Ohio_Patient_Network

Below is a article by John Hartman, (1953-2008) founder of Northcoast NORML

about Ohio's Medical Marijuana law

Well all hell broke out this last November when Governor Voinovich and Attorney General Montgomery discovered Ohio's new medical marijuana defense law.  They each took an oath in blood to have it repealed when the Ohio General Assembly returned for business in January. 

We started to prepare for the upcoming battle over this issue in early December.  The problem that we were facing was we couldn't line up any expert testimony until a bill was introduced into the Ohio General Assembly and assigned to a committee.  The earliest we could get this information was January 14th.  We needed to give our experts at least two weeks notice.  January 14th came and we found out a bill was introduced.  On January 15th we found out we needed to get our expert in on Jan. 29th or Feb. 5th.  I spent the next week trying to get Dr. Lester Grinspoon or Dr. John P. Morgan to testify.  The best I  could do with Grinspoon was to talk with his secretary and couldn't even get a response from Morgan.  They were both out of town and had other commitments.  I was getting really pressed.  We had coordinated patients, activists and concerned citizens to testify at the upcoming hearings in the Senate.  But this would add up to only marijuana users talking about marijuana as a folk medicine if we didn't have an expert to testify.  We  needed a doctor to back up our medical claims and not just any doctor would do.  This doctor had to be a super expert on the issue of marijuana as a medicine.  We were just about out of time when the phone rang at the NORML office.  I answered it and a voice said, "Hi, I'm Doctor Ungerleider, I want to testify for NORML about this repeal of the new Ohio law."  What luck!  Dr. Ungerleider was visiting family in Toledo when he saw an article in the Toledo Blade about Ohio's new medical marijuana defense law.

Boy was I relieved!  Finally a doctor out of the blue and not just any doctor.  Dr. Ungerleider had conducted medical research on marijuana in the oral and smoked forms and he even served on President Nixon's Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse.  The only thing was, he wasn't available to testify before the Senate.  But he was available to testify before the House committee. When you're at the end of your rope, you take advantage of any opportunity and count your lucky stars. 

It's becoming difficult to keep up with all the marijuana bills being filed at statehouses around the county. In addition to the bills in Washington state (see related story here), in the past 10 days we saw a medical marijuana bill introduced in Missouri, another in Alabama, and another in Virginia. There was also a decriminalization bill introduced in Virginia, and in New Hampshire a decrim bill and a "tax and regulate" legalization bill got hearings.

In Missouri, Rep. Kate Meiners (D-Kansas City) and 16 cosponsors introduced HB 1670, which would allow patients with debilitating diseases to use marijuana upon a physician's recommendation. Patients or caregivers could possess up to one ounce of usable marijuana and three mature and four immature plants. Previous bills have failed to move in the Republican-dominated legislature, but the presence of a Republican cosponsor this year could make a difference.

In Alabama, Rep. Patricia Todd (D-Birmingham) has introduced HB 207, which would allow patients with specified debilitating conditions to use marijuana. The bill has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee. Previous medical marijuana bills died in 2007 and 2008.

In Virginia, Delegate Harvey Morgan, a 79-year-old Republican, filed HB 1136, a medical marijuana bill that would protect from prosecution patients who have "a valid prescription issued by a medical doctor." The bill's prospects are uncertain. Morgan is a senior Republican and committee chair, but the measure also faces opposition.

Another bill introduced by Morgan, HB 1134, would make small-time marijuana possession a civil offense rather than a criminal one and mandates a maximum $500 fine. It would also create a rebuttable presumption that anyone growing five plants or less is growing for personal consumption, and treats small grows like small amounts of marijuana. The bill would also do away with a two-year mandatory minimum sentence for selling less than an ounce and a five-year mandatory minimum for selling more than an ounce. Like Morgan's medical bill, the prospects for the decrim bill are uncertain.