CINCINNATI — Medical marijuana will be more accessible in southwest Ohio after multiple new dispensaries received licenses to operate in the state this week.
The additional licenses add more than triple the amount of dispensaries than there previously were in Ohio — there now are 26 total.
The new locations come after the 18 dispensaries were granted provisional licenses on May 17 via the State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy, which regulates dispensaries. Overall, the board approved 70 provisional licenses for new dispensaries across the entirety of the Buckeye State.
Provisional licenses grant the businesses nine months to prepare and pass a state inspection, but it doesn't necessarily take the businesses the entire nine months to pass, according to reporting from our partner The Journal-News. If they do so, they will receive a regular certificate of operation — which lasts two years — and are then able to sell.
Within our region, Brown County received one new dispensary, Butler County received four, Clermont County received three, Hamilton County received nine and Warren County received one.
Out of the dispensaries, two of Butler County's and two of Hamilton County's have yet to establish physical store locations.
Here are the locations of the dispensaries in the region:
Medical marijuana in Ohio was signed into law in 2016. The first medical marijuana dispensary license granted in Ohio was in late 2018, with multiple other locations receiving licenses in 2019.
Last year, the Board of Pharmacy changed how licenses were granted, according to Journal-News. Dispensaries must apply and are picked via a lottery. With this new drawing, the board received almost 1,500 applications.
The drawing for this round of licenses took place Jan. 27 and was conducted by the Ohio Lottery Commission.
In terms of recreational use regulation efforts, two Ohio lawmakers filed a bill — on April 20 of all days — to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults 21 years of age or older. The bill would allow adults to possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis and up to 15 grams of marijuana concentrates. Individuals would also be able to grow six plants at home or up to 12 plants per household.
The bill would enact a 10% cannabis tax rate on adult-use sales and would dedicate revenue to funds such as the substance abuse and addiction fun, the community cannabis fund and the Division of Cannabis Control, which would be established if the bill is passed.
After a lawsuit in April 2022 involving state legislative leaders, the coalition behind the bill reached a settlement allowing it to be submitted in the 2023 legislative session.
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