Medical marijuana becomes legal in Ohio on Thursday. But it could still be years before pot legally gets into the hands of patients.
That's because there is no system in place yet to grow, distribute, or regulate pot in our state.
Twenty-six-year-old Dane Griffith lives with the daily burden of chronic pain.
"I feel like the ‘Tin Man.’ I constantly need oil to do anything," he said.
And in his case, that ‘oil’ comes in the form of medication- lots of it.
Among other conditions, he says he suffers from psoriatic arthritis, which sends periodic flares of pain through his body.
"My normal day to day pain is like a three to four on a good day. Four, fix, six on a bad day, but on a flare, it's nine and a half," he said.
He says pain pills help, but bring side effects, and the threat of dependency but nothing brings the relief that marijuana does.
"My muscles feel more loose, my nerve pain is nowhere near as intense,” Griffith said.
He's looking forward to the day he can get that relief legally in Ohio. On paper, that day is Thursday, September 8. But in reality, that just starts what could be a lengthy process.
State Representative Stephen Huffman says Thursday starts a 30-day clock for state leaders to appoint a 13-member Marijuana Control Commission.
That commission will have 240 days to set the rules for the cultivation, distribution, and regulation of medical marijuana in Ohio.
"What is the best way to grow it?” Huffman said listing the questions the commission will tackle. “Is it in a warehouse? In a greenhouse? Is it outdoors? But also to me, more importantly, how high is the fence? How many security cameras do you have? What is the vetting process for your employees to make sure they're not selling?"
Rep. Huffman and others say marijuana legally in the hands of patients could still be one to two years away. He says the law allows the commission to expedite that by allowing patients to bring in pot from other states where it's legal.
"That is why that was put in there, to have a quicker avenue for patients with seizure disorders and things that, anxious to start it and do not want to wait the year to two years to get the whole
industry in Ohio," he said.
But medicinal pot advocates say it won't be that simple.
"The fact of the matter is a lot of the states that have medical marijuana laws on the books, you have to be a resident of that state,” Aaron Marshall of Ohioans for Medical Marijuana said. “That's the case in Michigan, for example. So it's not as simple as ‘We here in Ohio want something.’ We're going to have to work with other states to put something together."
For Griffith, the pace of progress is slow, and literally painful.
"I live with pain every day. It's not a question of if I'm going to be in pain. It's a question of how much,” he said.