Updated: 4:58 p.m.Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016 | Posted: 4:45 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016

Ohio to start statewidehearings on medical marijuana

By Laura A. Bischoff

Columbus bureau

COLUMUS — 

Justtwo months after voters soundly rejected a constitutional amendment to legalizemarijuana, two state senators will kick off a statewide “listening tour” laterthis month to find out what Ohioans think of medical marijuana.

StateSens. Kenny Yuko, D-Richmond Heights, and Dave Burke, R-Marysville, plan to holdday-long meetings in Cleveland, Cincinnati,Columbus and Toledo and use what they hear to weighwhether to draft medical marijuana legislation later this year.

COMPLETECOVERAGE OF LAST YEAR’S MARIJUANA VOTE IN OHIO

Bothmen oppose legalizing marijuana for recreational use. Yuko has long advocatedfor legalizing medical marijuana while Burke, a pharmacist, said he remainsskeptical about allowing states to circumvent the federal drug approvalprocess.

Yukoand Burke’s efforts will coincide with an Ohio House-appointed task force onmedical marijuana that is expected to make its report by March 31.

Bothsaid they would listen to all sides of the issue.

“We’regoing to listen to the nurses. We’re going to listen to the doctors. We’regoing to listen to the different organizations, we’re going to listen to thepatients,” Yuko said. “We’re not going to call upon what other elected leadersto tell us what should or shouldn’t be in there. We’re going to listen topeople who are most affected by it, who live by it every single day.”

InNovember, voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to legalizemarijuana for medical and recreational use. Its 65-35 percent failure islargely attributed to the proposed structure that would have granted exclusivemarijuana cultivation rights to the 10 investor groups that were bankrollingthe campaign.

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