CLEVELAND (AP) – Ohioans wanting medical marijuana have been crossing the border into Michigan, where some Detroit-area dispensaries will sell to out-of-staters who are issued recommendations for cannabis use months ahead of the drug becoming available in their home state, according to officials from a company providing the recommendations.
Those recommendations, given by doctors working for a Toledo business or any other Ohio physician, won’t necessarily help someone in court if they are busted for having pot into Ohio. Possession of less than 100 grams (about 3.5 ounces) is a minor misdemeanor in Ohio with a maximum $150 fine, but could lead to someone losing their driving privileges for six months.
While it’s a violation of federal law to cross state lines with marijuana, legally obtained or not, the likelihood of someone being prosecuted federally for carrying smaller amounts of marijuana is negligible.
Even so, there needs to be clearer guidance on the early medical-pot recommendations, said Chris Lindsey, an attorney for the national advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project.
“They didn’t revisit the language to ensure patients were protected,” Lindsey said.
Ohio’s medical law was approved last year and requires that dispensaries must open by September 2018. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office says marijuana possession, medical or otherwise, remains illegal while state agencies write the rules and regulations on how cannabis can be grown and sold.
The doctors working for Toledo’s Omni Medical Services are relying on an ambiguous provision in the new law that says doctors can give people “affirmative defense” letters to use in court if cited or arrested for possession ahead of dispensaries opening.
The apparent loophole says that there must be a doctor-patient relationship and that a person must have one of the Ohio law’s 21 qualifying conditions for medical marijuana use, which include cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy.
Louis Johnson, Omni’s managing director, said he conferred with attorneys and the Ohio Medical Board before the company’s two physicians began making recommendations.
“We know what we’re doing is legal,” Johnson said. “We’re out in the open. We’re not hiding in the dark.”
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