from interscholastic athletics for” using, selling, delivering or possessing “any form of tobacco or nicotine products, including vape and/or vaping products” and using, selling, delivering or possessing “illegal drugs or controlled substances as defined by Chapter 161.02 and 161.275 of Wisconsin State Statutes.”
No changes were made to the 27-page Student Athletic Code, and the Colfax Board of Education unanimously approved the athletic code as presented.
An athletic code meeting will be held for all student athletes at Colfax High School on Thursday, August 1, at 7 p.m.
Colfax High School is a member of the Dunn-St. Croix Conference, and the schools in the conference include the Boyceville Bulldogs, Colfax Vikings, Durand Panthers, Elk Mound Mounders, Elmwood/Plum City Wolves, Glenwood City Hilltoppers, Mondovi Buffaloes and the Spring Valley Cardinals.
