Updated: 4:27 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016 | Posted: 9:41 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016

Medical marijuana becomes legal in Ohio today

Medical marijuana becomes legal in Ohio today.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed the bill earlier this year to legalize cannabis for medical use.

The bill will not allow marijuana to be smoked. It will have to be used in patches, vapors, edibles, etc. The bill also does not allow for users to grow marijuana at home.

The Ohio Department of Commerce, State Medical Board and Board of Pharmacy will supervise the use of medical marijuana in the state.

Last year, ResponsibleOhio put a proposed constitutional amendment on the statewide ballot that would have legalized marijuana for both medical and recreational use and granted exclusive growing rights to the 10 investor groups bankrolling the campaign. Voters soundly rejected the proposal. But polls showed that 80 to 90 percent of Ohioans favor legalizing medical marijuana.

Conditions eligible for medical marijuana in Ohio

AIDS, ALS, Alzheimer’s, cancer, chronic pain, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy or other seizure disorder, fibromyalgia, glaucoma, hepatitis C, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, PTSD, spinal cord conditions, Tourette’s syndrome, traumatic brain injury and sickle cell anemia.

Today, 9/22/2017, on the Dr. Oz Show a segment of the show addressed the opioid epidemic. In view of how deeply affected we are in Middletown, this seemed worth consideration. The segment can be viewed on his website: http://www.doctoroz.com/

“Is Marijuana a Secret Weapon Against Heroin Addiction?”

“Can medical marijuana help fight the national opioid crisis? Go behind the scenes at a licensed cannabis cultivation facility with Dr. Oz and TV personality Montel Williams.”

On the show, Montel Williams discusses his own addiction to prescription drugs (for chronic pain) and the effective use of marijuana to beat the addiction. For him and a woman who gave a similar testimonial, the pain of withdrawal is quite bearable with the use of marijuana. Both of them have chronic conditions, requiring pain management. Neither of them any longer use addictive pain killers. Instead they use a doctor prescribed, medical marijuana. Both of them said that without the marijuana they would still be addicted or dead.

Dr. Oz said:

As a doctor, one of my primary responsibilities is to alleviate pain, and I’m always on the lookout for new and more effective treatments. For years, we’ve used opiates to treat pain and today we are in the throes of an addiction epidemic. Each day the opioid crisis sends over 1000 people to the emergency room and takes 91 lives. Doctors need new pain medications that don't have the ability to kill like opioids do.

This petition will be delivered to:

• National Institutes of Health

• President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis

• The petition is on his website.

• Ohio has legalized marijuana. Hypothetically, Middletown could cut in half, the cost of Narcan by treating addicts who enter the system as detainees with marijuana ...if (big if)they get clean and remain clean. Given the choice of going “cold turkey” and using marijuana for the pain of withdrawal looks like a no brainer to me.

• Hypothetically, Middletown could lower that cost even more if we had our own source/grower of medical marijuana.

• I’m expecting a lot of commentary on this. I hope so! Here’s where we could become a leader in finding solutions instead of being the problem. And the negative side of this is … who do we have in the city government to organize and implement such a thing? That’s a tough nut to crack, knowing how many screwed up current frivolous bureaucracies we have. I have my doubts already that no one will want to be involved or even have an interest.