An Ohio Senate committee has amended the House-passed bill to legalize medical marijuana use. Ohio Public Radio's Jo Ingles reports.
A senate committee put the state’s pharmacy board in charge of the medical marijuana plan – not the Department of Commerce as was designated in the House-passed plan. It also loosened requirements on doctors who recommend marijuana and puts them under the oversight of the board that already oversees them – the Ohio State Medical Board. Aaron Marshall, a spokesman for a national group that wants to put a constitutional amendment to legalize medical marijuana before voters this fall, takes issue with those changes.
“This latest version merely changes which set of political appointees are given the power to determine the future of medical marijuana.”
That amendment and another one that could go to voters would allow patients to smoke or grow their own marijuana – which is not permitted in the legislature’s plan.
