Faber: Medical marijuana requires caution

COLUMBUS - Ohio Senate President Keith Faber, R-Celina, said any proposed medical marijuana bill must be backed by research and detail how the drug would be administered.

Faber was among several state leaders who spoke about medical marijuana during a forum on Thursday organized by The Associated Press.

He also disclosed that he has never smoked pot.

"My dad was law enforcement. I never wanted to disappoint him," Faber said.

State lawmakers have been examining how to address medical marijuana since Ohio voters in November overwhelmingly rejected a ballot initiative to legalize pot for medical and recreational use.

"I believe there is support in the General Assembly to do some form of medical marijuana legislation, but we're going to see what that means," Faber said. "And I think that's the key for me: What does it mean?"

Legalizing medicinal marijuana is a very different proposition from allowing recreational pot, Faber said.

Smoking is probably not the best delivery method for medicinal purposes, he added.

"And so anything that we would consider passing probably needs to be in a format that is both medically supported by research and also in a controlled environment," he said.

Faber warned about potential legislative loopholes favored by the marijuana industry that would enable "doctor-shopping prescription ... for just about anything you can think of, from a hangnail to chronic dandruff."

The House, Faber said, had considered a bill supported by many legislators that would have given epileptic patients access to medical marijuana.

"But here's the problem: 'What's the concentration? What's the delivery method? What's the consistency in the delivery method?' " he asked. "Are you really getting what you think you're getting?' "

Public hearings and "developing a legislative, deliberate process" will help facilitate that discussion, Faber said.

The nation already faces abuse problems involving prescription and illicit drugs. Legislators must not compound the issue, Faber said.

Faber's counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni, D-Boardman, said enough studies have been conducted.

Doctors have testified that they would rather prescribe medicinal marijuana than "a combination of 10 or 12 opiates" to certain patients, he said.

"If we can improve quality of life for Ohioans and we can do it safely, then we need to do it," he said.

State legislators, Schiavoni argued, must address the issue before another ballot initiative arises.

"If we don't, we may end up with the same situation that we did with casinos," he said. "When the legislators don't act, then you get the initiatives moving and that's exactly what will happen again."

Secretary of State Jon Husted earlier in the morning said that's just what's happening.

"We have five pending ballot initiatives right now that have come before the ballot board, which I chair," Husted told reporters. "It will be back, in some form or the other."

Husted said he personally opposes any ballot initiative "that leverages the popularity of medical marijuana to somehow ... (allow) for the use of recreational marijuana."

Attorney General Mike De-Wine said he believed future action was up to the legislature and noted ongoing national clinical trials studying medical marijuana should be completed in the next six to seven months.

House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, spoke of a task force he's assembled that will help determine the right direction on medical marijuana.

He doesn't support medical marijuana because he hasn't seen the full facts suggesting it's a good thing, he said.

House Minority Leader Fred Strahorn, D-Dayton, said the time has come to get past the illicit drug narrative of marijuana to determine if it serves a medical purpose.

"Many of the drugs that are used (pharmaceutically) are derived from some type of natural plant, so the notion that marijuana would possess some medical purposes really isn't all that far-fetched," he said.

In addition to Faber's acknowledgment at Thursday's forum that he's never smoked pot, other leaders, too, revealed that they've never used the drug, including Rosenberger, DeWine, state treasurer Josh Mandel and state Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper.

"I'm afraid it's going to lose me a lot of votes, but (no)," Pepper told a reporter, suggesting that such an admission may be perceived negatively among people of his generation.

Those who admitted to smoking pot in their past included Schiavoni, Strahorn, Husted, state auditor David Yost, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor and state Republican Party Chairman Matthew Borges.

"How could you look at a guy with a beard like this and think he'd never tried marijuana?" Borges quipped.

- The Associated Press contributed to this story.