House OKs medical marijuana bill 70-25

J.D. Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune

By ALEX ASPACHER, 

Today marked the first time the Legislature has called for a vote on medical marijuana, and State Rep. Tim Brown is among those who helped get a bill to the floor of the Ohio House of Representatives.
The bill passed on a 70-25 vote. The Senate plans to begin hearings on the measure Wednesday.

Rep. Kirk Schuring led a special committee on the issue. He has said he expects the legislation to be enacted by the end of May.

Brown, R-Bowling Green, was one of nine representatives appointed to the House Select Committee on Medical Marijuana, a group that has spent the last several months discussing the issue and crafting House Bill 523.

The bill would permit medical use of marijuana in some cases, though it could not be smoked and differs greatly from a proposed constitutional amendment that was soundly rejected by voters in November.

“People over the years have advocated for marijuana legalization to varying degrees, but this is the first time the issue has truly gained traction,” Brown said.

“I applaud the leadership for allowing us to look at this issue and to study it and to come up with a proposal that will help Ohioans.”

Brown said he initially supported only allowing marijuana that contains no tetrahydrocannabinol, the plant’s active ingredient that causes users to feel high. Listening to “heart wrenching” testimony changed his mind, Brown said, particularly from parents of children with seizure disorders who insist marijuana can drastically reduce their number of episodes.

The committee also heard from veterans with post-traumatic stress and people with chronic pain “who have found relief from some of those conditions in various versions of medical marijuana,” Brown said.

“These parents didn’t want to make their children high, but they didn’t want to see them seize hundreds of times a day, either.”

Brown says he’s convinced the bill will help patients who can benefit from marijuana by “carefully and methodically” opening a limited system in Ohio. Though he admits scientific research may be limited now, Brown said information is emerging in states that have allowed medical marijuana and studied its impact.

He acknowledged that the federal classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug has “stymied drastically the ability of the nation to study it.”

“We probably missed the mark in this country in not studying marijuana sooner and getting more definitive answers than what we have today,” Brown said.

“I’ll be first to admit we need better science. ... We think that the process we’re putting forth for consideration will help us, long term, derive the facts needed to make informed decisions in the future.”

Some will criticize the fact that medical marijuana will allow some users to get high, but Brown compared the drug to opiates, which have driven the heroin epidemic in Ohio. Opiates are highly addictive and intoxicating, but they aren’t illegal because they have medical value to people in pain, he said.

“Here we have a plant that has shown much promise in many areas for citizens that have legitimate medical needs, without the definitive addictive nature. We have an obligation to try it and see if it works.”

Brown said there is evidence that shows some states, after legalizing medical marijuana, have seen a reduction of about 25 percent in prescriptions issued for opiates. “If that plays out in Ohio, that is significant in helping us in our war against opiate addiction and death in our state.”

Wood County Prevention Coalition spoke out last year against the ballot initiative that would have legalized medical and recreational marijuana use, and the group maintains its position that more research should be in place before Ohio takes any steps to legalize it, said Milan Karna, coordinator of the prevention coalition.

Many of the concerns are the same, that marijuana would be more easily acquired by those who aren’t licensed, particularly youth, and that even though smoking wouldn’t be allowed, the safety of vaporizing hasn’t been confirmed, Karna said.

“It’s another unknown variable. We really don’t know the safety of that as well,” he said. “It appears as though it could be safer, but really the jury is still out on that. There hasn’t been conclusive research.”

Through House Bill 523, physicians would be licensed to prescribe marijuana by a control commission to be established through appointments by the governor and the Legislature. Doctors would not be permitted to advertise those services, and an established relationship with a patient would be required in order to prescribe it for a qualifying medical condition.

“They felt that in those very early, initial stages, it would be helpful to have legislative guidance as to what areas they could prescribe for until science catches up,” Brown said of physicians who were consulted on the issue.

Unlike an amendment to the state constitution, as proposed by the voter initiative last year, the law could be easily tweaked by the Legislature if necessary. Additional campaigns for more broad legalization are still expected this summer.

Brown, who was to speak in support of the bill today, said House members kept their colleagues in the Senate apprised of their work on the issue. While they’ll almost certainly suggest changes, he expects it will be “nothing substantial.”

“It will take some work, but the intent is to move methodically but expeditiously in addressing our citizens’ medical needs here.”