Ohio Awards the State’s First Marijuana Dispensary Licenses

The Ohio State Board of Pharmacy received 376 applications for just 60 provisional dispensary licenses across the state. On June 4, there were 56 sites approved. The licenses are awarded in districts. Three districts won’t have any dispensaries.

In Northeast Ohio, 18 licenses were approved, Cleveland.com reports. Cuyahoga County will be home to five dispensaries. Those that have been awarded licenses will have 6 months to meet the necessary requirements to open.

Steven Schierholt, Ohio Board of Pharmacy director, said, “We were very sensitive to some of the problems the Department of Commerce had with their scoring and the criticism they received.”

The types of products that will be available for patients includes:

• Vape
• Lotions
• Edibles
• Patches
• Tinctures
• Oils

Ohio does not permit home cultivation or smokeable forms of marijuana.

The program is expected to start late as none of the 25 approved cultivators have received permission to start cultivating yet. Testing labs and processors have not received their licenses yet either, but that is expected to take place later in June.

Greenleaf Apothecaries, LLC, that submitted several applications, was the highest scoring company. All of their application scores were near perfect. The company was awarded licenses in 5 different districts.

Also scoring high was GTI Ohio. GTI Ohio will also be operating in five different districts.

The lowest scoring approved applicant was Ohio Valley Natural Relief, LLC that will be operating in Wintersville.