With a proposed constitutional amendment on the horizon, the House voted 71-26 on Tuesday to potentially make Ohio the 26th state to give residents legal access to medical marijuana.

With a proposed constitutional amendment on the horizon, the House voted 71-26 on Tuesday to potentially make Ohio the 26th state to give residents legal access to medical marijuana.

Some members expressed reluctance about the bill � a vote on which would have been near unfathomable just a few years ago � but after hearing of the drug's benefits and facing the prospect of a less-restrictive constitutional amendment on the November ballot, the bill was sent to the Senate. Hearings will start this morning.

Rep. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, an emergency department doctor and sponsor of the bill, noted that members heard about children prescribed marijuana who went from 300 seizures a day to five, and how it helped a veteran with his post-traumatic stress disorder.

�This is what this bill is all about, which is the patients,� he said. �I am absolutely convinced there is therapeutic value in medical marijuana.�

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The bill would allow for vaping, but not smoking, and includes 20 medical conditions that qualify for medical marijuana, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and intractable pain. It would prohibit home-grown marijuana, require doctors to report how often and why the drug is prescribed, and set up an appointed nine-member control commission to enact regulations, including locations of farms and dispensaries.

The bill also requires an ongoing patient-doctor relationship for the drug to be prescribed.

Though some say the bill is too restrictive, supporters say it ensures that the drug is used strictly for medical, rather than recreational, purposes.

�We are talking about a well-regulated system,� said Rep. Kirk Schuring, R-Canton, who has led the House study of the issue since January. He said he was moved by the testimony he heard from those suffering who have found relief from the drug.

As lawmakers look to take some steam out of the proposed constitutional amendment on the Nov. 8 ballot, the Senate is likely to pass the bill within a few weeks. A ballot issue would override a state law.

�I don�t think there�s anything that�s dynamically different in what is the House version versus what would be a Senate version,� said Sen. Dave Burke, R-Marysville, a pharmacist who worked on the issue for months.

Burke has said he favors having the state Pharmacy Board and the State Medical Board handle rules and regulations of medical marijuana, instead of the House-passed control commission.

A handful of lawmakers, mostly Democrats, have pushed for medical marijuana legalization since the 1990s. Republican leaders took up the issue in the wake of a failed marijuana ballot issue last year, when it was clear that groups were going to keep pushing the issue until voters said yes.

"We give the people an alternative," Huffman said. "I think they're going to look at this as a true medical marijuana bill that is best for the patients and the citizens of Ohio."

Ohioans for Medical Marijuana, a group backed by the Marijuana Policy Project of Washington, D.C., which is pursuing a Nov. 8 ballot issue, says the bill is too restrictive and would make patients wait up to two years before doctors start writing prescriptions.

�Today�s vote will only bring false hope and empty promises to Ohioans suffering from debilitating conditions who need medical marijuana,� said spokesman Aaron Marshall.

Nichole Scholten, an advocate for the pro-medical marijuana group Ohio Families CANN, recently urged lawmakers to design a program that is �useful and without barriers,� and gets buy-in from patients.

"Make them feel untrusted, illegitimate, or under-prioritized and they may not," she said. "They may support a citizen initiative instead."

GOP lawmakers have said they oppose the ballot proposal, which would allow home-grown marijuana and allow it to be smoked.

The bill ensures that parents and caregivers could not be arrested for providing marijuana to patients.

"This is a life-altering piece of legislation for a lot of families in this state," said Rep. Dan Ramos, D-Lorain.

The Ohio State Medical Association has said it cannot support the bill because marijuana has not undergone proper clinical research and federal approval. But the group has said it would prefer legislative action to a ballot issue.

In all, 20 Republicans and six Democrats voted against the bill, none from Franklin County.

Some Democrats, including Rep. David Leland, D-Columbus, said they didn't like that the bill would allow employers to fire someone for using marijuana, even it were prescribed legally.

"Not only can you be fired because you are a medical marijuana user ... we're going to deny you your unemployment benefits for something that we just declared legal," he said. "It's like we have schizophrenia here."

jsiegel@dispatch.com

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