Michigan Senate Panel Considers Bill Requiring Cannabis And Tobacco Flyer For Students, Parents

Michigan Advance

October 29, 2025

The Michigan Senate Education Committee considered how best to inform the state’s students and their parents about the risks and harms of high-potency THC and cannabis products, as well as vaping, in a hearing on Tuesday.

The bill in question, SB 433, was put forward by Sen. Dayna Polehanki (D-Livonia), who chairs the committee. In the hearing, she compared her bill to legislation signed earlier this year that created and allowed for the distribution of a flyer on the safe storage of guns to be distributed in schools and sent to parents.

“This bill isn’t about adding another burden to our schools. It’s about giving them the proper tools. It’s about prevention, not punishment, education, not enforcement,” Polehanki said.

Olivia Ponte, a legislative liaison for the Michigan Department of Education, agreed with that characterization.

“The new requirement in this bill is small and would simply require an informational notice for schools to send to parents and guardians,” she said. “However, providing the information could make a significant impact on the well-being and safety of Michigan children.”

One difficult element of that prevention, according to Gabrielle Green, a prevention specialist with the Barry County Substance Abuse Task Force, is that students often start vaping at a young age and become addicted.

“I get calls every single day about students who have been vaping since elementary school, fourth grade, fifth grade, who are showing signs of dependence to nicotine,” Green said. “At this point, they are years into a tobacco dependency, and we as adults recognize that a person quitting smoking is one of the hardest things they will ever do in their lives, and students and youth are left in the lurch.”

And for non-nicotine issues, Green added, “Almost 100% of the time in the past five years, it has been a THC-related offense.”

One program that Green has worked on is a restorative program where, if students are suspended for nicotine or drug-related issues, they are able to get some of that suspension time back if they meet with her to learn about the health impacts of the substances.

Some members of the committee questioned how to best use the resources in the bill to effectively get the message across to young people — and whether flyers were the right method.

“It might be worth exploring other ways, should this pass, to also provide that messaging,” said Sen. Erika Geiss (D-Taylor). “I know that, as a parent, when my kids were in middle school, this would have been left in the ‘this goes home’ folder and would have been forgotten to be given to me.”

She proposed billboards as a potential supplement to the flyers, which Polehanki agreed with but suggested might be a separate piece of legislation to put forward.

“I think that one of the biggest problems is peer pressure and impulsivity and lack of knowledge and wisdom,” said. Sen. Ruth Johnson (R-Groveland Twp.). “It’s a tough, tough group to get to.”

Ava Dietz and Joslynn Wynsma, both juniors at Reeths-Puffer High School in Muskegon County, presented to the committee on how they work to spread awareness within their county and district. They present to middle school students around the district, which Polehanki noted could be an effective way to share the information, having older students act as role models.

Less than 54% of students in Muskegon County know what is in a vape when they use it, Wynsma said. But about 40% of students said it was very easy to get a vape, Dietz noted.

Polehanki noted that the information was more needed due to higher potency of THC in many products, as well as “marketing in ways that downplay risk, often resembling candy or common household items.”

Sen. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) pushed back on elements of that, noting, “the Cannabis Regulatory Agency has the authority and has been pretty aggressive with prohibiting any licensed cannabis operations from producing any candy that looks like or resembles any commercially available candy.”

“In fact, the rules even prevent them from having shapes or pictures on the packaging,” he continued. “They’re certainly not allowed to mimic commercially available candy.”

The committee voted to include a substitute on the bill to add details on how to recognize signs of THC poisoning and proper steps to take. However, they did not vote on the overall bill, instead indicating they would likely do that next week.

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