By Alan Johnson, The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS – A federal agency and a state advisory panel threw up separate challenges Thursday to entrepreneurs hoping to take advantage of Ohio’s medical marijuana law.
They can’t use a lawyer.
And they’re dealing with a drug the federal government refuses to remove from a group that includes the most dangerous narcotics.
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The Board of Professional Conduct, a panel appointed by the Supreme Court of Ohio to interpret court rules, said in an advisory opinion Thursday that a lawyer providing service to a medical marijuana business could run afoul of federal law, under which marijuana remains illegal. That would make her or him vulnerable to an ethical violation, which could result in disciplinary action, and potentially loss of their license to practice law.
The Ohio Legislature passed a bill in May that allows people with a doctor’s prescription to inhale marijuana vapor to treat some chronic illnesses. Gov. John Kasich signed the bill into law, but it’s expected to take months before medical marijuana is available to patients.
Attorneys sought the opinion to determine whether a law barring employers from disciplining professionals from working with marijuana businesses applies to lawyers.
At the same time, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration declined to reclassify marijuana as a legal drug, a change sought by the governors of Rhode Island and Washington. While opening the door for more research, the federal agency said marijuana would not be reclassified “because it does not meet the criteria for currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, there is a lack of accepted safety for its use under medical supervision, and it has a high potential for abuse.”
State Sen. Dave Burke, R-Marysville, a pharmacist and architect of the Ohio law, said the twin actions may have a “chilling effect” but are unlikely to derail the medical marijuana program in Ohio.