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CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — Ohio is getting close to the start of recreational marijuana sales seven months after voters overwhelmingly passed Issue 2, the citizen-initiated statute that legalized recreational marijuana in the state.
On Friday, Ohio’s 132 medical marijuana dispensaries will be able to apply for recreational sales permits. Processing of the applications by the Division of Cannabis Control could take two weeks, which means recreational sales could begin before the end of the month.
At Amplify dispensary on Coventry Road in Cleveland Heights, the staff and stock are expanding, and the store is figuring out how to meet the expected spike in demand for cannabis flower, edibles, beverages, and more. AJ Caraballo, Amplify’s retail director, says the company will ensure that its medical marijuana patients are not squeezed out by the higher demand and the anticipated long lines in the early days of recreational marijuana sales.
“We want to make sure that our medical patients will be able to skip the lines and still get priority care here while we’re still excited to welcome our adult-use (marijuana) consumers,” Caraballo told 3News.
The first sales of adult-use cannabis in Ohio will be allowed only in the state’s medical marijuana dispensaries that apply for dual-use permits, using the existing framework of regulations that have already been in place since medical marijuana became legal in 2016. Meanwhile, state and local lawmakers continue to shape the rules and laws for recreational sales, when the state’s cannabis program is fully rolled out in September.
On Monday night, Cleveland City Council passed an ordinance that mirrors the state’s law banning dispensaries from within 500 feet of schools, churches, libraries, and playgrounds. It also limits dispensaries to designated retail districts in the city.
In Columbus this week, two Ohio Republican senators introduced a bill that would require home marijuana growers to sign an affidavit declaring they won’t sell any products derived from what they grow. Sales by home growers are already prohibited under state law.
However, state Rep. Jamie Callender (R-Concord), who sits on the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, strongly opposes the measure by his fellow Republicans.
“A lot of people who voted for Issue 2 voted for it because it had home grow and it allowed home grow,” he argued, “but are uncomfortable being registered or on a government database saying that they use.”
It’s still not clear when Ohio’s adult-use cannabis program will be fully implemented. The initiated statute laid out a process in which the new Division of Cannabis Control within the Department of Commerce has until Sept. 7 to complete the rulemaking and licensing processes for non-medical cannabis. Sales of non-medical cannabis may not begin until licenses are issued and facilities are certified.
It is worth noting that, as an initiated statute and not a constitutional amendment, the Ohio General Assembly has the power to repeal or modify the state law.
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