Recreational use of marijuana became legal in Ohio when Issue 2 passed Nov. 7, and now people can smoke and possess an amount of marijuana publicly without getting fined or arrested.
People can smoke marijuana recreationally; however, smoking it indoors in public places or places of employment is still banned under the state’s indoor smoking ban, much like tobacco.
Adults over 21 are now allowed to possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana and up to 15 grams of marijuana concentrate. Adults can also grow up to six marijuana plants in their homes individually, but only 12 total plants are allowed in one household.
Although recreational marijuana use is legal, it is not available for purchase yet. According to the Ohio Division of Cannabis Control, marijuana licensing applications are due by June 7, and dispensaries cannot open until Sept. 7 when the provisional licenses are issued.
City Councilmember, Solveig Spjeldnes, D-1st Ward, said the Council previously discussed an ordinance – which was tabled – regarding recreational marijuana use on public properties, including parks around the city.
Spjeldnes opposed including banning edibles – a cannabis-infused food people eat to feel the effects of marijuana – in the ordinance because she said the ordinance focused on outdoor smoking.
“The state is dragging (its) feet about how to actually legally buy marijuana,” Spjeldnes wrote in an email.
Athens Police Department Chief Nick Magruder said the state of Ohio bought a machine to test marijuana to differentiate it from hemp – a plant containing trace amounts of THC, the compound in marijuana that affects the body.
Magruder said marijuana testing using the machine is expensive, but the marijuana has to be a larger amount for police to send to the state crime lab.
He said a benefit to people buying medical and dispensary marijuana is that the drug is safer than buying it not from a dispensary.
“It's going to be a learning curve for some people to understand how the medical or the actual dispensary marijuana is going to work compared to when you’re buying it from someone,” Magruder said.
Magruder said marijuana can affect each person’s body differently and the drug can stay in a person’s system for a longer time.
“The person's limit for someone to be under the influence of marijuana or THC is very minimal,” Magruder said. “We see quite a bit where individuals will use marijuana a day or so before and they can still test over the legal limit because the way it metabolizes in the body is slower than alcohol.”
He said testing for marijuana is strictly a blood or urine test.
The last marijuana-related arrest in Athens was nearly seven years ago in 2017 when there was a city code violation for drug abuse; the last state code violation for possession of controlled substances was nearly five years ago in 2019, according to Lori Weisend, an administrative assistant of APD.
In regards to Ohio University, recreational and medical marijuana is still a controlled substance, keeping it unlawful on campus grounds and off-campus university activities, according to the federal Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act.
Students found with cannabis on campus are still under the same rules of the Student Code of Conduct, which is six to nine months of disciplinary probation; self-guided educational intervention; a minimum of 10 hours of community restitution; and an educational reflective component.
