The Medical Board of Ohio this week approved certificates for physicians to recommend medical marijuana, another step toward the legal sale of medicinal pot in the state.

Of the three dozen doctors approved to issue recommendations for medical marijuana, only two are in the Toledo-area, although more can be certified later. Dr. Ryan Lakin, medical director for Omni Medical Services, is based out of Toledo. Dr. Mark Neumann is based out of Temperance.

Patients can't be prescribed medical marijuana because it's illegal under federal law, so doctors must recommend its use.

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Eighteen businesses have applied for medical marijuana dispensary licenses in Lucas County, with Maumee and Holland joining Toledo as communities where businesses hope to sell medicinal pot, according to the Ohio Board of Pharmacy.

The board received 376 applications for a maximum of 60 possible licenses, though some businesses filed applications for multiple sites. The state has also split Ohio into four regional districts, and northwest Ohio will only receive 10 dispensary licenses, with 39 applications competing for those spots.

The restrictions are even more complex, though, as each region is broken down further into districts. Lucas County, for instance, will only receive two dispensaries, creating heavy competition among the 18 applications in Toledo, Maumee, and Holland. A district made up of Wood, Hancock and Henry counties will only get one. Three firms have applied to open in Wood County, and no companies have applied to open a dispensary in Hancock or Henry counties.

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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....

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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."

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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.

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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.

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[photo] Tiffany Wigginton Carnal with her daughter Lyndi at Children's Hospital.(Photo: Provided)

Tiffany Wigginton Carnal is in the fight of her life to save her daughter.

Lyndi Carnal, 17, has Crohn's Disease, an inflammatory bowel disease that causes inflammation of the lining of the digestive tract, which can lead to abdominal pain, severe diarrhea, fatigue, weight loss and malnutrition. Lyndi was diagnosed when she was 14. Since that time, she and her mother have spent three Christmases, three New Year's Days and countless other days at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

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WASHINGTON - President-elect Donald Trump's pick for attorney general is an outspoken foe of efforts to legalize marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes - and that has some wondering what it means for the 28 states that have legalized marijuana in some form.

Those states include Ohio, which is in the process of working on regulations for its own medical marijuana legalization. Aaron Marshall, a spokesman for Ohioans for Medical Marijuana, said his hope remains with Trump, who has repeatedly said he supports leaving marijuana legalization efforts to the states.

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Findlay City Council made sure to give its two-year moratorium on medical marijuana a final vote Tuesday, but tabled legislation that would continue funding for the Arts Partnership of Greater Hancock County through the city's hotel/motel bed tax.

Council voted 9-1 to enact a ban on dispensing, cultivating or processing medical marijuana within city limits until Sept. 8, 2018. That will be exactly two years from the date the Ohio Legislature legalized the drug. Council plans to revisit the ban once state officials establish rules, which is expected to take at least two years.

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Council Moving for Medical Marijuana Moratorium

With the term medical marijuana buzzing around, Avon Lake City Council's safety committee moved along a moratorium to a collective committee meeting during its meeting Aug. 24.

"A number of communities are doing this to allow for the dust to settle," said Safety Committee Chair David Kos, adding that they want to see how everything will land in place and how it will take effect.

Mayor Greg Zilka agreed with Kos that a lot of communities are taking action to give them some breathing room.

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President Barack Obama has said he considers marijuana no more dangerous than alcohol. More than three years ago, he said he had "bigger fish to fry" than targeting pot smokers in states that permit recreational use.

Federal officials remain in a haze when it comes to articulating a comprehensible policy on marijuana.

Perhaps last week's ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals curtailing the feds from prosecuting legitimate growers and distributors will help clear the air.

Half the nation's states, led by California, permit medicinal applications. Four states and the District of Columbia allow recreational use. In November, California could become the fifth.

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Six-Month Measure Needed to Evaluate Issue, City Officials Say.

MIAMISBURG - Miamisburg is moving to become the latest Miami Valley community to place a temporary ban on medical marijuana.

The city is considering a six-month ban on issuing and processing "any permits allowing retail dispensaries, cultivators, or processors of marijuana" in the city, according to a proposed ordinance.

Last month Beavercreek City Council approved a similar measure while Troy voted in favor of a 180-day moratorium.

Those cities' actions and the measure before Miamisburg City Council tonight follow Gov. John Kasich's signing in June of a bill that allows medical marijuana to be prescribed for certain ailments.

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COLUMBUS (AP) - An Ohio board that oversees attorney conduct said Thursday that attorneys aren't allowed to help someone establish a legal medical marijuana-related business in the state because using, growing and selling marijuana remains a federal crime.

The state Supreme Court's Board of Professional Conduct also said Ohio attorneys aren't legally permitted to use medical marijuana or to be personally involved in related businesses. Attorneys sought the opinion to determine whether a law barring employers from disciplining professionals from working with marijuana businesses applies to lawyers

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Sheffield Village Council will discuss Aug. 15 whether to prohibit the cultivation, processing and retail dispensing of marijuana for medical use in all its zoning districts during its regular meeting.

Mayor John Hunter said the Council also will have another option: a moratorium for up to six months.

Hunter said there is the moratorium for six months option because this will give the Village Council and the planning commission to review all Ohio statutes, criminal codes and the Village's zoning code.

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(AP) - Apparently unconstitutional portions of Ohio's medical marijuana law, which set aside a percentage of the state's pot licenses for minorities, were spotted during legislative debate but left in the bill to gain needed votes, a key lawmaker says.

State Sen. Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican, said legally prickly provisions exposed by The Associated Press in June may require changes. The law takes effect Sept. 8, at which point a new panel will begin laying out a blueprint for how the new industry will work.

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State Still Working on Rules for Medical Pot Dispensaries

LIBERTY TWP. - Liberty Twp. officials plan to ban or place a moratorium on medical marijuana businesses while various state agencies work on rules for the new law that allows the drug.

After a failed attempt at legalizing marijuana both for recreational and medical use, the state legislature and Gov. John Kasich signed into law a measure that will allow it only for medicinal purposes.

State Sen. Bill Coley, R-West Chester Twp., met with trustees Tuesday in a work session to discuss the new legislation. He encouraged them to place a moratorium on the medical drug while they figure out how they want to tackle the issue.

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Ohio Supreme Court Board Asked to Weigh In.

Attorneys are asking whether Ohio's new medical marijuana law that bars employers from disciplining professionals from working with marijuana businesses applies to them.

Lawyers have submitted at least two requests for formal opinions on the matter to the state Supreme Court's Board of Professional Conduct. Only the state's high court can discipline licensed attorneys.

Attorneys want to know whether lawyers can use medical marijuana, own or operate medical marijuana businesses and represent marijuana cultivators, processors, dispensaries, patients and caregivers. The new medical marijuana law bars professional license holders from being disciplined "solely for engaging in professional or occupational activities related to medical marijuana."

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