Butler County Board Pushes 'Adverse Effect' Of Marijuana

BY KELLY WAGNER
Miami University journalism student

As Ohio begins to implement medical marijuana distribution across the state, the Butler County Health and Addiction Recovery Services Board is spreading an anti-marijuana message in the county.

Tiffany Lombardo, director of addiction services at Butler County Health Services, summarized the board's position at a September meeting of the Oxford City Council.

“The Butler County Mental Health and Addiction Recovery Services Board believes that the use of marijuana is not benign – which is consistent with major medical organizations – as studies clearly outline the physical and mental harm of marijuana, including risk of breathing illness, implications of increased heart rate, psychotic disease, other cognitive problems, and that children and adolescents are especially vulnerable to its many known adverse effects.”

The board has been presenting that message in cities across Butler County in recent months, following the passing of House Bill 523, which legalized medical marijuana in the state of Ohio on Sept. 8, 2016.

“We are not taking a political stance,” Lombardo said in an interview.

Acknowledging there are two sides of the marijuana argument, Lombardo said her board’s goal is to simply teach the public.

“The biggest takeaway of it (position statement) is that it is not benign and to make sure that communities and community members are educating themselves, and not just taking things at surface,” she said.

Butler County divided

Within Butler County, Middletown, Fairfield Township, Ross Township and Liberty Township have adopted temporary moratoriums on dispensaries. Hamilton, Fairfield and West Chester Township have completely banned marijuana dispensaries. The city of Monroe just received a medical marijuana cultivator license and intends to grow marijuana in the city.

As of now, Oxford has not decided whether to allow the selling of medical marijuana. Oxford Mayor Kate Rousmaniere invited Lombardo to City Council to get Oxford talking. "I was beginning to get the sense that people in my city didn't know the impacts of medical marijuana," she said.

The state has several regulations in regards to where dispensaries can be located, including their proximity to schools and universities. So if Oxford were to get a dispensary, it would come with restrictions.

"Given the state's restrictions on where it might go, it would most likely be located on (Hwy) 27 North, which is a place where we have high drug-related crimes. My concern is that a dispensary could potentially bring more in," said Rousmaniere.

Butler County's Addiction Recovery Services Committee was happy to learn that Lombardo shared its position with Oxford leaders.

“I was pleased because it was being shared, the fact that people are asking to hear about it and take it into consideration," Kenneth Willman, the committee chair, said during an October committee meeting.

With many decisions regarding medical marijuana being made right now, Willman said, "the hope as we are going through this process is that people are getting themselves educated on the potential benefits and risks of medical marijuana."

Position set in June

The board finalized its position statement in June, and then began presenting it to communities. The position statement has not received feedback from any opposing groups, according to Julie Payton, the senior director of addiction services.

“We have submitted our statement to the Ohio State Department and Ohio Association of Behavioral Health authorities. We should put this statement out in the media a little more,” she said.

Payton said the board is in the process of making plans to share its position statement as well as put it to use. This past week, it partnered with Working Partners to train businesses on how to develop and maintain marijuana-free workplaces.

Each year, the board surveys Butler County students in Grades 7-12 about drug and alcohol use.

“What we have seen is that steadily, over time, the perception of harm of marijuana is continuing to decrease in our adolescents," said Lombardo. "What we do know is that marijuana effects are very harmful to the adolescent brain.”

She added: “We want communities, especially the communities that are going to have dispensaries in them, to take a focus and ensure that they're pouring into the prevention aspect and providing prevention services to their adolescents and educating their youth around the issue as well."

Top photo: Tiffany Lombardo, the director of addiction services prepares for the committee meeting that takes place later that day. -- Photo by Kelly Wagner