Ohio City Bans Medical Marijuana

A city in Ohio, Hamilton City, voted 5-1 during 2015 in order to effectively stop the city’s sale of medical cannabis. Cincinnati attorney Mike Allen states that this might be a legal problem since it will soon be legal in Ohio to prescribe medical cannabis in limited forms. The measure approved by Ohio’s governor, John Kasich, will make it so that cannabis cannot be smoked or grown at home, but instead can be taken in through different ways such as vaporizers and edibles.

At the start of 2015, the city of Hamilton discussed the cannabis ban. It was primarily a fight against an effort by the people of Ohio to legalize cannabis in the state. The initiative did not pass during the ballot in 2015. However, the law is still in the books. According to Allen, a municipal ordinance cannot conflict with state law, unless the municipality is a home rule city. It turns out that Hamilton is a home rule city, and because of that, “it gets a little bit dicier. It will end up being a court battle.”

“I think it’s problematic,” he stated. “I think the city of Hamilton will be hard pressed to justify banning the sale of all medical marijuana on a zoning basis.”

The mayor of Hamilton, Pat Moeller, stated that the problem has not been talked about by council because the bill was signed by Kasich very recently, but will not be enforced until September 6th. Moeller, an attorney, said he has not fully read the new law.

“We’re still learning about the regulations,” Moeller stated. “We’ll have to take a look at it and go from there.”

Allen added that “It will take some time for Ohio to become used to the new law. It’s going to be like anything else when there’s a new statute.”