Ohio’s Department of Commerce has received 185 applications for the 24 available medical cannabis cultivation licenses in the state, according to a Fox 8 report. The state will license 12 cultivators for up to 3,000-square-foot grows and 12 for grows up to 25,000 square feet.
Regulators will award the licenses based on how businesses plan to grow, staffing and security plans, and how they plan to comply with state regulations.
Ohio’s medical cannabis regime was signed into law more than a year ago, but progress has, so far, been slow which has forced some patients who have already received a recommendation from doctors in Ohio to cross the border into Michigan – whose program allows out-of-state reciprocity – to procure their medicine, despite it being federally illegal to cross state lines with cannabis.
Under the state’s final cultivation rules adopted in April, the Commerce Department could make more licenses available or increase the square footage of grows beginning in September 2018.
Final rules regulating processors, laboratories, and dispensaries in Ohio are still being crafted by the department. Under the law, finalized versions of those rules must be completed by Sept. 8. All of the proposed regulations must be reviewed and adopted by the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review.