COLUMBUS - One day after Ohio announced its choices for larger growing sites that would fuel a fledgling medical marijuana industry, a legal challenge was announced that could throw a wrench into the works. Ironically, such a lawsuit would be filed by some of the chief players behind 2015's failed ResponsibleOhio ballot initiative that would have legalized marijuana for both medical and recreational use. "Whether we end up with a license or we don't end up with a license, that's not what this is about..." said Jimmy Gould, chairman and chief executive of CannAscend Ohio. "I care that this process is broken. I care that there should have been better oversight over this process, and I care where this ends up.... [continues 578 words]
For someone caught up in the heat of the moment at a local dance club or rave scene, taking ecstasy may not seem like a life-changing event. But as studies have shown, this decision may indeed be life-altering. A frequent consequence of taking ecstasy is a trip to the hospital. This is because the short-term effects of ecstasy can produce life-threatening increases in temperature and heart rate, and hallucinations. Stuart Collins is a PhD student in the neurosciences and neurological disorders at the University of Toledo college of medicine. [continues 559 words]
WASHINGTON -- Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine joined 43 other state attorneys general to ask Congress to repeal a law they argue has damaged the Drug Enforcement Agency's ability to crack down on drug manufacturers and distributors that have contributed to the nation's sweeping opioid epidemic. In a letter Tuesday to House and Senate leadership, the attorneys general argue that a bill passed by voice vote in 2016 made it more difficult for the DEA to take action against drug companies that were flooding communities with prescription painkillers. [continues 214 words]
The Ohio Department of Commerce has approved 14 applications for small operations to grow medical marijuana, although only 11 will become operational. The 11 sites on which up to 3,000 square feet can be cultivated, will be in addition to 12 sites on which 24,000 square feet can be cultivated. Successful applications for the large sites will be announced in coming weeks, Department of Commerce spokeswoman Stephanie Gostomski said. Medical marijuana is expected to be available to consumers in about a year. [continues 170 words]
More state spending, legislation and debate on Ohio's drug crisis don't appear to have made a dent as the statewide death toll from accidental drug overdoses soared last year to 4,050, a 33-percent jump over 2015. Fentanyl, the deadly opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin, is increasingly to blame for overdose deaths, with fentanyl and its derivatives accounting for 58.2 percent of the deaths, up from 37.9 percent in 2015. There were 3,050 overdose deaths in 2015. [continues 171 words]
The site of the proposed warehouse is vacant land at Jason Street and Cassandra Drive. A Cleveland-based company that has applied for a state license to grow medical marijuana won approval Thursday from the Toledo Plan Commission to build a 60,000-square-foot cultivation warehouse near Alexis Road and Suder Avenue. Les Hollis, a consultant for Lake Erie Compassion Care, said the proposed facility would employ as many as 60 people, generating a $2.5 million to $3 million annual payroll. [continues 372 words]
Kevin Jones lives at 700 Spencer St. He says he sees pros and cons to using the dilapidated factory across the street to grow marijuana: jobs and crime. In 1910, Toledo businessman William Bunting opened a cavernous brass factory on Spencer Street, just a short distance from the zoo. Eighty years later, arson badly damaged the building. And today, the vacant warehouse is a neighborhood eyesore, its facade pockmarked with broken windows and crumbling bricks. But soon this once-formidable, now-dilapidated industrial edifice could take on an unlikely new identity: a greenhouse for medical marijuana. [continues 1086 words]
WARREN, Ohio (AP) - Authorities say more than 400 pounds (181 kilograms) of marijuana has been found in 15 new cars made in Mexico and shipped to Ohio and Pennsylvania to sell. A drug task force in Ohio's Portage County was called to a Ford dealership this week after a service department employee found a package of pressed marijuana in a spare tire compartment during a vehicle inspection. Investigators then went to a rail yard near Warren and found more packages in the trunks of Ford Fusions pressed into the shape of a spare tire. Additional packages were found at other northeast Ohio dealerships and one in Pennsylvania. A Drug Enforcement Administration agent tells The Vindicator that marijuana was found in April in new cars shipped from Mexico to Minnesota. Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted. [end]
Heroin, cocaine and other illegal drugs remain widely available throughout Ohio, often at bargain prices, a new state report reveals. If that isn't bad enough, the quality of the drugs is "is really good, too good. We've lost 12 friends in the past year (to overdoses)," said one respondent in the just-released Ohio Substance Abuse Monitoring Network Report. The semi-annual statewide report of drug availability trends is done by the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. [continues 409 words]
COLUMBUS - Louis Johnson, managing director of OMNI Medical Services, showed up Monday at a hearing about proposed rules governing physicians under Ohio's newly legal-medical marijuana program in hope the murky waters of "affirmative defense" might be cleared a bit. But he never heard the words mentioned in testimony before the hearing officer, and the words won't be found in the rules written by the Ohio Medical Board. "It's confusing a lot of municipalities and a lot of courtrooms..." Mr. Johnson said afterward. "They're applying the wait-for-the-state-is-ready rules to affirmative defense, and that's not how [the law] is written." [continues 729 words]
A sheriff in an Ohio county with record numbers of overdose deaths in recent years is sticking to his long-standing refusal to allow deputies to carry an overdose-reversal drug. Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones says he remains opposed for safety reasons because people can become hostile and violent after being revived with Narcan. Deputies in neighboring counties in southwest Ohio do carry it. "I don't do Narcan," Jones told The Cincinnati Enquirer. "They never carried it. Nor will they. That's my stance." [continues 184 words]
Deb Sheamer and other friends of Charmaine Bassett protest her arrest and detention outside of the Lucas County Courthouse on June 21. Friends of Charmaine Bassett protest her arrest and detention outside of the Lucas County Courthouse on June 21. Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Michael Goulding on Friday found a Toledo woman charged with selling marijuana and illegal mushrooms for "spiritual purposes" competent to stand trial on felony drug charges. Charmaine Rose Bassett, 56, of the 3400 block of Secor Road entered not guilty pleas to aggravated possession of drugs, aggravated trafficking in drugs, and trafficking in marijuana. She is the founder and "medicine woman" at Anyana-Kai, a member of the Oklevueha Native American Church. [continues 298 words]
An council member in Middletown, Ohio, has asked the city's attorneys to look into whether the city has a legal obligation to provide ambulance service to repeat opiate overdose patients. An council member in Middletown, Ohio, has asked the city's attorneys to look into whether the city has a legal obligation to provide ambulance service to repeat opiate overdose patients. (Brendan Smialowski/Getty-AFP) Americans often complain that Washington debates seem to be far removed from the lives of real people. [continues 712 words]
COLUMBUS - Nearly 200 prospective medical marijuana growers submitted applications to the state for cultivation licenses, but the Department of Commerce won't say yet where those applicants want to operate. The department announced Wednesday that 185 applications were received by the state last month for two types of licenses: level II cultivators for grow operations with cultivation areas of 3,000 square feet or less, and level I cultivators, which can have up to 25,000 square feet. The state will issue 12 of each licenses. [continues 203 words]
Anesthesiologist Dr. William James is the founder of the NorthWest Ohio Ketamine Clinic in Toledo, which offers the drug as an infusion to rapidly treat depression. Anesthesiologist Dr. William James is the founder of the NorthWest Ohio Ketamine Clinic in Toledo, which offers the drug as an infusion to rapidly treat depression. After three years of ever-present suicidal thoughts and two decades of unrelenting, treatment-resistant depression, Rosemarie Barciz was desperate. The 61-year-old Maumee woman researched every new medication that came onto the market or excited researchers. [continues 803 words]
Criminal charges filed against petition circulators accused of falsifying signatures on petitions for the marijuana-legalization ballot issue in 2015 show that people must be careful, Delaware County Prosecutor Carol O'Brien said. "It serves as a cautionary note that people circulating petitions need to be very careful and follow the law when they are gathering signatures," O'Brien said. "People need to be careful to only sign their own names." O'Brien commented Friday as four cases continued to move through Delaware County Common Pleas Court. [continues 176 words]
Members of a West Toledo church that describes itself as "an alternative medicine and naturopathic healing center" demonstrated outside the Lucas County Courthouse today in support of the woman they call their head medicine woman. Charmaine Rose Bassett, 56, is held in the Lucas County jail on felony charges of aggravated possession of drugs, aggravated trafficking in drugs, and trafficking in marijuana. Bassett, who founded Anyana-Kai at 3344 Secor Rd., was indicted by a Lucas County grand jury after Toledo police raided the church and seized marijuana and illegal mushrooms. The indictment alleges she sold the marijuana and mushrooms to members who paid a fee to join the church. [continues 188 words]
The man was still, mouth open, head back in a white Crown Victoria stalled in the middle of a neighborhood street. A paramedic pushed a flexible tube in the man's vein to pump in lifesaving naloxone to block the effects of whatever opioid he had taken and, if all worked well, revive him. Routine work. A little girl stopped her bicycle, clutching a melting red ice pop as she watched. "This is just normal for her," said David Geiger, director of Covington Emergency Medical Services, nodding toward the child. [continues 1477 words]
A string of northwest Ohio communities are considering or have passed resolutions in support of medical marijuana operations while other elected officials are rescinding past votes that prohibited such businesses. Samples of marijuana are tested in an oven in Denver. At least four village, township, and city councils voted Monday regarding medical marijuana cultivation in their communities, as the state licensing process for such grow sites moves forward. The state began accepting applications for level II cultivators June 5, with a deadline of Thursday for 12 licenses for grow operations with an initial cultivation area of 3,000 square feet or less. Larger operations, called level I cultivators, can have up to 25,000 square feet, and the state also will issue 12 of those licenses. Applications for those larger operations begin June 19 and end June 30. [continues 361 words]
Re "As Heroin Infests Farms, a Grieving Parent Fears for the Future" (front page, March 13): The view of Roger D. Winemiller, who lost two children to drug overdoses, that the solution to the drug epidemic is tougher penalties, while understandable, is misguided. As a former prosecutor, including time as a narcotics prosecutor, I can only conclude that the war on drugs is unwinnable. What good did tough narcotics laws do the Winemiller children? Would the results be better if sometimes draconian laws were made even more draconian? [continues 127 words]