Pubdate: Sun, 08 May 2016 Source: Columbus Dispatch (OH) Copyright: 2016 The Columbus Dispatch Contact: http://www.dispatch.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/93 POT BILL MUST SATISFY DEMAND It looks as if legalization of medical marijuana will come this year, either through pending legislation or through two possible ballot issues to amend the Ohio Constitution. But the Ohio House is larding its bill with unpopular restrictions instead of crafting a plainly worded compromise sufficient to kill the more-extreme ballot issues. Many proponents of medical marijuana insist that smoking be one of the ways it can be used. But, unlike both ballot issues, House Bill 523 would require those with a marijuana prescription to use vaporization or other devices if they wish to inhale. The bill also would prohibit home-grown marijuana, which the ballot issues would allow in limited quantities. These stipulations tell us that the legislature has lost sight of the goal, which is to derail efforts to amend the Ohio Constitution by the Marijuana Policy Project and the Medicinal Cannabis and Industrial Hemp ballot issues. It is in the best interests of Ohioans that marijuana legalization be accomplished through statute, not via a constitutional amendment. If problems arise with a statute, it easily can be fixed by the legislature. A fix to the state constitution requires a vote of the people. Laws are best written at the Statehouse, where medical experts and safety officials can weigh in, and not at the ballot box, where passions and slick campaigns might allow an ill-considered constitutional amendment to prevail. Use and distribution of medical marijuana should be controlled by elected lawmakers, not pot proponents and profit seekers. As the House prepares to vote on Tuesday, the legislature must thread the needle and strike a viable compromise. Especially since a Quinnipiac University poll last year showed Ohioans overwhelmingly (84 percent) favor legalizing marijuana for medical purposes. If the legislature fails to produce a bill that satisfies this demand, the alternative is that Ohioans will again turn to ballot issues to have their voices heard. The consequences from this have been mixed. Ohio voters during the past decade have approved initiatives to raise the minimum wage, enact a Smoke-Free Workplace law and restrict marriage to one man and one woman (overturned in 2015 by the U.S. Supreme Court's OK on same-sex marriage). And in 2009, after thrice rejecting casino issues, recession-weary Buckeye voters gave casino owners their way and approved gambling, carving casino addresses into their constitution. The House bill offers some needed protections. It bars marijuana edibles in a "form that is considered to be attractive to children" to prevent poisonings seen in other states. And the bill specifies 20 ailments for which the drug could be prescribed, including cancer, AIDS, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and "pain that is chronic, severe and intractable." The idea is to ensure that medicinal marijuana does not morph into recreational use by people claiming vague and undiagnosable ills. The science on whether marijuana is effective remains inconclusive, but many ill people say it alleviates their suffering. Public support for legalization of medical marijuana is high. Legislative leaders deserve credit for at last fast tracking a bill to head off constitutional amendments. But this effort will work only if the bill truly satisfies public demand. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom