With Less Than a Month Until Taking Effect, Ohio’s Medical Pot Law is a Mess

Analysis by Kyle A. Lohmeier

The maiden voyage of this blog was an analysis of the worst medical marijuana law ever conceived by a planet’s apex predators anywhere in the universe – that of Ohio’s dumber-than-hell medical marijuana law.

The law goes into “effect” in less than a month, although the average Ohioan won’t notice a difference on Sept. 8 because the average Ohioan’s ability to find a doctor to recommend him pot so he can take his recommendation to an approved dispensary and get pot that’s been tested and regulated in-state for cannabinoid content and potency is about two years off, according to the state.

The Columbus Dispatch’s Alan Johnson put together an update on the law’s status earlier this week, and it doesn’t look good. First, some background: Ohio’s medical marijuana law was hastily rammed through the legislature and signed by Governor John Kasich in an effort to head off ballot initiatives that would actually have legalized marijuana. The state’s medical marijuana law makes it all-but-impossible to get marijuana legally, even once all the absurd government institutions to “support” “implementing” the law are put into place. Right now, those various institutions, like the state’s Medical Marijuana Control Commission, and the various grow sites, state-approved testing laboratories and dispensaries aren’t even close to being established yet. And, it bears repeating, that even if someone were to make it thought all the nonsense to get their good-for-only-90-days medical marijuana card, they still couldn’t actually smoke the stuff; they’d have to vaporize it or render it into an edible first.

Worse yet on August 5, the Ohio Supreme Court Board of Professional Conduct wrote a non-binding opinion that suggested any attorney that assists a client with establishing any sort of marijuana-oriented business as permitted under Ohio’s medical marijuana is still in violation of federal law and may face prosecution under federal statute. Further, any attorney who uses marijuana, even under the law, invites questions into their “honesty, trustworthiness, and overall fitness to practice law,” according to the panel.

The root of the issue the Board has with lawyers assisting the fledgling marijuana industry in Ohio is the fact marijuana remains a Class I narcotic and illegal under federal law. The state’s rule that governs attorney conduct “does not distinguish between illegal client conduct that will, or will not, be enforced by the federal government,” Jim Provance of the Toledo Blade quoted the opinion in his Aug. 12 piece.

If it looks like Ohio’s medical marijuana law and its implementation are a full-blown boondoggle, it is only because such is actually the case. Given that the whole point of the law was to prevent Ohioans ever legally accessing marijuana, the state doesn’t even know how to pretend to go forward. So, it has sought professional help. The state is offering a $50,000 salary to a contractor who has specialized industry knowledge and can help the state come up with rules and regulations that would affect medical pot growers. The job, as described on the state’s new medical marijuana website, would involve “researching cultivation techniques and processes utilized in other states” and “establishing cultivation standards for business operating in Ohio,” according to the Dispatch. So, for those keeping score, the state needs to pay someone $50K/year to help them understand how to grow a plant commonly referred to as “weed,” partly because it tends to grow like one.

In fact, the state of Ohio’s medical marijuana infrastructure is such a shambles that the closest thing they have to something that looks reasonable is the state’s new medical marijuana website, and even that is basically a mess. Most of the headings say “coming soon” when clicked on and the rest seem to link back to the FAQ page, which has a lot of questions and only infuriating answers.

For example, clicking on “How can I become a cultivator?” earns one this response:

“Administrative rules currently under development will establish the standards and procedures, including application procedures, fees, number of available licenses, timing, how to apply, and renewal requirements. That information will be final when the rules are adopted by May 6, 2017. Draft rules will be available on this website for public comment in the fall of 2016.” In fact, the state used that same canned response, verbatim, for the answer to “how do I register to become a licensed retail dispensary?”

So, with less than a month until the state’s medical marijuana law goes into effect, there has been exactly no progress made at all on setting up the various massive, expensive, unnecessary and stupid institutions required under the law to implement it. And, let’s be honest; the reason for this is because the state has no real interest at all in implementing this law.

The entire purpose of the legislature ramming this law through was, again, to derail a ballot initiative effort that would have actually legalized marijuana. The state has a distinct interest in maintaining the status quo. Getting stopped with marijuana in Ohio gets one an automatic six month driver license suspension; the state makes money on fines, costs and reinstatement fees. The state and its cronies also make money on the absurd marijuana “diversion program” that first-time offenders are steered into by judges. It’s a wonderful system. The defendant pays fines to the court, and then pays a fee to a crony company that administers the “diversion program.” The defendant learns all about the terrible dangers of a plant, and then gets a certificate of completion the judge uses to go ahead and remove the marijuana charge from the defendant’s record. It’s a win-win for everyone but the peasantry, by design.

The medical marijuana law derails a lot of that and will force police officers to take a nuanced approach when dealing with someone using marijuana – cops hate that. The law also makes it so the comprehensive looting of a house by law enforcement where they find marijuana growing isn’t the de facto approach anymore. This represents a huge potential loss in revenue for police – remember, in 2015 the total value of items legally stolen by police under the guise of “asset forfeiture” was greater than the total value of goods reported stolen to police.

I’m willing to bet the only changes to the above answers on the state’s website will be the dates for supposed implementation being pushed back, again and again, indefinitely. The only way Ohioans will get good marijuana law is if they write it and vote on it themselves. Ohioans should have learned a valuable lesson from the legislature and Kasich and the way they hurried to head off the will of the people – never, ever trust government to do the right thing.