Ohio Accepting Petitions for New Cannabis Qualifying Conditions

The Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program (OMMCP) is accepting petitions for new qualifying conditions. Petitions will be accepted by the State Medical Board of Ohio until December 31, 2020; petitions will not be accepted, however, if it “seeks to add a broad category of disease or conditions,” or if the condition has already been rejected by the Board, though petitioners can still submit new research related to conditions the board has previously rejected, according to the OMMCP website.

The annual petition process is required under Ohio’s medical cannabis law.

This year, the Board added cachexia or wasting syndrome — a condition related to various other chronic health conditions like cancer, HIV, or AIDS — to the list of medical conditions that will qualify a patient for medical cannabis in Ohio, but rejected applications to add autism and anxiety to the list. According to the requirements for a 2020 petition submission, anxiety and autism could not be considered again unless new research is submitted to the Board.

Ohio’s medical cannabis system, which was approved in 2016, uses a unique method of tracking and delivering cannabis medicine to patients. With an approach more akin to pharmacies, Ohio patients can purchase medical cannabis in the form of “day units.” One day unit of flower is 1/10th of an ounce, while a day unit of a topical cannabis product is 195 milligrams of THC. Edibles and other oral administrations come in 110-milligram units and vaporization products can have 590 milligrams of THC. Patients and caregivers can only purchase a 90-day supply of medical cannabis in a 99-day window