There’s nothing like a convert.

On April 7, a virtual concert will be held in honor of Charlotte Figi, the Colorado Springs girl who suffered from Dravet syndrome and who became the inspiration behind “Charlotte’s Web.” Not the book, the CBD oil that is now used to treat children with Dravet’s, a severe epilepsy condition that affects children. Figi died last year at 13. The concert will be hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s medical advisor. 

Prior to meeting Charlotte, Gupta was about as much anti-cannabis as anyone could be. Then he met Figi, and others who were using cannabis to treat life-threatening conditions. That, and learning about the science around the use of medical marijuana, changed his mind.

“I apologize,” Gupta wrote in a 2013 opinion piece. “I was too dismissive of the loud chorus of legitimate patients whose symptoms improved on cannabis.”

He’s not alone.

Take Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert, R-Douglas County. On Tuesday, the Senate debated Senate Bill 56, sponsored by Holbert and Sen. Julie Gonzales, D-Denver.

Under current law, which came from a 2015 bill that Holbert also sponsored, school principals have the discretion on whether to permit students to receive cannabis-based medicine from their parents or other primary caregivers during the school day and on school grounds. SB 56 removes that discretion and requires school boards to develop policies to allow storage, possession and administration of cannabis-based medicine by school personnel, including nurses. Parents would have to have a doctor’s recommendation and precise dosage instructions that list the product, amount and the time when it should be administered. School personnel can opt out of administering if they object to doing so, Holbert said.

Holbert explained his Damascene conversion on the issue of medical marijuana during the second reading debate.

“I was wrong,” he said. Initially, he said he was frustrated because he didn’t believe the amendment putting medical marijuana into the state Constitution was appropriate and that it should be a statute. But that’s not where he was wrong. Where Holbert was wrong, he said, was in not believing that “real life-changing symptom-curing medicine” could be made from the cannabis plant.

Then he met Ben and Ben’s parents, Amber and Brad Wann.

Ben’s family lives in Holbert’s district. In 2014, Ben’s family began pleading with Holbert to find a way to get the sheriff, child protective services, the school district and the district attorney off their backs. The problem? One day, Amber took Ben to school. The school nurse asked Amber why Ben, an epileptic, was no longer suffering from seizures, something she was familiar with since she had helped Ben through the seizures in the past. Amber took from her pocket a vial of Charlotte’s Web. She explained to the nurse that so long as Ben got a consistent dosage of CBD oil, he did not have seizures. 

But the nurse reported the family to Child Protective Services for child endangerment, and the family was investigated by CPS, the sheriff and the DA. That was six years ago. 

Holbert, who was then a state representative, was running for the state Senate at the time, and had to tell the family, however frustrating, that he had no authority to tell law enforcement or anyone else to leave the family alone. But as a state senator, he could change the law. “This bill is a milestone in this effort,” Holbert said. “This is a great bill for parents and students who have struggled unnecessarily.”

Holbert called the bill the most significant piece of legislation he’s ever sponsored. “I think that this effort has helped people in a more significant way than anything else I’ve worked on in 10 years at the legislature.”

“We’re providing school nurses with the fundamentals of a prescription,” Holbert told the Senate. The bill does not apply to private schools and schools on federal lands can be exempted, such as on military installations. As amended, the Department of Education cannot discipline licensed personnel, including teachers, for administering the medicine, an amendment sought by the Colorado Education Association. In addition, the bill exempts school personnel from civil or criminal liability. Holbert quipped that he would never work with the CEA, the state’s largest teachers union. 

Senate Bill 56 is up for a final Senate vote on Wednesday, and should it pass, heads to the House.

Ben, now 19, is still on Charlotte’s Web and still seizure-free. Amber told Colorado Politics that he’s a whiz at computers, something she said she could never have hoped for when he was young. “We feel like we’re on the winning side of this,” she said, and can’t wait to see the governor sign the bill into law. “Our children deserve to be at school and it should be safe for them,” she said. “They should have as much opportunity as anyone else.”

Correction: a previous version said the bill was supported by the Colorado School Nurses Association. They are neutral.