“Ohio medical marijuana plan: 15 large grow sites plus unlimited smaller cultivators”
A national group’s campaign to legalize medical marijuana in Ohio would allow up to 15 large-scale grow sites and an unlimited number of smaller-scale growers. Ohioans for Medical Marijuana, a campaign committee formed by the Marijuana Policy Project, announced the new ballot language Tuesday, with hopes of putting the constitutional amendment on the Nov. 8 ballot.
If approved – and polling has shown support for medical marijuana after an effort to completely legalize marijuana failed last year – entrepreneurs will have a variety of ways to profit. Five types of business licenses would be available, from growers who cultivate the plant through retail dispensaries that sell marijuana to doctor-approved patients or caregivers.
It would take some time to get any business off the ground, though. A newly formed Medical Marijuana Control Division would first accept applications for large growers, manufacturers and testing facilities starting in August 2017. Retail dispensaries would follow in February 2018.
A large-scale marijuana cultivator would have to pay $500,000 for the right to set up a 25,000-square-foot grow site. Those willing to limit their sites to 5,000 square feet, who Ohioans for Medical Marijuana calls medium cultivators, would pay $5,000 per application.
Patients could grow up to six plants without getting a license. People with “debilitating medical conditions” would be eligible to buy and grow medical marijuana, including AIDS, cancer, hepatitis C, Crohn’s disease, seizures, multiple sclerosis, post-traumatic stress disorder and severe pain, according to the proposed ballot language.
Ohioans for Medical Marijuana projects 215,000 patients would use medical marijuana, based on extrapolations from peer state Michigan, where 2.4 percent of residents use medical-marijuana ID cards. That percentage of Ohio adults equals roughly 215,000 people.
The organization says it capped the large-scale licenses at 15, which would comprise about nine acres of cultivation, as a middle ground compared with Midwestern peers where marijuana is legal. It says the $500,000 fees for large-scale cultivators would help subsidize patient ID cards and other business licenses, as well as administration. Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, said the cap on 15 large growers isn’t a monopoly because the growers aren’t preselected like they were in last year’s failed effort. Plus, there’s no limit on smaller growers.
Ohio lawmakers are considering what to do with medical marijuana, but the Marijuana Policy Project says Ohio legislators have had decades to come up with a plan and the timing is right. The group’s amendment would not allow the government to reduce a patient’s access to medical marijuana, but local governments would be able to ban or limit medical marijuana businesses in their area. If a local government would ban retail stores, voters would have the chance to approve it during the following general election.
The group needs 305,591 signatures by July 6 to qualify for the November ballot.
Via this webpage for the new Ohioans for Medical Marijuana, I found these links and a summary account of what MPP has in mind for Ohioians to vote on roughly seven months from now:
In summary, the 2016 Ohio medical marijuana initiative will:
- Allow patients with debilitating medical conditions to use medical marijuana if their doctors recommend it;
- Protect these seriously ill patients from arrest and prosecution for the simple act of using their doctor-recommended medicine;
- Permit qualifying patients or their caregivers to cultivate their own marijuana for their medical use, with limits on the amount they could possess;
- Permit qualifying patients to purchase medical marijuana from licensed and well-regulated entities;
- Create registry identification cards, so that law enforcement officials can easily tell who is a registered patient;
- Protect patients from discrimination in housing, health care (such as organ transplants), and child custody; and
- Maintain commonsense restrictions on the medical use of marijuana, including prohibitions on public use of marijuana and driving under the influence of marijuana.
Notably and importantly (and perhaps problematically), the MPP has written this initiative as a proposed Ohio constitutional amendment. This reality is notable and important because it means that, if enacted by Ohio voters, the particulars of this MPP plan would not be and could not be readily changed or even tweaked by the Ohio General Assembly directly. This reality is potentially problematic because it means that, before Ohio voters are even going to be able to have a chance to vote on this plan, some Ohio insiders (in the form of the Ohio Ballot Board and/or the Ohio Supreme Court) are going to have to decide that the particulars of this MPP plan do not violate the terms of Issue 2 enacted by Ohio voters last year to limit what kinds of issues can go to voters to amend the Ohio Constitution. It now seems that, thanks in part to Issue 2, Issue 3, and now MPP, throughout 2016 Ohio voters and policymakers are going to be experiencing the old (faux) Chinese curse of living in interesting marijuana reform times.