Mary Atwater, 66, of Cleveland says she came to check out the inaugural Marijuana Expo Cleveland because she suffers from chronic pain with Multiple Sclerosis and she wants to learn more about medical marijuana
Marcia Pledger | cleveland.com
COLUMBUS – A newly introduced Ohio Senate bill would create a 13-member medicinal cannabis oversight commission, as well as a new state agency, in hopes of being more responsive to the state’s medical marijuana industry and expand the diagnoses for which it could be prescribed.
Senate Bill 9 is similar to Senate Bill 261 from last legislative session in that they both are trying to update the state’s 6 -year-old law that legalized medical marijuana in Ohio. However, the oversight board is new in SB 9.
Currently, the Ohio Department of Commerce, the State Medical Board of Ohio and the Ohio Board of Pharmacy oversee regulations and licensing in the marijuana program.
“What we’ve found is that many of the growers want to expand and grow more,” said Sen. Stephen Huffman, who is sponsoring the bill with fellow Republican Sen. Kirk Schuring. “There’s more growers, there’s more demand. They put an application into the Department of Commerce, and it sits there for 18 months, two years. Hopefully this takes the bureaucracy out of this and streamlines things and make it a better-functioning industry.”
SB 9 comes as the legislature also must decide what to do about a recreational marijuana initiated statue proposal. The…
