Dear Mary Jane - What Is Going on with the State of Ohio’s Medical Marijuana program?
Dear Mary Jane,
There is no dispensary opened near me? It’s the beginning of April already!!
Signed,
Buzz Kill
Ohio’s Medical Marijuana Program Is Finally GROWING!
Dear Buzz,
After multiple delays, Ohio’s medical marijuana program is finally GROWING. Of 28 Cultivator licenses awarded in Ohio, 13 received their Certificates of Operation. There are three testing labs opened statewide. Only one processing lab of 38 is currently operating.
Ohio currently has 438 physicians of all specialties who are certified to recommend medical marijuana. Our state has over 22,000 patients who qualify for our program. Only a small percentage of them (28%) have actually purchased their medication at one of Ohio’s newly opened dispensaries.
Of the 56 statewide dispensaries awarded provisional licenses, 13 are now open. All are in northern Ohio with the closest one opening in Columbus just in the past week. The five in Cincinnati’s are still trying to pass complex inspections and compliance standards. June openings are anticipated. Dayton’s (9) dispensaries are expected to open sooner, possibly beginning in April.
Of those dispensaries actually opened, they still have limited products and absurdly high costs (that are already decreasing as the medical marijuana market expands). Currently, Ohio’s medical marijuana is sold in 1/10 of an ounce portions of dried flower which (by current law) is to be ground and vaporized by the consumer. The 2.82 oz daily portion costs $45- $60 depending on the marijuana strain, the cultivator/grower and the dispensary costs involved. All the strains are grown in Ohio by licensed cultivators specifically to meet the needs of our patients with their 21 qualifying conditions.
So far the strains are Sour Diesel, Coffee Cake, Love Lace, Screaming Eagle Flower, One Trick Pony, Key Lime Frappe, Jedi Kush, Dream Catcher, Lemon Skunk, Blueberry, Poochie Love, Cindy 99 and the list goes on…. They fall into 3 classes: Indica, Sativa and Hybrid. Shark Shock and ACDC seem to have the highest CBD levels.
Tinctures (liquid extracts) processed by Grow Ohio Pharmaceuticals under the name of Butterfly Effect were just added to the shelves of three dispensaries two days ago. 2,300 more of these tiny 30 milliliter bottles sold in two strengths for $80 or $140 each will be shipped out later this week. The current form is high THC/low CBD, with a ratio 11:1, in favor of THC. It is considered a 2-4 day supply per bottle. Soon we will have oil filled syringes to use for vaping. Then Ohio dispensaries will have edibles (in the candy-like form of fruit-flavored gummies). Eventually, we can expect capsules, topical cremes and more with a wider range of THC/CBD ratios and terpene combinations.
Perhaps by the time OUR LOCAL dispensaries open, we will have a larger inventory of medical marijuana products available. After all, Cincinnati patients have been waiting patiently since September 2018. Maybe some of these delays were in our best interest and “it isn’t the start that matters, it is the finishing line.”