The CTR newsletter is distributed to physicians with an active CTR and provides important updates for the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program. 

The State Medical Board of Ohio has approved 11 new certificate to recommend medical marijuana (CTR) applications since the January board meeting. As of February 13, 2020, the total number of active certified physicians is 606.

Petitions for Qualifying Conditions

The State Medical Board of Ohio received 27 petitions during the 2019 window for qualifying condition petitions. On February 12, the board’s Medical Marijuana Committee met and voted to consider adding anxiety, autism spectrum disorder and cachexia as qualifying conditions for Ohio’s Medical Marijuana Control Program. These petitions will move forward for public comment and expert review.

Written public comment on these conditions will be accepted February 12 – March 1, 2020. Anyone may submit their comments by emailing MedicalMarijuana@med.ohio.gov.

Petitions that meet the requirements will proceed and be reviewed by subject matter experts. The Medical Marijuana Committee will then review the subject matter experts’ reports and make a recommendation to the full board for a vote to adopt/deny the petition to add the qualifying conditions. Later this year, the board will decide if they should be added to the list of conditions which can qualify patients to participate in Ohio’s Medical Marijuana Control Program.

Click here to view more information about the petitions.

Physician Annual Report 

The standard of care in rule 4731-32-03 requires each physician with a CTR to submit an annual report to the Medical Board. To collect the annual report data, the Medical Board will be emailing a survey to all certified physicians by the end of February. Each physician will be asked to give their professional opinion on the effectiveness of medical marijuana for the conditions for which it has been recommended. 

Renewing Recommendations 

Now that we are over one year into the program, we will see a number of patient registrations expiring at the end of each month. In order to renew their registrations, patients must be issued a recommendation (a renewal of their current recommendation, or a new one) within 90 days of their registration’s expiration date. After that happens, a button will appear on their Registry profile. They can sign into their profile, pay their registration fee, and renew their registration. More information on this process can be found here.

When attempting to renew a patient’s current recommendation, the “Renew Recommendation” button will only appear to the physician who issued the recommendation in the first place. However, all CTR physicians can terminate a recommendation and/or issue a new recommendation to any patient. More information on recommendation renewals can be found here.

Please note: if a registrant does not pay their registration fee before their card expires, their registration does not go away. The card will lapse, making them unable to purchase medical marijuana until they renew their registration. Even if the registration expiration date passes without them paying their fee, they can still log onto their Registry profile and pay for their registration. Once the fee is paid, the Registry card will update accordingly and become active once again.

Expiration Dates

Please note that the expiration dates on patients’ registrations and recommendation will likely not match. The expiration dates for the two parts of a patient’s profile are calculated in the following ways:

• Registration: One year from the date when the payment is made, at the end the end of that month.
• Recommendation: Depending upon how many refills are issued, it will be 90 days (zero refills), 180 days (one refill), 270 days (two refills) or 360 days (three refills) from the date the recommendation is issued.

Registration Payment Refunds

Please make sure your patients are aware that registration fees are non-refundable. The Board of Pharmacy will also not issue partial refunds for registration fees paid before a veteran or indigent status is approved.

Available Products Update

To help inform physicians choosing to include instructions for use, the types of products currently available through the Medical Marijuana Control Program are listed below.