Medical Marijuana Bill Passes Ohio House, Moves To Senate

The Ohio House passed House Bill 523 May 10 with a 70-25 vote, moving forward on a bill to create a legal medical marijuana program for the state.

Bill sponsor Rep. Stephen Huffman (R-80), an emergency room doctor, recited a few lines from the Hippocratic Oath before the vote, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

“This is what this bill is all about, which is the patients. I am absolutely convinced there is therapeutic value in medical marijuana,” he said in the article.

H.B. 523 would allow patients with qualifying medical conditions to buy and use medical marijuana with recommendation from their state-licensed physicians, according to Cleveland.com. It would allow vaping, but not smoking. The rules and regulations surrounding the program would be written by a nine-member commission within two years of the bill becoming law. The state would issue licenses for growing, testing, processing and selling medical marijuana.

The bill is more restrictive than other medical marijuana ballot proposals in the past, and does not provide workplace protection for patients. It also does not allow home grow for patients.

“It’s discriminatory. No, as a matter of fact, it’s a cruel joke,” said Rep. Theresa Fedor (D-45) in the Cleveland.com article. Fedor voted against the bill.

Though the bill is moving quickly through the Ohio legislature, the proposed medical marijuana ballot measure from Ohioans for Medical Marijuana is still on track for November, says Aaron Marshall, communications director.

“Frankly, today’s vote is disappointing. It was a historic vote, but lawmakers didn’t make history with a substantive and meaningful medical marijuana bill,” says Marshall. “Today’s vote will only bring empty promises to Ohioans suffering from debilitating conditions, who need medical marijuana.”

The ballot proposal provides immediate access and home grow provisions. It covers 26 qualifying conditions, compared to H.B. 523’s 18, notably leaving off Alzheimer’s, autism, fibromyalgia, muscular dystrophy, Huntington’s disease, muscle spasms and severe nausea, says Marshall. The bill also requires patient reports every 90 days, and annual reports from physicians for patients to multiple state agencies.

“Under their legislation, there are going to be very few doctors who are going to be willing to participate in a system that is so restrictive and filled with red tape,” says Marshall.

Though the reporting guidelines and rules are restrictive, the bill could at least be improved in the Ohio Senate, according to Cher Neufer, director for Ohio NORML.

“If we could get the Senate to add an affirmative defense for patients for the two years it would take for [the bill] to come into effect, that would help,” she says. An affirmative defense provision could give patients some legal recourse for marijuana-related charges until the full program is established. Restrictive reporting rules should also be relaxed, she says.

The bill, introduced less than a month ago by Huffman, went through the Select Committee on Medical Marijuana before reaching the vote in the House. The committee, headed by Rep. Kirk Schuring (R-48), approved the plan last week.

Schuring says he expects the legislation to be enacted by the end of May, according to NBC4i.com.

Ohioans for Medical Marijuana is currently still collecting signatures for the proposed ballot measure, says Marshall.

“It doesn’t change things at all for us. We plan to charge full speed ahead in our effort to give Ohioans the opportunity to help hundreds of thousands of Buckeyes through our ballot issue,” he says.

The bill does represent progress, as representatives involved have moved from total prohibition to acceptance of a medical marijuana program, but it’s not enough, says Neufer.

“We’re happy that our representatives have at least moved forward on accepting medical marijuana,” she says. “And we’re hoping that one of the initiatives … can get enough signatures and get on the ballot. That’s what our real hope is for.”