As it nears a potential vote next week on medical marijuana, the Senate today made a number of bill changes, including those that seek to speed up the implementation and give Ohioans immediate access to the drug. A chief complaint of the House-passed bill among medical marijuana proponents was Ohioans would have to wait for up to two years before getting access to the drug while regulations, farms and distributors were established. The latest version of the bill, accepted in Senate committee on Wednesday, allows patients to obtain medical marijuana from out of state via prescription in forms legal under the bill, before the system is fully established in Ohio. [continues 547 words]
With a proposed constitutional amendment on the horizon, the House voted 71-26 on Tuesday to potentially make Ohio the 26th state to give residents legal access to medical marijuana. Some members expressed reluctance about the bill - a vote on which would have been near unfathomable just a few years ago - but after hearing of the drug's benefits and facing the prospect of a less-restrictive constitutional amendment on the November ballot, the bill was sent to the Senate. Hearings will start this morning. [continues 716 words]
Not long ago, majority Statehouse Republicans barely uttered a peep about marijuana legalization. Now both chambers have appointed special panels to explore the pros and cons of medical marijuana. Sens. Dave Burke, R-Marysville, and Kenny Yuko, D-Richmond Heights, announced Tuesday they are going on a "listening tour" with stops in Cleveland, Toledo and Cincinnati. Yuko has advocated for medical marijuana for more than a decade, while Burke said he remains skeptical. As a pharmacist, Burke said he knows that "All chemicals can cause both harm and benefits, depending on the use." He said he will remain open minded. [continues 326 words]
GOP legislators generally opposed legalization, but some now see support growing for medical marijuana. Two former top leaders of the ResponsibleOhio group that unsuccessfully pushed to legalize marijuana in Ohio in November have now decided to team up with Ohio House leaders to seek a more modest medical-marijuana initiative. Jimmy Gould, co-founder of ResponsibleOhio, knows his group took the kind of shellacking at the ballot last fall that makes it difficult to just regroup and try again. Instead, he and Chris Stock, a fellow attorney who worked on ResponsibleOhio, joined Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, to attempt to implement a level of regulated legalization. [continues 508 words]
After years of resistance, Republican legislative leaders now are heading down the path toward legalizing marijuana for medical purposes. At the same time, ResponsibleOhio marijuana investor Dr. Suresh Gupta said on Wednesday that the marijuana campaign that stumbled badly on Tuesday will be back, possibly next year, with a plan that doesn't involve a monopoly. "Absolutely. We're not here to run away," said Gupta, a Dayton anesthesiologist and pain-management physician who owns a proposed pot-growing site in Pataskala. [continues 975 words]
After debating the technical definition of a monopoly, lawmakers took a bipartisan step on Tuesday to block current and future efforts to place economic monopolies in the Ohio Constitution. As ResponsibleOhio marches well past collecting enough signatures to qualify its marijuana legalization issue for the November ballot, lawmakers concerned that deep pockets are once again carving themselves a financial windfall in the constitution are also moving quickly. Some say too quickly. During a House Government Accountability and Oversight Committee hearing on Tuesday, supporters of the legislative action stressed that the debate is not about marijuana. However, the issue in the near term is aimed at blocking ResponsibleOhio from giving those who have invested in its campaign a monopoly to establish 10 for-profit marijuana-growing sites across the state. [continues 535 words]
As poll numbers show Ohioans are growing increasingly comfortable with the idea of marijuana use, a Youngstown Democrat wants to give people the chance to make the drug fully legal in Ohio. Rep. Robert F. Hagan has made a few attempts over the years to persuade his colleagues to allow for the use of medical marijuana in Ohio, and each effort has died a quiet death. A spokesman for Speaker William G. Batchelder, R-Medina, declined to comment on the pair of proposals Hagan introduced yesterday. [continues 311 words]
