Ohio Details Licensing Info for Additional 73 Dispensaries

Ohio has released information related to the 73 provisional medical cannabis licenses it plans to issue in the coming months, according to JD Supra.

The license application window will be held from November 4-18, 2021, and each license carries a $5,000 application fee. In order to qualify for a license, applicants must have a location already secured for their dispensary and must submit a site plan and have local zoning approval.

Geographically, Ohio is divided into 31 dispensary districts. License winners will be chosen by lottery and the license expansion in any given district will be approved according to the number of “available provisional licenses” in that district. Licensees are limited to owning a maximum of five dispensaries. Assuming all 73 licenses are awarded, Ohio could have up to 130 medical cannabis dispensaries.

Dispensary drive-through windows will also be permitted under the regulations released by the state, according to the report.

The Ohio Board of Pharmacy approved the expansion in April, which essentially doubles medical cannabis access in the state. The Board felt the expansion was necessary due to the number of registered patients far exceeding their estimates.

Of the initial 60 dispensary licenses, only 57 have been approved to date. The state planned dispensaries for between 12,000 and 24,000 patients registering over a two-year period. At the time the expansion was approved, there were 92,772 registered patients in Ohio. The Board believes each dispensary can serve up to 600 patients.

Activists hope that by expanding the number of dispensaries, Ohio’s high medical cannabis prices will fall. A 2020 survey of Ohio patients found that 58.4 percent believed that high medical cannabis prices were an issue for the program.