Our article “Medical Marijuana, Now Legal in Ohio” (September 7, 2016) discussed how Ohio’s Medical Marijuana Control Program, effective September 8, began the slow process of introducing medical marijuana to our state. Our readers had some questions.
They legalize it but how do you even get it?
“There’s no distribution plan set up. No card system in place. We should’ve passed it when we had the chance, but ‘no’. People gave in to fear, now we have to deal with our government setting this all up. Wonderful…” –Amanda Schoenhofer:
Schoenhofer’s concern about inability to legally purchase marijuana was reiterated by other readers, including Adam Klocinski, who had a few more questions:
“The medical marijuana legislation that just got passed is a joke.”
Ask yourself: How is it they can even pass this after we, the people of Ohio, voted no on Issues 2 and 3? So, now [marijuana is] medically legal but: 1) Only to people with medical prescriptions, who cannot be prescribed because there are no doctors who can do it. 2) No bud. Only concentrates. 3) There is no legal place to buy concentrates in Ohio. 4) No one is allowed to produce their own “medicine”
Q: What is the point then? A: To hand the medical Marijuana industry to Corporate interests, AND take all private small business opportunities, and the ability to supply one’s own medicine, away from Ohio’s citizens. #irresponsibleohio” – Adam Klocinski
Our writer, David Maxwell Fine, clears up some of the smoke.
The medical marijuana legislation that the state legislature passed and Governor Kasich signed is not a joke. Indeed, state lawmakers said they learned from their experience dealing with ballot Issues 2 and 3 that there was a lot of support for medical marijuana, and that making a law should be considered.
1.) Doctors will not be prescribing medical marijuana— they will be recommending it, the same process as in the 24 other states where medical marijuana has been made legal. Prescribing medical marijuana would violate Doctors’ federal controlled substances licenses.
2.) The notion that the new law only permits marijuana concentrates is incorrect. Plant material— or “bud” — is one of the allowed means of consumption. True, you cannot legally smoke it, but you can vaporize it. Search online for marijuana vaporizers. Also included are edibles, oils, tinctures, and patches.
3-4) True, you are not allowed to grow your own plants in Ohio under the new law. The state marijuana control board is licensing growers and dispensaries, and patients will be able to purchase marijuana and marijuana products in Ohio, like concentrates and “bud”, in 1-2 years.
Regarding whether “corporate interests” will seize the marijuana market, that will be determined when the Ohio Department of Commerce releases the rules of cultivation, due out May 6, 2017, but we will not see a monopoly-type market, which was proposed with the ballot issues a year ago.
