What medical conditions qualify for Ohio’s medical marijuana program?

As a result of House Bill 523, effective on September 8, 2016, medical marijuana is legal in Ohio.

Ohio police departments are learning how to interpret the law and medical marijuana in the new year. Many are turning to experts from Colorado for direction on arrests, cases and how to handle the drug in the field.

Certified physicians may recommend medical marijuana only for the treatment of a qualifying medical condition. Under Ohio law, all of the following are qualifying medical conditions:

• AIDS,
• amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,
• Alzheimer’s disease,
• cancer,
• chronic traumatic encephalopathy,
• Crohn’s disease,
• epilepsy or another seizure disorder,
• fibromyalgia,
• glaucoma,
• hepatitis C,
• inflammatory bowel disease,
• multiple sclerosis,
• pain that is either chronic and severe or intractable,
• Parkinson’s disease,
• positive status for HIV,
• post-traumatic stress disorder,
• sickle cell anemia,
• spinal cord disease or injury,
• Tourette’s syndrome,
• traumatic brain injury,
• and ulcerative colitis.

Patients will be allowed to buy marijuana in plant form, but they have to promise not to smoke it when they get home.

The law also does not allow users to grow their own plants. Instead, the state will issue two dozen licenses for strictly regulated growing facilities across the state.

Source: https://medicalmarijuana.ohio.gov/patients-caregivers