Ohio lawmakers submit bill revising medicinal cannabis

Two Republican lawmakers in Ohio have introduced a bill to overhaul the state’s medical marijuana laws that would create a new state agency to oversee the program and allow more patients to use medicinal cannabis. The measure, Senate Bill 9, was introduced Jan. 11 by state senators Steve Huffman and Kirk Schuring and was submitted to a Legislative Committee for consideration on Tuesday. The bill is similar to another proposal from the last legislative session, Senate Bill 261, which failed to pass the Ohio House of Representatives after it passed the Senate in December 2021.

Both laws seek to update Ohio’s medical marijuana law, which was passed by the general assembly and put into effect in 2016. Under the new bill, a new state agency, the Division of Marijuana Control, would be created as part of the Ohio Department of Commerce to regulate the state’s medical marijuana program. The legislation also creates a 13-member commission responsible for overseeing the new agency and medical program. Under current law, the state’s medical marijuana program is overseen by the Ohio Department of Commerce, the State Medical Board of Ohio, and the Ohio Board of Pharmacy.

“What we found is that many of the growers want to expand and plant more,” Huffman said in a statement quoted by local media. “There are more producers, there is more demand. You file an application with the Department of Commerce and he sits there for 18 months, two years. Hopefully this takes the bureaucracy out of it and streamlines things and makes it a better functioning industry.”

Ohio Bill adds new terms and conditions

Senate Bill 9 would also add autism spectrum disorders, arthritis, migraines, chronic muscle spasms and opioid use disorders to the state list of conditions that qualify a patient for medical use of cannabis. Currently, the list of qualifying conditions includes more than two dozen serious medical conditions, including cancer, chronic pain, AIDS, Parkinson’s, PTSD, and terminal illnesses.

The measure also permits the use of medical marijuana by patients who have other debilitating conditions that can be treated with medical cannabis, as determined by their doctor. The earlier law included a similar provision that allowed patients to use medical cannabis if a doctor decides that “the patient’s symptoms can reasonably be relieved with medical marijuana.”

At a Senate Bill No. 9 committee hearing held Tuesday, Huffman and Schuring told colleagues that many medical marijuana patients in Ohio are crossing state lines to obtain cannabis from neighboring states with more liberal marijuana laws. As of Jan. 1, of the more than 320,000 patients enrolled in Ohio’s medical marijuana program history, only about 164,000 had an active physician referral and patient enrollment, according to information from state regulators.

“The biggest donor to Ohioans is in Michigan,” Huffman said in testimony Tuesday. “We need to reverse that and make it friendlier so that people come here and have a safe, viable product.”

Senate Bill 261 would also have allowed state-licensed medical marijuana growers to expand their cultivation operations. Though provisions to increase the square footage of allowable acreage are not included in the new bill, Huffman said he is willing to amend the legislation to add the increased acreage.

“In my discussions with Sen. Schuring, we felt that this would be a positive step and change for the industry,” Huffman said. “At the same time, hopefully, members of the House will feel comfortable with it.”

Recreational marijuana proposal under consideration

Ohio lawmakers are also considering a bill that would legalize recreational marijuana in the state. Earlier this month, Secretary of State Frank LaRose reintroduced the proposal that would legalize marijuana for adults 21 and older and impose a 10% tax on commercial cannabis products. Activists had hoped the measure would appear on the ballot for November’s midterm elections, but legal challenges caused delays that led to an agreement with state officials to revisit the issue this year. If the state legislature doesn’t approve the measure within four months, the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, the group leading the legalization effort, can collect signatures to present the proposal to voters in the fall.

Despite the bill legalizing adult-use cannabis, Huffman said the doctor is still interested in improving the state’s medical marijuana program. If recreational marijuana were legalized, it would create an environment without “much of a medical marijuana industry,” he said.

“For me, this bill isn’t so much about the ballot initiative as it is about making the industry the best it can be,” Huffman said.

Trent Woloveck, chief strategy officer of Jushi, a vertically integrated multi-state cannabis company that opened Beyond Hello Cincinnati, the company’s first medical marijuana dispensary, in Ohio last week, urged state legislators in a statement to the High Times to to approve Senate Bill 9.

“If enacted, SB 9 will make safe, tested medical cannabis products more accessible to more Ohioans by expanding eligibility requirements, authorizing additional modes of administration, and codifying mechanisms to enable responsible, incremental industry growth,” Woloveck said. “Ultimately, the changes proposed in SB 9 will enable a stable supply chain, lower product prices and generally benefit Ohio patients.”

Senate Bill 9 has been referred to the Senate Government General Committee for consideration. At a hearing on Tuesday, Republican panel chair Senator Michael Rulli said the panel would move the bill forward quickly.