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Patient Advocate Removed from Medical Marijuana Advisory Committe

a photo of people waiting to recieve medical marijuana at a dispensary.
JO INGLES
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
Patients line up at a medical marijuana dispensary in Columbus.

An advocate for patients in Ohio’s Medical Marijuana Program says he thinks more needs to be done to better serve patients.

And he thinks he’s being retaliated against for speaking out about those concerns.

Bob Bridges was removed as patient representative on the Ohio Medical Marijuana advisory committee panel by House Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford).

“I was not a yes man or a yes person.”

Bridges says he spoke out against the State Medical Board and the Ohio Board of Pharmacy for preventing many patients with medical conditions not currently recognized by the state from getting cannabis.

“There’s too much bureaucracy in letting the free market of this program work.”

In a written statement, Householder doesn’t give a reason for firing Bridges, but says it was time to go in another direction with another appointment soon.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.