Growers, processors and sellers of Ohio’s medical marijuana sounded the alarm Tuesday about lawmakers’ approach to keeping the drug’s industry afloat, NBC News reported. Amid a medical marijuana program that’s hindered by a surplus of product and a dwindling patient population, Sens. Stephen Huffman (R-Tipp City) and Kirk Schuring (R-Canton) revived in January a proposal to reverse the six-year-old program’s troubling tide. But critics – including one of the first Ohioans to earn a medical marijuana license – said it could destroy the already oversaturated market. “It’s about economics 101. It’s supply and demand,” said Matt Close, executive director of the Ohio Medical Cannabis Industry Association. “And this is simply a massive marijuana expansion bill.” Senate Bill 9 would expand who’s eligible for a medical marijuana recommendation, increase the number of dispensaries and give cultivators more square footage to grow the plant. It would create the Division of Marijuana Control (DMC), a new state agency under the Department of Commerce, to lead the program – transferring current authority from three state agencies, including the State Board of Pharmacy. Huffman, who is also a doctor, helped spearhead the state’s medical marijuana infrastructure when voters legalized the drug in 2016. “In 2016, we didn’t know what we didn’t know,” Huffman said. “We made this bill (with) a lot of safeguards, and a lot of those safeguards [are] costing the business, the industry money.”
