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Medical Marijuana is Not Yet Available, but Some Doctors Are Already Recommending It

Photo of marijuana leaves
JO INGLES
/
OHIO PUBLIC RADIO
Doctors may be recommending it, but medical marijuana is not yet available in Ohio.

None of the 56 medical marijuana dispensaries planned for under the state’s new Medical Marijuana Program are operating yet. But that’s not stopping some doctors from writing recommendations for patients who can ultimately use the drug when it does become available. 

There are nearly 300 doctors who have been certified by the state to recommend medical marijuana for patients with 21 specific conditions. Connor Shore represents a group of eight doctors throughout the state who are already doing that.

“We are seeing patients, getting them ready so they are ready to enter the dispensaries as soon as they open in the coming months.”

The state’s medical marijuana program was supposed to be fully operational earlier this month but there was a long list of problems that kept that from happening. And there’s no timetable, at this point, for when dispensaries will open.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.