Giving Compass' Take:

• The Denver Post reports on state legislation in Colorado that would allow doctors to prescribe medical marijuana as a treatment option for children with autism.

• While the Colorado proposal is sure to spark heated debate on both sides, from a wider perspective it should at least make funders and policymakers dealing with autism interventions aware that alternate treatment options are available.

• Want to make an impact on autism in philanthropy? Focus on families.

In a clash of deeply felt testimony, parents in tears pleaded with Colorado lawmakers recently to pass a bill allowing their children with autism to use medical marijuana as a treatment.

“I’m begging you to approve this bill,” said Jamie Kropp, whose son, Kolt, has autism.

Psychiatrists and the head of the state Health Department, though, opposed writing such a permission into law, saying there isn’t enough evidence to know that cannabis would do more good than harm, even though they sympathize with the frustration families feel.

“There is no easy answer,” said Dr. Meghan Schott, a psychiatrist with Denver Health. “… But, unfortunately, marijuana is not the answer at this point because we don’t have any research that supports that marijuana will be effective in the long-term.”

At the end of more than five hours of testimony and debate, lawmakers on the state House Health, Insurance and Environment Committee approved the bill by a 12-1 vote, the first of several hurdles at the Capitol that it must clear  before becoming law.

The bill, House Bill 18-1263, would allow doctors to recommend marijuana as a treatment for symptoms suffered by anyone diagnosed on the autism spectrum. An initial provision in the bill that also would have qualified acute pain as a condition meriting cannabis was stripped out before the committee’s final vote.

Read the full article about the Colorado bill that would offer medical marijuana as a treatment option for kids with autism by John Ingold at the Denver Post.