Last month, an Ohio man sent a petition to the state's medical board seeking that Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals fans qualify for medical marijuana.
On Wednesday, the State Medical Board of Ohio ruled against Vincent Morano of Cincinnati's half-hearted request.
While Browns and Bengals fans won't be able to obtain medical marijuana cards on the basis of their fandom, the board did vote to move autism, anxiety and cachexia to the expert review stage as qualifying conditions, according to Orie Givens of Spectrum News. In September, the board initially voted against making anxiety and autism qualifying conditions for medical marijuana.
Ohio currently possesses 21 qualifying conditions approved for medical marijuana use. In addition to being a Browns or Bengals fan, the Ohio Medical Board ruled against reject depression, insomnia, and opioid use disorder as potential qualifying conditions, according to Jackie Borchardt of the Cincinnati Enquirer.
“The question being asked today is not to debate the pro and con but is the new information sufficient to cause us to initiate additional discussions on the matter,” Board President Dr. Michael Schottenstein said, per Borchardt.
While Cleveland and Cincinnati fans might not have met that criteria according to the board, you'd be hard-pressed to find two teams with fanbases more deserving of consideration than the Browns and Bengals. In 2019, Cincinnati laid claim to the worst record in the NFL at 2-14 -- with one of those two victories coming in a 33-23 win over the Browns, who at 6-10 fell well short of their lofty preseason expectations.
According to Morano's Twitter feed, however, the long-suffering Bengals fans won't be giving up his fight anytime soon.