The Ohio Department of Commerce announced that Ohio patients will not be able to buy medical marijuana on September 8th, the anticipated start date for the state’s medical cannabis program.
It could take weeks or more before medical marijuana is available to patients. And even then it’s likely it will only be available in limited quantities.
“I have been using cannabis almost on a daily basis since I was 15 years old,” said cannabis user, Victoria Khan.
60-year-old Victoria Khan is open about her need for marijuana. She lives in constant pain every day.
“I’ve had surgery on both knees. I just had surgery on my left hip. I had a kidney removed and I’ve had the gallbladder removed,” said Khan.
That’s only naming a few. She was hit by a pickup truck in when she was 20 and since then she’s had over 35 surgeries.
She gets around in a wheelchair and moved her bed to her living room just to avoid walking up the steps.
“I qualify under several other 21 qualifying [medical marijuana] conditions,” said Khan.
But now with the delay of 25 marijuana growers, it may be months until khan can use it legally.
“I want that affirmative defense extended to these patients who are unable to into the program because it is not fully operational,” activist with the Ohio Rights Group, Mary Jane Borden.
Borden says patients like Khan should be protected by a court order to not be found guilty of possessing marijuana.
“These patients really don’t have time,” Borden says.
In the meantime patients Khan is going to do what she can to not live in pain.
“Do you exactly what the senators told us straight to our faces and the state house that we are to do. Get your cannabis where you can get it,” Khan says.
The state has not said when the sale of medical cannabis will begin.
