Latest News

Amol Soin, M.D., President of the State Medical Board of Ohio and member of the Medical Marijuana Advisory Committee, sees medical marijuana assisting the fight against Ohio’s opioid crisis

On March 30, 2017, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Governor John Kasich stated he didn’t think Ohio’s medical marijuana program would help mitigate Ohio’s opioid crisis. At the time, Dr. Soin, a Kasich appointee, stated there was not enough data to know whether medical marijuana would reduce opioid abuse.  However, based upon his recent comments, Dr. Soin appears to have changed his mind.

On June 8, 2017, Dr. Soin told Hannah News that the addition of medical marijuana as an option for treating chronic pain could reduce the number of opioid deaths in Ohio. Dr. Soin stated that there is a “huge opportunity” to wean or stop opioids on medical marijuana patients.  He acknowledged having patients in his practice that would benefit from medical marijuana as a means to get them off of addicting pain killers.

Dr. Soin’s current position differs from the position he took on March 30. Apparently he looked at the research from the American Medical Association, published in 2014.  States with medical marijuana laws had a 24.8% lower mean annual opioid overdose mortality rate compared with states without medical cannabis laws. Examination of the association between medical cannabis laws and opioid analgesic overdose mortality in each year after implementation of the law showed that such laws were associated with a lower rate of overdose mortality that generally strengthened over time.  The entire study can be found at http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1898878.

Along those lines, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s website indicates there has never been an overdose of marijuana reported.  The drug fact sheet for marijuana can be found at https://www.dea.gov/druginfo/drug_data_sheets/Marijuana.pdf.

If you have any questions about medical marijuana in Ohio, including the application and licensing process, or if you have questions about regulating office-based opioid treatment, you should contact an attorney at Graff & McGovern.  John Izzo of Graff & McGovern can be reached at 614-228-5800, extension 5.