What Ohio Medical Marijuana Patients and Ohio CTR Doctors need to know about the Program.
The Medical Marijuana Control Program Advisory Committee Meeting took place in Columbus on April 11, 2019.
The committee hearing began with a statewide update of our seed to sale licensees:
Cultivators - Out of the 29 Provisional licenses granted in Ohio, 17 received their Certificates of Operation and 10 have actually planted seed. Only ten have harvested their crops. They are selling their lab tested, packaged and labeled plant material (called bud or dried flower) to dispensaries. Six to ten more cultivators are expected to plant in the next few weeks.
Testing Labs - Three out of five are opened for business. The State is looking for more lab applications as our MMJ program grows. We will need additional testing facilities for proper turnaround times and to prevent product gridlock.
Dispensaries - Thirteen of Ohio’s 56 provisionally licensed are currently in operation. Most are concentrated in the northern part of the state. Columbus has one dispensary that recently opened. Dayton and Cincinnati have none opened yet. I’ve heard it could be the end of April-June before southwest Ohio sees any of its local dispensaries in business.
The delays are due to inspections, local ordinances and physical issues. This committee is meeting once or twice a week and is even extending critical deadlines to help Ohio’s medical marijuana businesses roll out as soon as possible. Their goal is to issue more Certificates of Operation. However, they are tasked with following the new laws to the letter, in every aspect from seed to sale. Unfortunately, this makes it difficult for Ohio’s patients. They are still facing problems with geographical access, limited products and high costs.
Patients - Each patient is allowed to purchase a daily dose of 2.82 gram (1/10 of an oz) in up to 90-day increments. The average cost of a portion of dried flower is $47. Dispensaries take cash only and there is presently no health insurance covering it. Nasal spray forms of MMJ were recently rejected but tincture just became available. Edibles, oils and capsules are next. Topical lotions, transdermal patches and oils/concentrates for vaporization will follow as more processors open across the state.
At present, Ohio has 28,275 patients. Most are older. Slightly less than half are between 50-70 years of age. And 2/3 are over 40. It is no surprise to find that pain is still the most prevalent qualifying condition (18,248) in our State. Followed by 4371 patients with PTSD, 3295 with fibromyalgia, 1861 with cancer, 1587 with spinal cord disease or injury, 955 with epilepsy or seizure disorder, 683 with multiple sclerosis, 637 with Crohn’s disease, 571 with hepatitis C, 570 with traumatic brain injury, 469 with glaucoma, 378 with IBS, 336 with ulcerative colitis, 267 with Parkinson’s, 187 with HIV, 119 with Tourette’s syndrome, 55 with CTE, 40 with AIDS, 38 with sickle cell anemia, and 32 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Many of Ohio’s patients, unfortunately, suffer from more than one qualifying condition.
CTR Doctors - To help them, there are 469 CTR physicians in Ohio. However, this is less than one percent of our 50,000 doctors! Thankfully, another 22 were certified yesterday. Records in other MMJ states show that once local dispensaries open and products become available, more doctors will become registered. The OMMCP just added an interactive search map for CTR physicians on its website.
The State is engaging in discussions with dispensaries on how to better educate patients on strains, forms, doses, storage, effects and safety. (HEY, I’M DOING THIS ALREADY!). They need to carefully navigate the fine line between patient education and numerous advertising restrictions…. (HEY, I HAVE NONE!) This is a good time to checkout my website: www.medicalmarijuanapatientcare.com. I also plan to have a patient/caregiver/physician education booth at the Cincinnati Marijuana Expo on June 8 at the Sharonville Convention Center. Tell people about it. More local public education is crucial.
OMMCP - The State has begun capturing, tracking and aggregating data on its OARRS and Patient Registry data bases by each patient and sale (every product package has an individual label and unique ID number) for future use by physicians, researchers and state officials. Surveys will also be developed and distributed to patients and their physicians to access OMMCP’s effectiveness. 2020 is the goal for this report.
Of further importance is Ohio’s consideration of 5 petitions to add new qualifying illnesses to its current 21. The Advisory Committee has nationwide experts looking into each of these additional five conditions. A decision will be made by July 2019. Autism, Opioid Addiction, Depression, Insomnia and Anxiety is under consideration. The list was formerly six conditions because acute and chronic anxiety were originally listed separately but are now combined. Apparently, our state experts didn’t realize these illnesses were part of the same spectrum. Shoot, they coulda just asked me (eyeroll/headshake)! LOL