How To Get A Medical Marijuana Card in Ohio

How to get your medical marijuana card in Ohio
On September 8th , 2018, the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program (OMMCP) was required to be fully working as ordered by Ohio House Bill 523. This bill also means that patients are now able to purchase medical marijuana legally, given they have followed all the necessary steps.

Qualifying Medical Conditions
As of now, the recognized qualifying conditions are: AIDS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy or another seizure disorder, fibromyalgia, glaucoma, hepatitis C, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, pain that is either chronic and severe or intractable, Parkinson’s disease, positive status for HIV, post-traumatic stress disorder, sickle cell anemia, spinal cord disease or injury, Tourette’s syndrome, traumatic brain injury, and ulcerative colitis.
However, new qualifying conditions may be added via electronic submission through the OMMCP website. As outlined by Rule 4731-32-05 of the Ohio Administrative Code, In order for the petition to be eligible for submission, it must include: name and contact information, the specific disease or condition that is being requested to be added, information from experts who specialize in the study of the disease or condition, relevant medical or scientific evidence, consideration of whether conventional medical therapies are insufficient to treat or alleviate the disease or condition, evidence supporting the use of medical marijuana to treat or alleviate the disease or condition (e.g. journal articles, peer- reviewed studies etc.), and letters of support provided by physicians with knowledge of the disease or condition.

How to get your medical marijuana card in Ohio
As a Patient Over 18 If the patient is over 18 years of age and suffers from one of the above stated qualifying conditions, then the process is straightforward, but there are several conditions that must be met before being able to purchase medical marijuana. First, the patient must see a physician with an active Certificate to Recommend (CTR). To find a physician with an active CTR, a roster of current licenses can be found here, or contact DocMJ to find an Ohio Medical Marijuana doctor near you. When visiting the physician, the patient must bring a valid Ohio driver’s license, an ID card given by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, or a valid US passport. The physician will also require an active email address from the patient. The physician can then recommend up to a 90-day supply with three refills of medical marijuana, which totals to 360 days, and enter the patient into the Patient Registry. The patient will then receive a confirmation email from the Patient Registry. Be aware that the email may be filtered into the spam folder, and will be sent from no-reply-[email protected] with the subject line “Ohio Medical Marijuana Registry User Activation”. The email will include a link to complete the patient’s registration where the patient can activate their registry card and pay the required $50 registration fee. The patient’s recommendation and registration are valid for one year from the date of the payment in the Patient Registry.

How to get your medical marijuana card in Ohio
If the patient qualifies for veteran of indigent status, the registration fee can be reduced by 50%. To do this, the patient must let the physician know of their status, so that the physician may indicate such when entering the patient into the Patient Registry. The patient must then submit proper documentation to the State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy as outlined here. Until the status is approved by the board, however, the patient will not be able to activate their card. It is important to note that the Board of Pharmacy does not send copies of medical marijuana cards to patients. The patient can download their card from the registry to a computer or mobile device and either a printed or digital copy of the card is required when purchasing medical marijuana from a dispensary. After activating their card, a patient may access it and their registry profile at after logging in using their email and password.

As a Patient Under 18 or a Caregiver
If the patient is a minor or requires a caregiver, the steps to obtain a medical marijuana card are largely the same. If the patient is a minor, an ID card is still required when seeing the physician. Acceptable forms of ID for minors are an active US passport or Ohio BMV ID card. Acceptable forms of ID for How to get your medical marijuana card in Ohio caregivers are the same as acceptable IDs for adult patients. Both caregivers and underage patients will also need active email addresses in order to proceed. During the appointment with the physician, the patient must indicate that there are selecting the caregiver to serve as such, and the physician must confirm that the caregiver is able to do so. The caregiver must also be registered to the registry, linked to the patient they are caring for, and will have to pay a $25 fee. The card may then be downloaded and/or printed. The OMMCP has set up an easy to follow walkthrough in both video and text forms. The formal rules for patients and caregivers can be accessed here. The OMMCP patient and caregiver hub can be found here.

Dr. Marissa Magsino

With over 25 years of specialty training in Internal Medicine, as well as fellowship training in Functional and Sexual medicine, Dr. Maginso added Plant Medicine (Medical Marijuana) to her niche practice as of 2017. She is licensed in the State of Florida and attended the University of the East (UERM) in Quezon City, Philippines as well as the University of Medicine and Dentistry in Newark, NJ.

She joined DocMJ in 2019 to align with a known group of compassionate physicians that empower their patients to be better versions of themselves. Her favorite hashtag is #powerpassionperformance, using the combination of optimized bioidentical hormones, medical marijuana, plasma therapies, and sexual wellness.

She is an author, speaker and community advocate for Medical Marijuana, Sexual Health, and the empowerment of mature women.