CINCINNATI (WKRC) - Medical marijuana is legal in Ohio starting Thursday, September 8 but it still may be awhile before you can get it locally. And once it is available there will still be a lot of limitations. There are a lot of steps before Ohio’s medical marijuana program is in full swing. In fact, it could take a couple years. There is a “medical marijuana advisory committee” that has to develop rules and regulations for who can grow and sell medical marijuana, as well as how doctors can get certified to recommend it for treatment. While the law allows people with certain conditions to begin using medical marijuana immediately, it's not clear where you can legally get it. Patients will have to get a recommendation from a certified doctor to be able to use medical marijuana. But rules for prescribing and distributing could take up to a year to be decided. To be eligible you have to have one of the 20 qualifying medical conditions such as Parkinson’s, cancer o...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP/WCMH)  — Thursday marked 90 days since Ohio Governor John Kasich signed a bill into law that legalizes medical marijuana. You won’t be able to get the legal weed in the state anytime soon though. A lot of work has to implement the program before that happens. The law allows patients to use marijuana in vapor form for certain chronic health conditions, but bars them from smoking it or growing it at home. Kasich’s signature made Ohio the 25th state to legalize a comprehensive medical marijuana program. Starting Thursday, cities and villages can move to ban dispensaries or limit the number of them. WHO RECOMMENDS THE RULES FOR THE MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROGRAM? A newly created Medical Marijuana Advisory Committee will help develop regulations and make recommendations. The governor and legislative leaders must appoint people to the 14-member panel no later than 30 days after the bill’s effective date. Its members will represent employers, labor, local ...

Hocking College will house the state’s medical marijuana testing laboratory, plugging a gap in the process to legalize its sale, pending approval from the State of Ohio. The two-year technical college, in Nelsonville in Hocking County, will satisfy the state law that went into effect last September requiring an Ohio college or university to test cannabis for “potency, homogeneity and contamination” before going to dispensaries for sale. That phase is supposed to be in effect for a year before switching the job to private testing labs. “In addition to the legislative mandate, Hocking College’s role will be to ensure public safety by providing the necessary lab services that will assure access to a safe medical product to the citizens of Ohio,” college President Betty Young said in a statement. It is not quite a done deal yet. Hocking College must submit the lab application to the State of Ohio next week, where they have 90 days to make a decision. Dr. Jonathan Cachat will...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug) Cannabis , also known as  marijuana  among other names, [n 1]  is a  psychoactive drug  from the  Cannabis  plant  intended for  medical  or recreational use. [16] [17] [18]  The main psychoactive part of cannabis is  tetrahydrocannabinol  (THC); one of 483 known compounds in the plant, [19]  including at least 65 other  cannabinoids . [20]  Cannabis can be used by smoking, vaporizing, within food, or as an extract. [21]

Medical marijuana advocates have claimed for years that cannabis is an effective and safe alternative to prescription opioids for the treatment of pain. But no one put up the money to prove it until last week. On Tuesday, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System  announced  a forthcoming study to ascertain whether medical marijuana can alleviate the need for opioids in both HIV-positive and HIV-free patients who suffer from chronic pain. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is putting $3.5 million towards the investigation. A study published last year suggests the Albert Einstein College of Medicine is on the right track. In 2016, researchers at the University of Michigan published two years' worth of survey results collected from 185 medical marijuana patients suffering from various ailments. Patients reported a 45 percent improvement in quality of life and a 64 percent reduction in the use of prescription opioids. "We would cauti...

Opponents of legalized marijuana stack the powerful commission that will oversee what's expected to be a multibillion-dollar pot industry in Massachusetts. Four of the five members of the Cannabis Control Commission, whose full slate was named today, opposed the legalization initiative that was passed by voters last year. Led by Steven Hoffman, a former Bain & Co. executive, the commission faces a tight deadline to hire staff and craft regulations before next April, when applications will begin flowing in for the state's first recreational marijuana dispensaries. They'll then need to vet candidates before the first pot shops can open July 1. The board includes: - Hoffman, a legalization opponent who has no background in the marijuana industry and was tapped yesterday by Treasurer Deb Goldberg to be the commission's chair - Britte McBride, who also voted against legalizing marijuana last November, once headed AG's policy and government divis...

Marijuana has a history in the United States which began when the plant was first introduced into the country by people from all over the world. Once the drug made its way into the United States, it spread, becoming popular for recreational and  medicinal use . Some states have a long history with the plant, while other states are just now joining the fight for legalization.   Ohio   is among one of these states with a marijuana history that dates back to 1975. On August 22, 1975, the governor at the time, James Rhodes, signed a bill decriminalizing the use of marijuana, making it the sixth state to do so. This step toward legalization was certainly surprising considering Ohio was one of the more conservative states during that time. The next step to legalize the drug came in 2015 with Issue 3, which sought to legalize recreational and medicinal marijuana by creating a marijuana monopoly. When the state voted Issue 3 down, HB 523 was introduced the following ...