Ohio Senators Take Up Bill To Overhaul State’s Medical Marijuana Program As Advocates Pursue Adult-Use Legalization At Ballot

Ohio senators are trying once more to overhaul the state’s medical marijuana system. That effort stalled out last session after passing the Senate. Meanwhile, the bid to place adult, recreational use on the ballot has only gained steam in the interim.

Tuesday, the Ohio Senate’s General Government Committee heard proponent testimony.

The core of Sens. Steve Huffman (R) and Kirk Schuring’s (R) bill reiterate the measure Huffman guided through the Senate last year.

Once again, the proposal establishes a Division of Marijuana Control, or DMC, in the Commerce Department charged with program oversight. The Board of Pharmacy would continue running the drug database, but it would hand off dispensary licensing and patient registration to the new division.

Like the previous proposal, the measure splits cultivator licensing into two tiers, expands the range of eligible conditions, and sets a target of one dispensary per 1,000 patients.

But Huffman and Schuring have made a number of additions to the bill this time around, too. Concerned with who oversees the overseers, their proposal establishes a 13-member commission to help stand up the new DMC. Members would include representatives from medicine, law enforcement, and labor, among others.

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Taking a dig at the ballot initiative backed by the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, he argued it provides little regulation if any.

“That’s what this program is designed to do,” Schuring said, tapping the papers arrayed in front of him. “And when you say you can grow it at home, that’s not regulated.”

“As I said before,” he added, “last time I checked, you can’t put a still in your backyard.”

A separate proposal recently introduced in the Ohio Senate does seek to allow Ohioans to make and consume moonshine.

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