The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Program likely to miss start date
Legislator disappointed patients will suffer longer if help is delayed
It appears Ohio’s medical marijuana program will be nowhere near its full operational status by the program’s legislatively mandated start date of Sept. 8.
House Bill 523, passed into law in 2016 by the 131st Ohio General Assembly, authorized the cultivation, processing and dispensing of marijuana for medicinal purposes in Ohio under strict supervision by the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program, Ohio Department of Commerce, State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy and State Medical Board of Ohio.
Stipulated in the language of HB 523 was the date of Sept. 8 for the program to be in place and ready to service Ohio residents who have secured recommendations from authorized physicians to receive specified quantities of marijuana cultivated, processed and dispensed under the aegis of the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program.
As of July 13, however, only one
of the 24 Level 1 or Level 2 cultivators had been inspected and received a certificate of operation.
Level 1 cultivators are eligible for provisional licenses from the Ohio Department of Commerce to grow marijuana plants in up to 25,000 square feet of space. Level 2 cultivators are limited to 3,000 square feet of space.
The only cultivator thus far to have received a certificate of operation, FN Group Holdings, LLC in Ravenna, is a Level 2 licensee.
Stephanie Gostomski, assistant director of communications for the Ohio Department of Commerce, said seven inspections of cultivators are scheduled during July. Four are Level 1 licensees, including Buckeye Relief LLC in Eastlake. Three are Level 2 licensees, including OPC Cultivation, LLC in Huron.
Marijuana plants need 16 to 22 weeks from planting to being mature for harvest. Harvested marijuana must then be processed into oils, tinctures, plant materials, edibles or patches. Those products then will be delivered to the 56 approved dispensaries.
Given that timetable for growing, harvesting, processing and distributing those products, it will be impossible to have them in dispensaries by Sept. 8.
“There are a lot of moving parts to this program,” Gostomski said when asked why the dates for inspections of cultivators are falling so close to the program’s start date. Inspection dates have not yet been established for 11 cultivators.
State Rep. Dan Ramos, D-Lorain, is one of 10 sponsors of HB 523. He is not pleased that the program’s established start date will not be met.
“This is unacceptable. We’re talking about medicine for sick people who need it today,” Ramos said.
Among common uses for medicinal marijuana is alleviation of symptoms related to seizure disorders, cancer and cancer treatment.
“When the legislature passes a law and the governor signs it, what’s in that legislation becomes law,” Ramos said. “We were very cognizant in drafting this legislation we couldn’t roll out this program in a day. That’s why we wrote in the two years to get the program up and running.”
Another sign that Ohio’s medical marijuana program is far behind schedule is the slow pace of inspecting and issuing certificates of operation to dispensaries. That process is overseen by the State Board of Pharmacy.
On July 12, the listed site of the Greenleaf Apothecaries, LLC dispensary at 30133 on Euclid Ave. in Wickliffe was an empty storefront recently vacated by its previous tenant. There was no signage for the dispensary or any evidence of work being done inside the storefront to ready it for the new business.
Grant Miller, a medical marijuana patient and caregiver liaison for the State Board of Pharmacy, said delays in cultivator licensing and other bureaucratic procedures are factors in the lagging timetable for full implementation of the state’s medical marijuana program.
“This is a new process for all of us, and there is a lot that goes into it,” Miller said.
Ramos is not persuaded there is justification for any delay beyond Sept. 8.
“That date was not a suggestion or a target,” he said.”That’s when the program, by law, is to be fully operational. If that deadline is not met, the people running the program and the people reporting to (Ohio) Governor (John) Kasich are failing to follow the law.”
State Rep. John Rogers, D-Mentor-on-the-Lake, is another sponsor of HB 523 . He said he is “neither disappointed nor surprised “that the start of Ohio’s medical marijuana program will not meet the deadline
“The division of responsibilities among three administrative entities poses interesting challenges,” Rogers said. “Ohio is the seventh-largest state in the country with 11.1 million citizens. When they said this program would be up and running in two years, I thought that would be impressive if it happened.”
Timetables for inspections of cultivators and other potential stumbling blocks to full implementation by the deadline are sure to discussed when the Medical Marijuana Advisory Committee meets in Columbus on July 19.
“That date was not a suggestion or a target. That’s when the program, by law, is to be fully operational. If that deadline is not met, the people running the program and the people reporting to (Ohio) Governor (John) Kasich are failing to follow the law.” — State Rep. Dan Ramos, D-Lorain, one of 10 sponsors of HB 523