{"id":7802,"date":"2017-10-20T22:06:50","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T22:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com?p=2829333&amp;preview_id=2829333"},"modified":"2017-10-20T22:06:50","modified_gmt":"2017-10-20T22:06:50","slug":"why-ohio-growers-may-have-to-break-the-law-to-start-medical-marijuana-crops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/why-ohio-growers-may-have-to-break-the-law-to-start-medical-marijuana-crops\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Ohio growers may have to break the law to start medical marijuana crops"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/why-ohio-growers-may-have-to-break-the-law-to-start-medical-marijuana-crops\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"large-10 large-centered small-12 columns\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta-date\">Published: Oct 20, 2017, 8:54 am \u2022 Updated: Oct 20, 2017, 11:28 am<span class=\"single-comments-link\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"byline\">By <strong>Josh Sweigart<\/strong>, <em> Dayton Daily News<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When Ohio officials award licenses next month allowing two dozen companies to cultivate medical marijuana, the growers will have almost a year <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/08\/11\/ohio-medical-marijuana-growing-timeline\/85846\/\">to build facilities and produce their first crop<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But where will they get the seeds?<\/p>\n<p>It will still be illegal to purchase marijuana plants from anyone but themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the applicants have cannabis-growing operations in other states, but it\u2019s still illegal under federal law to bring marijuana across state lines.<\/p>\n<p>The Ohio Department of Commerce, which regulates medical marijuana growers, doesn\u2019t have an answer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is a matter to be determined by the cultivator. The state does not have this information,\u201d said commerce spokeswoman Kerry Francis in a July interview.<\/p>\n<p>This media outlet has called several applicants. So far, none have been willing to say how or where they\u2019ll get seeds for their virgin crop.<\/p>\n<p>Alan Brochstein, an industry expert who founded the financial site New Cannabis Ventures, said it\u2019s a phenomenon referred to in the industry as \u201cimmaculate conception.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe states typically will look the other way and let the starting material arrive,\u201d he said, venturing a guess that they come from a mixture of the black market within the state and from other states, \u201ceither one of which would be a (legal) problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>April Hutcheson, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, which is rolling out that state\u2019s medical marijuana program, said the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/10\/11\/jeff-sessions-medical-marijuana-rohrabacher-farr\/89756\/\">federal pot ban was not enforced during the Obama administration for actions done within state laws<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And, she said, \u201cWe haven\u2019t received any notice from the federal government they\u2019re changing their policy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2014\/02\/14\/cole-memo-federal-law-enforcement-guidelines-on-marijuana-enforcement\/4733\/\">a 2014 memo that outlined the U.S. Department of Justice\u2019s enforcement priorities<\/a> listed among its continued goals: \u201cPreventing the diversion of marijuana from states where it is legal under state law in some form to other states.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Current U.S. Attorney General <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/09\/20\/sessions-marijuana-legalization-opposition\/88440\/\">Jeff Sessions also is a staunch opponent of legalizing marijuana<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/06\/13\/jeff-sessions-medical-marijuana-prosecution\/81410\/\">has sought increased power to enforce the federal ban<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Justice Department did not respond to calls and emails seeking comment on the department\u2019s position on Ohio\u2019s medical marijuana program.<\/p>\n<p>Officials with the Ohio Attorney General\u2019s Office said they have not been involved in discussions on how or whether to deal with companies bringing in a starter crop.<\/p>\n<p>In Minnesota, a county prosecutor earlier this year <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/03\/24\/minnesota-marijuana-oil-illegal-shipping-new-york-federal-law\/76099\/\">charged former executives of a medical cannabis company with illegally transporting<\/a> $500,000 of marijuana-based oil across state lines.<\/p>\n<p>According to the charges, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/02\/07\/shipping-marijuana-across-state-lines-minnesota-new-york\/73224\/\">former chief medical officer and security officer of Vireo Health drove the company\u2019s armored vehicle from its legal facility in Minnesota to its legal facility in New York<\/a>. The shipment allegedly arrived in the month before the January 2016 New York state deadline for launching its medical marijuana program.<\/p>\n<p><em>Information from <a href=\"http:\/\/daytondailynews.com\">Dayton Daily News<\/a> (Dayton, Ohio) <\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .row --> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>Ohio will be authorizing 24 companies to grow medical marijuana soon, but how can they legally import the seeds to begin sowing their crops? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[371,6964,6813,77,5667,56,9,6833,5019,87,5469,1,3,7329,61,1736],"tags":[2949,6967,6818,2655,5673,2636,6835,5022,2665,5475,7330],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7802"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}