Ohio Looking to Expand Medical Cannabis Program

A bill introduced in the Ohio Senate would expand the state’s medical cannabis qualifying condition list to include arthritis, migraines, autism spectrum disorder, spasticity or chronic muscle spasms, hospice care, opioid use disorder, and any other condition from which a patient could benefit,  Cleveland.com reports. Seen as a significant expansion of medical cannabis in the state, the bill has a Republican sponsor and comes as signatures are being collected for an adult-use initiative for the 2022 ballot.

The bill’s prime sponsor, Republican Sen. Stephen Huffman, said the bill reflects feedback he has heard from constituents in the five years since Ohio passed its medical cannabis law. In addition to expanding the state’s qualifying conditions list, the proposal would allow curbside and drive-thru dispensing and increase the number of dispensaries to one for every 1,000 patients, up to the first 300,000, and the need to expand licensees would be re-evaluated once every two years.

Under the bill, large scale cultivation sites would be expanded from 25,000-square-feet to 75,000-square-feet and small scale sites would expand from 3,000-square-feet to 20,000-square-feet, with the hope expansion would lower prices for patients, who have long noted the high cost of medical cannabis when compared to other legal states nearby, the report says.

“There’s a lot of veterans and disabled people who found [curb side and drive-thru service] useful during the pandemic, Huffman said in the report. “Medical marijuana is about $310 an ounce, which is much higher than surrounding states because there’s not enough product.”

Huffman sees the bill as a small business package and hopes it will have a hearing in the Senate Small Business and Economic Opportunity Committee next week.