COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio has yet to outline how exactly its new medical marijuana law will work even as it is set to take effect Thursday, leaving a host of unanswered questions by doctors, patients, pharmacists, police and many others.
Rules for producing, prescribing and distributing cannabis to eligible patients are expected to take up to a year to craft.
Ohio is the 25th state to legalize medical marijuana. Its law was fast-tracked by a Republican-controlled Legislature after it appeared all but inevitable voters would do it if lawmakers didn’t.
The narrow law has an implementation schedule that’s slower than in some other states.
How soon real access comes, remains to be seen. The program isn’t required to be fully operational until September 2018.
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UNCERTAINTY ABOUNDS
The law allows people with certain listed ailments — including AIDS, Alzheimer’s, cancer, PTSD and pain — to begin using marijuana immediately. But it’s unclear where they would legally get it.
Cultivators, processors, dispensaries and testing laboratories have yet to get their marching orders. And about a dozen mostly small communities have declared moratoriums on dispensaries that could affect access even after the rules are written.
“The law is here — but that doesn’t mean that patients are going to be able to get marijuana any time soon,” said Aaron Marshall, of Ohioans for Legal Medical Marijuana.
