Proposed limits on how much medical marijuana Ohio patients could buy and possess would be among the strictest the country.
Patients could buy and possess up to 6 ounces of plant material or marijuana products containing the equivalent amount of THC in a 90-day period. That puts Ohio on par with New Jersey and Washington D.C. as the most restrictive states among 13 regulators compared Ohio with.
Ohio’s medical marijuana law allows patients with 20 medical conditions to buy and use marijuana if recommended by a doctor. Smoking the plant is not allowed, but dispensaries can sell plant material and oils for vaping, tinctures, patches and marijuana-infused oils and foods.
The law limits patients to buying and possessing at most a “90-day supply,” but doesn’t define how much that is. On Thursday, the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy released draft rules detailing the allowable amounts.
Most states limit the amount of “usable marijuana” someone can buy, whether that’s plant material or marijuana-infused cookies. Ohio regulators are proposing limiting supply by product’s amount of THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana that generates a high.
Of the 28 medical marijuana states, Ohio would be the first to calculate limits this way.
“I think this is the right approach because we’re in the middle of the pack of states that have adopted this,” Steven Schierholt, executive director of the State Board of Pharmacy, told the Ohio Medical Marijuana Advisory Committee on Thursday. “We’ve benefited form what other states have done and have the benefit of their successes and failures.
Pharmacy board officials said the amounts were determined after looking at other state policies, clinical research and data about adverse effects.
Chris Lindsey, senior legislative counsel for pro-marijuana group Marijuana Policy Project, said the initial recommendations were not overly restrictive. He said dosage and supply are tricky limits for the state to set because doctors can’t prescribe how much patients should consume.
Patients could mix and match products but each amount added together could not exceed a total 90-day supply. So if a patient bought 70 days worth of plant material, he or she could not buy more than 30 days worth of vaping oils or edibles.
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