Legalization of Medical Marijuana in Ohio Pushes Forward
On Sept. 8 2016, Ohio House Bill 523 passed, joining the ranks of 27 other U.S. states that have legalized medical marijuana. After the bill was approved, the state Medical Marijuana Control Program was established. The program allows patients — with recommendation from a state licensed physician — to purchase and use medical marijuana.
Three state agencies were appointed to oversee various aspects of the program: The Board of Pharmacy will register patients and caregivers, and issue licenses to retail dispensaries; the Department of Commerce must issue licences to cultivators, processors and testing laboratories; and the Medical Board will issue certificates to doctors that wish to prescribe medical marijuana for their patients.
There are a list of 22 conditions that would qualify for the use of the medicinal plant, including: AIDS, cancer, crohn’s disease, Alzheimer’s, PTSD and Parkinson’s.
Since last September, legislatures have made various strides in finalizing rules of the bill, which must be finalized by May and September of this year.
In the meantime, citizens in Northeast Ohio are reacting to the new bill. In the midst of understanding what goes behind processing the medical cannabis plant, some are reacting to the arrival of a new business opponent, while others are taking the opportunity to educate the community.
Growing and Dispensing Cannabis
By Kayla Sturm
Warm weather rises in Ohio as the season transitions from spring to summer and that means plants rise too. Not just the usual tulips and roses, but marijuana plants. Growers will begin to go through the process of getting licenses approved, which will start this summer.
Jackie Borchardt is a journalist for Cleveland.com, and is based in Columbus, but has covered the topic of marijuana throughout the state. Borchardt explained the process of the marijuana legalization process as well the process of making the plant.
“In June of this year, they plan to start accepting applications for those licenses and will start reviewing them in July and start awarding them in August or September,” she said.
After submitting applications, growers will have nine months to get their facility up and running.
“Once those licenses are awarded, they have nine months to meet the qualifications of the licenses; like having enough product on hand that they are required or having their system up and running. If they don’t have that done in nine months, they will revoke it or give it to someone else,” Borchardt said.
Once the licenses are approved, facilities can begin the process of growing the marijuana plant for patients who need it.
“In Ohio, they want there to be a lot of control in the facilities. With growing indoors, using artificial light, lots of electricity and lots of water is a big drain on resources,” she said.
The marijuana plants aren’t planted in the ground with a seed like any other plant. There is a longer process to it.
“Most marijuana plants are cloned, which is a clipping from an existing plant. This is done in Colorado, Washington and will be the case in Ohio,” Borchardt said.
After the plants are cloned, they need to be under certain types of light for a certain amount of hours to reach the maturity in order to prepare the buds.
“The dry bud is what most people think of because that is what is smoked. Whatever is not used from the plant, will be disposed safely,” she said.
When they dispose the other parts of the flower, the next step is preparing the plants to be be ready to be dispensed.
“As soon as that clone is planted, it’s tagged with a bar code. The tag will stay with that plant until it reaches the dispensary.”
Other states use this process to dispense the marijuana, and Ohio will use the same process to benefit patient needs.
Spreading the word through education
By McKenzie Jean-Philippe
At the age of 16, Richard Pine was in a car accident. To help ease the discomfort of injuries sustained in the crash, Pine’s doctors prescribed him various pain medications and muscle relaxers. While the pills were intended to help during recovery, he found another medication that he preferred.
“Using cannabis always helped with the pain better,” Pine said. “And I never got the groggy, drug feeling that all the pills gave me. And later, I pretty much found out that I was self-medicating with cannabis. I just preferred that over medication.”
The 28-year-old Kent State alumnus used his experience as motivation to create the Cleveland Cannabis College, Ohio’s first medical marijuana education provider. Not long after graduating in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, Pine began research on the medical benefits of the cannabis plant.
After Ohio passed House Bill 523 last September — legalizing medical marijuana statewide — he found an opportunity reach out to fellow Ohioans through the college.
“In order to make this medication safely and effective and available, there needs to be a strong base for education,” Pine said. “Also, with Ohio requiring the ongoing education for physicians and for a lot of the people who hold licenses — growers, processors and dispensaries — the state is requiring ongoing education for employees. So we saw that there was this niche that we could get into to make sure we were providing the best cannabis related education anywhere.”
Cleveland Cannabis College classes started the last week of January. Pine said 70 students have enrolled and taken the required course “Intro to Medical Cannabis.” After passing the preliminary class, students can choose from three majors: Cannabis horticulture, cannabis business or medical applications of cannabis.
The college’s first semester starts this coming June.
“We have 28 (students) so far for the first semester,” Pine said. “We’re only accepting 40. We only accept between 20 to 22 students for our intro classes because we believe that … it allows them to open up. It allows them for a much more open flow of information.”
He said that the school has a diverse student body. Recent high school graduates, nurses and individuals seeking an alternative to higher learning have all found an education at the college.
“We get so many different type of people, young to old,” said admissions director Donelle Watson. “A lot of them are coming in like ‘Oh, I didn’t know this place existed’ when they first come in. (They say) ‘I just wanna make sure you guys are legit or real…’ There’s such a big opiate crisis in Ohio. (Marijuana) is medicine and people need the proper education to know how to properly use it.”
Pine’s own father, a retired surgeon, has even attended the college’s introductory course. He said his father who “can lay someone on his table, cut them open and put their heart back together,” never received a formal education on the benefits of the cannabis plant.
While Pine said his parents are supportive of the school, he cites his father’s lack of education about the medical marijuana industry as reason to inform the public.
Ultimately, he wishes to decrease the stigma attached to marijuana. From his own experience, he knows that the plant can only benefit society.
“Using medical cannabis can treat and cure a lot of different diseases. Is it a cure-all? No, not by any means. Could it work with and/or replace a lot of more harmful medications? Absolutely. …The importance is getting this medication to patients that absolutely need it.”
Legalizing Marijuana: The perspective of Ohio dealers
By Payton Moore
When Jacob first heard his boss sold marijuana on the side, his interest in selling the drug was sparked. He was already spending roughly $120 a month on pot — a hefty cut out of a college student’s measly budget.
His boss asked him and his friend Matt one day if they’d like to absorb his clientele as he was stepping out of the game. They agreed and began to sell the illegal drug, now selling to roughly 20 regular customers.
His initial interest? Not having to spend on something they smoked so regularly. Every month, Jacob and Matt essentially break even on their sales. They can expect to purchase roughly $800 to $2,000 of marijuana every month and sell all of it back until they reach what they paid. Each delivery is a varied strain of marijuana in a varied weight.
The two of them pocket only around a $120 a month, Jacob said. Selling the drug and only earning around $40 a week may not offer enough of a benefit for some, but for Jacob and Matt, the situation works.
Both work separate jobs at local restaurants and for local media outlets to round out their discretionary income. If marijuana became legal for recreational use in Ohio, Jacob says they’d be in trouble financially.
“I know some people that also sell weed and they’ve said, ‘I hope it never becomes legal in Ohio because that would put us out of business,’” Jacob said. “But at the same time I’m 100 percent pro-legalization of recreational marijuana… well, maybe I could go for medical only, so that I could keep my recreational business,” Jacob said.
Selling marijuana in Ohio (less than 200 grams) is a felony that can put dealers in jail for potentially one year and have to pay over $2,500 in fines. Jacob and Matt make sure their business doesn’t grow too far and too wide in order to cover their tracks.
“There’s families in these neighborhoods, and sometimes I worry if the neighbors think anything of the eight different cars that roll in our driveway every day,” Jacob said. “But we’re cool, personable guys and people aren’t looking for trouble if you’re respectful and nice, which I think we are,” Jacob said.
Matt and Jacob hope to build a bond between the customer and the dealer, no matter their reasoning for wanting marijuana.
“My biggest motivation (to selling marijuana) … is having people trust you and you trusting them,” Jacob said.
Jacob believes that if marijuana were to be legalized for recreational purposes in Ohio, most people would see the benefit is in the money the state could be making off of taxes on the scheduled-1 drug.
“I think the overwhelming majority of people think (legalizing marijuana) is a good idea,” Jacob said. “If people are educated about it and want to simply research it, a lot more people would be on board.”
