The Ohio Board of Pharmacy, which regulates medical hashish within the state, is in search of so as to add 73 new dispensary licenses, which might greater than double the 58 that at the moment function, Cleveland.com stories. A separate court docket case may create a 59th license from the primary spherical of licensing, so, in all, there may very well be as many as 132 dispensaries, relying on the end result of that case.
Regulators are in search of to broaden the variety of dispensaries as demand has thus far exceeded projections. The board had estimated between 12,000 to 24,000 sufferers throughout the first two years however there are at the moment 252,139 sufferers enrolled in this system, the report says.
A examine in 2020 discovered that 20% of the state’s medical hashish sufferers traveled greater than 30 miles to succeed in a dispensary as some areas of the state – particularly rural areas within the northwest and west – don’t host a dispensary. Some areas in southeastern Ohio solely have one dispensary throughout a number of counties.
In November, the Board of Pharmacy acquired 1,400 functions for brand new dispensaries and the Ohio Lottery carried out a drawing to find out which firms would obtain provisional approval. Justin Sheridan, the board’s director of medical hashish operations, indicated that the company is reviewing the winners to make sure they’re compliant with state legal guidelines.
A current study by the Ohio Medical Hashish Business Affiliation (OMCIA) discovered that costs in Ohio double these present in neighboring Michigan; the worth per gram in Ohio is $9.50, whereas the worth per gram in Michigan is $4.22; nevertheless, Michigan’s market is extra mature, launching in 2008 in comparison with 2019, when the primary dispensary opened in Ohio.
Matt Shut, government director of the OMCIA, stated the worth discrepancy is as a result of state’s “restricted market” however he warned that “overexpansion can result in oversupply, sending medical marijuana into the illicit market.”
Shut advised Cleveland.com that the group believes that growing the variety of dispensaries “will drive the costs down.”
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