Christine Green
New Member
In the end, the Senate voted 18-15 across party lines to send the revised bill back to the House. The House of Representatives then voted 67-28 to send it on to the governor.
“We’re not talking about money,” state Sen. Kenny Yuko (D., Richmond Heights) said. “We’re not talking about monopolies. We’re talking about changing lives all over Ohio … We can’t deprive these patients what we have any longer.”
Sponsored by state Rep. Stephen Huffman (R., Tipp City), a physician, the bill would take effect 90 days after getting the governor’s signature. Mr. Kasich generally supports the concept as polls show most Ohioans do, but his office said he is waiting to see the final bill before making a decision.
The bill would set up a tightly controlled system to grow, process, test, and dispense pot for medical purposes. Smoking would remain illegal, but it could be used in vapor, oil, patch, tincture, edibles, and plant-material form.
Patients armed with recommendations from state-approved doctors and who hold state registration cards would have to obtain their cannabis through licensed retail dispensaries that would be named later. They could not grow their own.
State Sen. Jay Hottinger (R., Newark) opposed the bill.
“In my opinion, the list [of health conditions] that is enumerated is too broad,” he said. “We all know marijuana continues to be a Schedule 1 drug, a federally banned substance … There is not ample enough evidence, medical research, medical data, as to what ailments potentially are benefited from the use of medical marijuana.”
Among northwest Ohio’s delegation, state Sens. Edna Brown (D., Toledo), Randy Gardner (R., Bowling Green), and David Burke (R., Marysville) supported the bill. State Sen. Cliff Hite (R., Findlay) cast the sole negative vote from the region.
Mr. Burke, a pharmacist whose district stretches north to Sandusky Bay, said lawmakers were taking ownership of an issue rather than allowing a ballot issue to etch the issue into the state constitution.
“At worst, a ballot issue can’t change…” he said. “The bill you see before you today is subject to change and maturity as the will of Ohioans changes and matures.”
The sole negative votes from the region in northwest Ohio belonged to Reps. Teresa Fedor (D., Toledo) and Robert Sprague (R., Findlay).
Mike Terman, 44, a disabled former electrician from East Toledo, admits he smokes marijuana to control severe neck and back pain from a workplace accident. He plans to continue to do so.
He prefers the proposed constitutional amendment pushed by Ohioans for Medical Marijuana and the Washington-based Medical Marijuana Project that would allow him to both smoke and grow his own. He credits pot with helping to wean him off opiate painkillers.
The legislative vote “is totally historic, and it does tell me that our state lawmakers do actually care about Ohioans,” Mr. Terman said. “But at the same time it tells me they don’t care about me enough to allow me to smoke it or to use it in a method that I choose. It also tells me that they don’t trust me to grow my own medicine.”
In a move to close some of the distance between the bill and the competing constitutional amendment, the bill would provide some protection from criminal charges for patients with physician recommendations who legally obtain pot products in another state for approved use here.
That “affirmative defense” would begin when the law takes effect and close 60 days after the state begins accepting registration card applications, which could be more than a year away.
The bill specifically lists 20 medical conditions as qualifying for pot treatment: AIDS and HIV, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, cancer, “chronic, severe, or intractable pain,” chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy or other seizures, glaucoma, hepatitis C, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, sickle-cell anemia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, post-traumatic syndrome, spinal-cord disease or injury, fibromyalgia, Tourette’s syndrome, and traumatic brain injury.
More could be added later by the regulatory process.
Despite the legalized use of marijuana for some Ohioans, the bill preserves employers’ right to fire or discipline workers for pot use and makes them ineligible for unemployment compensation. In the event of an on-the-job injury, the bill assumes an employee testing positive for pot was at fault and ineligible for workers’ compensation.
The Senate rejected a proposed amendment from Toledo’s Ms. Brown to remove the unemployment compensation provision.
“This provision would create a different standard for medical marijuana than other medications and other Schedule 1 drugs,” she said.
News Moderator: Christine Green 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Ohio Senate Oks Medical Marijuana 18-15 Vote Sends Measure To Gov. Kasich For Approval
Author: Jim Provance
Contact: The Blade
Photo Credit: Pr Web
Website: The Blade
“We’re not talking about money,” state Sen. Kenny Yuko (D., Richmond Heights) said. “We’re not talking about monopolies. We’re talking about changing lives all over Ohio … We can’t deprive these patients what we have any longer.”
Sponsored by state Rep. Stephen Huffman (R., Tipp City), a physician, the bill would take effect 90 days after getting the governor’s signature. Mr. Kasich generally supports the concept as polls show most Ohioans do, but his office said he is waiting to see the final bill before making a decision.
The bill would set up a tightly controlled system to grow, process, test, and dispense pot for medical purposes. Smoking would remain illegal, but it could be used in vapor, oil, patch, tincture, edibles, and plant-material form.
Patients armed with recommendations from state-approved doctors and who hold state registration cards would have to obtain their cannabis through licensed retail dispensaries that would be named later. They could not grow their own.
State Sen. Jay Hottinger (R., Newark) opposed the bill.
“In my opinion, the list [of health conditions] that is enumerated is too broad,” he said. “We all know marijuana continues to be a Schedule 1 drug, a federally banned substance … There is not ample enough evidence, medical research, medical data, as to what ailments potentially are benefited from the use of medical marijuana.”
Among northwest Ohio’s delegation, state Sens. Edna Brown (D., Toledo), Randy Gardner (R., Bowling Green), and David Burke (R., Marysville) supported the bill. State Sen. Cliff Hite (R., Findlay) cast the sole negative vote from the region.
Mr. Burke, a pharmacist whose district stretches north to Sandusky Bay, said lawmakers were taking ownership of an issue rather than allowing a ballot issue to etch the issue into the state constitution.
“At worst, a ballot issue can’t change…” he said. “The bill you see before you today is subject to change and maturity as the will of Ohioans changes and matures.”
The sole negative votes from the region in northwest Ohio belonged to Reps. Teresa Fedor (D., Toledo) and Robert Sprague (R., Findlay).
Mike Terman, 44, a disabled former electrician from East Toledo, admits he smokes marijuana to control severe neck and back pain from a workplace accident. He plans to continue to do so.
He prefers the proposed constitutional amendment pushed by Ohioans for Medical Marijuana and the Washington-based Medical Marijuana Project that would allow him to both smoke and grow his own. He credits pot with helping to wean him off opiate painkillers.
The legislative vote “is totally historic, and it does tell me that our state lawmakers do actually care about Ohioans,” Mr. Terman said. “But at the same time it tells me they don’t care about me enough to allow me to smoke it or to use it in a method that I choose. It also tells me that they don’t trust me to grow my own medicine.”
In a move to close some of the distance between the bill and the competing constitutional amendment, the bill would provide some protection from criminal charges for patients with physician recommendations who legally obtain pot products in another state for approved use here.
That “affirmative defense” would begin when the law takes effect and close 60 days after the state begins accepting registration card applications, which could be more than a year away.
The bill specifically lists 20 medical conditions as qualifying for pot treatment: AIDS and HIV, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, cancer, “chronic, severe, or intractable pain,” chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy or other seizures, glaucoma, hepatitis C, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, sickle-cell anemia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, post-traumatic syndrome, spinal-cord disease or injury, fibromyalgia, Tourette’s syndrome, and traumatic brain injury.
More could be added later by the regulatory process.
Despite the legalized use of marijuana for some Ohioans, the bill preserves employers’ right to fire or discipline workers for pot use and makes them ineligible for unemployment compensation. In the event of an on-the-job injury, the bill assumes an employee testing positive for pot was at fault and ineligible for workers’ compensation.
The Senate rejected a proposed amendment from Toledo’s Ms. Brown to remove the unemployment compensation provision.
“This provision would create a different standard for medical marijuana than other medications and other Schedule 1 drugs,” she said.
News Moderator: Christine Green 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Ohio Senate Oks Medical Marijuana 18-15 Vote Sends Measure To Gov. Kasich For Approval
Author: Jim Provance
Contact: The Blade
Photo Credit: Pr Web
Website: The Blade
