Ohio College Applies to Test Medical Marijuana Quality

(Fall 2017) Hocking College, in southeastern Ohio, recently stepped forward to be a screener for medical marijuana as a quality-control measure. The technical college intends to develop a training program around the testing process.

Quality control is a requirement for Ohio’s new medical marijuana law (HB 523), slated to make marijuana available for qualified patients beginning in September 2018. The state’s new legislation will allow marijuana for the treatment of 21 different medical issues — including cancer, HIV and AIDS — and requires that the initial quality control sites be run by public colleges or universities in Ohio at least for the first year.

Higher-learning establishments, including The Ohio State University, have shied away from volunteering for this task. Because the drug is not legal at the federal level, such testing would threaten the flow of crucial federal funding schools use for both research and student financial aid. Legislators expected federal laws regarding research on Schedule I drugs (currently including marijuana) at higher-education facilities to become less stringent.  However, the less-rigorous laws were never enacted, due now in part to a more stringent approach to marijuana by the Trump administration.

Currently, over half of the states as well as Washington, D.C., permit medical marijuana usage in some capacity.

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