Ohio University is not allowing students with medical marijuana cards to possess or use cannabis on school property, Jim Sabin, OU communications specialist, confirmed in an email last week.
“Marijuana of all forms remains illegal on the federal level, and Ohio University is obligated to comply with the federal Drug Free Schools and Communities Act,” he said.
This means that OU will not be changing any of its conduct policies regardless of the state’s implementation of the “Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program.”
“All forms of marijuana, cannabis products, and paraphernalia are not permitted to be on campus at any time for any reason,” Sabin said.
However, this does not mean students with doctor’s recommendations will have to disclose that information to the school, he said.
“Possession of a marijuana card alone would not constitute a violation of university policy,” Sabin added.
New state law allows for patients with one of a list of eligible ailments to qualify for a card with a certified physician’s recommendation. According to medicalmarijuana.ohio.gov, upon examination and recommendation, the patient will be added to a statewide registry if approved. More than 20 medical conditions qualify, and doctors can recommend up to a 90-day supply of marijuana with the option for three refills – meaning a one-year supply.
Many dispensaries throughout the state are still waiting to open, including one on West Union Street in Athens. According to reporting from a previous article in The NEWS, only 13 of the 59 dispensaries approved by the Ohio Board of Pharmacy had opened as of that writing in late April.
The closest dispensary to Athens is Buckeye Botanicals LLC in Jackson, about 35-40 minutes from Athens to the southwest, and the second nearest is Terrasana Cannabis Co. in the Grandview Heights area of Columbus, about an hour and 20 minutes away from Athens.
Harvest Inc. is the dispensary waiting for approval in Athens. The opening date has still not been released.
Post a comment as
Report
Watch this discussion.
(4) comments
The real problem here is the federal law against pot. People need to stay aware of the fact that you can lose your job, lose medical treatment and face many many other problems due to pot still being a schedule one drug.
Go after the real problem, not OU.
OU thinks that they are avoiding liability by not allowing cannabis for medical patients on campus, but they may be doing the opposite. That is a state law. OU is a state school. As soon as a student is denied, has a seizure because of it, then falls and takes an injury, there is going to be substantial traction for a lawsuit to take off.
Ohio University is still holding strong as a bastion of outdated, oppressive drug war policy despite the legally-encoded wishes of the communities they serve at both the state and local level. The State of Ohio made marijuana medically legal, and the City of Athens decriminalized marijuana possession, and yet Ohio University still does not respect the citizens it serves when it comes to their choice of legal herbal medicine. Government is like any other purchase: sooner or later, the taxpayers (who are also the voters) will get sick of paying for what they don't want and find a different system. Let's hope the transition is easy and quick!
OU won't allow students to have medical pot on campus but HC will have a pot research center on its campus. Hmmmmm. In as much as OU hasn't been able to keep recreational pot off campus, just what makes it think it can stop med pot? What other Trumpian cherry picking will OU get in to?
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Please write and submit your comment, and after a short delay it should post to the comment section of the chosen article, as long as it abides by the standard rules below. (On occasion, the delay will be longer but we will get to it as soon as we can. Thanks for your patience.)
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.