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STREETSBORO, Ohio — The Ohio Department of Commerce has awarded a medical marijuana lab in Streetsboro the first medical Testing Lab Certificate of Operation.

The Department of Commerce announced Thursday that North Coast Testing Laboratories, LLC received the certificate. With this award all “regulatory components of the program are in place for the sale of plant-only product in dispensaries.”

Meanwhile, the department also awarded two Level I cultivator provisional licenses to Greenleaf Gardens in Middlefield and Certified Cultivators in Dayton.

This comes just one week after state regulators gave the green light to the first medical marijuana dispensary in Ohio. CY+, located in the village of Wintersville, is the first of 56 state-licensed medical marijuana outlets to receive a certificate of operation. However, the dispensary will not be able to sell medical marijuana until their products are tested at state-certified testing labs.

Meantime, the medical marijuana patient and caregiver registry for Ohio went live on December 3. The registry is the online portal where doctors certified to recommend medical marijuana can register patients and caregivers.

State officials say doctors have submitted nearly 2,000 recommendations already.

After the state confirms the recommendations, patients and caregivers can get registration e-cards. The cards allow them to get medical marijuana from dispensaries once they open. Approved registrations are valid for one year from their issuance date. However, if the patient is diagnosed as terminally ill, their registration will expire after six months.

Currently oils, tinctures, plant material, edibles and patches are the only approved forms of medical marijuana. Ohio law prohibits the use of medical marijuana by smoking or combustion, but does allows for vaporization. The law also prohibits any form of marijuana that is attractive to children.

However, certified doctors can recommend treatment with medical marijuana for minors with the consent of a parent or guardian responsible for providing consent to treatment.

Certified physicians can recommend medical marijuana only for the treatment of a qualifying medical conditions. Under Ohio law, the following medical conditions qualify:

AIDS

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Alzheimer’s disease

Cancer

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy

Crohn’s disease

Epilepsy or another seizure disorder

Fibromyalgia

Glaucoma

Hepatitis C

Inflammatory bowel disease

Multiple sclerosis

Pain that is either chronic and severe or intractable

Parkinson’s disease

Positive status for HIV

Post-traumatic stress disorder

Sickle cell anemia

Spinal cord disease or injury

Tourette’s syndrome

Traumatic brain injury

Ulcerative colitis

Medical marijuana is expected to be ready by late this year or early next year.

Continuing coverage, here.

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