Robert Celt
New Member
Seeking to head off a constitutional amendment at the pass, the Ohio House of Representatives on Tuesday forged ahead with a plan to legalize marijuana for medical use only.
House Bill 523 was introduced last week with the goal of a full House vote as soon as next week. The Senate, however, has made no commitment to pass it or any other marijuana bill.
Unlike multiple proposed constitutional amendments in the field gathering petition signatures, the House bill does not allow for home growing of marijuana for medical use. It would also leave it to a new state regulatory commission to decide whether smoking of pot would be permitted, as opposed to using it in edible, oil, or other forms.
State Rep. Stephen Huffman (R., Tipp City), the emergency-room physician who sponsored the bill, defended the decision not to allow home cultivation.
"Home-grown plants, in my personal opinion, is pseudo-recreational because somebody will grow 10 plants. They'll smoke two. They'll sell two," he told the House Select Committee on Medical Marijuana.
He introduced the bill despite opposition from the Ohio State Medical Association. The association was represented on the recent House task force that examined the issue, but it has cited a lack of evidence of the medical benefits of pot.
"I agree with them: Let the medical process decide about medical marijuana," he said. "But we're a ballot-initiative state, and we need to lead. ... I don't think the OSMA is going to come on board for this bill, but I think they enjoy the process and encourage the process to get out in front of a ballot initiative that could be very bad for the citizens."
House Bill 523 would create a nine-member commission whose members would be appointed by the governor. It would tightly regulate every aspect of the process, from growing the plants to dispensing the final product to patients with debilitating conditions whose doctors agree could benefit from the use of pot.
The bill would also tax marijuana products at every level of transaction at a yet-to-be-determined rate.
Competing petition efforts to amend the Ohio Constitution have until early July to file just under 306,000 valid signatures of registered voters if their sponsors hope to place the issues on the Nov. 8 general election ballot.
Ohioans for Medical Marijuana, perhaps the most organized of those efforts, said the House bill is too restrictive.
"There's a lot of red tape that the legislature has put in their proposal," spokesman Aaron Marshall said. "And frankly, it looks like they're looking over the shoulders of doctors here. They don't trust that doctor-patient relationship."
He also said the two-year process of writing the rules and implementing the new law will leave too many patients waiting needlessly.
"To ask them to wait another two years while the legislature kicks the can down the road is unconscionable," Mr. Marshall said.
The House hearings this spring followed the overwhelming failure at the ballot box last fall of a much broader proposal to legalize pot for medical and recreational purposes, and to build a large commercial wholesale and retail infrastructure around the newly legal product.
Polls, however, have shown that the idea of legalizing pot for medical use only is very popular with voters. This legislative effort is seen as a way for lawmakers to take control of the process before a group can successfully write its own proposal into the state constitution.
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Ohio House Introduces Medical Marijuana Bill
Author: Jim Provance
Contact: The Blade
Photo Credit: None found
Website: The Blade
House Bill 523 was introduced last week with the goal of a full House vote as soon as next week. The Senate, however, has made no commitment to pass it or any other marijuana bill.
Unlike multiple proposed constitutional amendments in the field gathering petition signatures, the House bill does not allow for home growing of marijuana for medical use. It would also leave it to a new state regulatory commission to decide whether smoking of pot would be permitted, as opposed to using it in edible, oil, or other forms.
State Rep. Stephen Huffman (R., Tipp City), the emergency-room physician who sponsored the bill, defended the decision not to allow home cultivation.
"Home-grown plants, in my personal opinion, is pseudo-recreational because somebody will grow 10 plants. They'll smoke two. They'll sell two," he told the House Select Committee on Medical Marijuana.
He introduced the bill despite opposition from the Ohio State Medical Association. The association was represented on the recent House task force that examined the issue, but it has cited a lack of evidence of the medical benefits of pot.
"I agree with them: Let the medical process decide about medical marijuana," he said. "But we're a ballot-initiative state, and we need to lead. ... I don't think the OSMA is going to come on board for this bill, but I think they enjoy the process and encourage the process to get out in front of a ballot initiative that could be very bad for the citizens."
House Bill 523 would create a nine-member commission whose members would be appointed by the governor. It would tightly regulate every aspect of the process, from growing the plants to dispensing the final product to patients with debilitating conditions whose doctors agree could benefit from the use of pot.
The bill would also tax marijuana products at every level of transaction at a yet-to-be-determined rate.
Competing petition efforts to amend the Ohio Constitution have until early July to file just under 306,000 valid signatures of registered voters if their sponsors hope to place the issues on the Nov. 8 general election ballot.
Ohioans for Medical Marijuana, perhaps the most organized of those efforts, said the House bill is too restrictive.
"There's a lot of red tape that the legislature has put in their proposal," spokesman Aaron Marshall said. "And frankly, it looks like they're looking over the shoulders of doctors here. They don't trust that doctor-patient relationship."
He also said the two-year process of writing the rules and implementing the new law will leave too many patients waiting needlessly.
"To ask them to wait another two years while the legislature kicks the can down the road is unconscionable," Mr. Marshall said.
The House hearings this spring followed the overwhelming failure at the ballot box last fall of a much broader proposal to legalize pot for medical and recreational purposes, and to build a large commercial wholesale and retail infrastructure around the newly legal product.
Polls, however, have shown that the idea of legalizing pot for medical use only is very popular with voters. This legislative effort is seen as a way for lawmakers to take control of the process before a group can successfully write its own proposal into the state constitution.
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Ohio House Introduces Medical Marijuana Bill
Author: Jim Provance
Contact: The Blade
Photo Credit: None found
Website: The Blade
