Medical pot sales begin in Ohio
Local stores could open by March, head of Pure Ohio Wellness says.
Ohioans bought medical marijuana legally for the first time on Wednesday as four stores opened around the state.
The Dayton-Springfield-Middletown region is expected to have stores open by early March, said Larry Pegram, president of Pure Ohio Wellness.
One of the first, if not the first, person to purchase medical marijuana in Ohio on Wednesday morning thinks the much-antic- ipated opening of dispensaries is a “great day” for the state.
“I think it’s a big win for patients in Ohio,” said Joan Caleodis, who has primary progressive multiple sclerosis, in a telephone interview after buying $200 worth of marijuana buds at CY+ Dispensary in eastern Ohio.
While Ohio has awarded provisional licenses to 56 dispensaries, only four opened Wednesday — two in Wintersville outside of Steubenville, including CY+. The other dispensaries are in Canton and Sandusky. A fifth that has received a certificate of operation from the state is expected to open sometime this week outside Cleveland.
Nine dispensaries have pro-
visional licenses to open in the Dayton region including those in Butler, Clark, Greene, Montgomery and Warren counties, but they have yet to get final approval from the state.
A 46-year-old Air Force veteran with multiple sclerosis was the first patient to buy medical marijuana Wednesday at The Forest dispensary in Sandusky.
“I’m just so, so honored to have been asked to be the first patient here at The Forest,” said Ynez Henningsen.
Henningsen said the legalization of medical marijuana is a “big game changer” for many veterans and other people who would have never otherwise bought marijuana off the street.
Ohio law allows physicians to issue recommendations to patients with one of the state’s 21 qualifying medical conditions. Only plant materials, known as flowers or buds, are being sold at this point. Products like edibles, tinctures and lotions won’t be available until cannabis processing facilities are finally operating.
Alex Griffith, 30, drove five hours from Cincinnati to Wintersville on Wednesday and became the second sale at CY+. A former Marine infantryman who served in Afghanistan, Griffith has severe post-traumatic stress disorder and received a recommendation to use medical marijuana.
Griffith said he first used marijuana purchased by a friend in Las Vegas after he returned home from Afghanistan in 2014.
He refused to buy marijuana off the street because of paranoia about being arrested and prosecuted even though the medication prescribed by the VA, he said, comes with “terrible” side effects that make him feel like he’s “walking through mud.”
“It just wasn’t worth it, so I went back to pills,” he said. “Now I can switch back to cannabis, stop the pills and get my quality of life back.”
James Lynch, 53, of Washingtonville, was waiting with others to get inside CY+ on Wednesday. He has a physician recommendation to treat chronic pain caused by a back injury and neuropathy. Other doctors, he said, wouldn’t prescribe pain pills once they learned he smoked marijuana.
Lynch complained about the high prices at the dispensary but planned to buy an ounce that would cost him around $500, which is far more expensive than street prices but likely of better quality.
Ohio Senate Minority Leader Kenny Yuko, a Democrat from Richmond Heights and a staunch advocate of legalizing medical marijuana, issued a statement Wednesday saying he’s happy for those who were able to buy medical cannabis, but criticized the state for the four-month delay in rolling out Ohio’s program.
Gov. John Kasich signed Ohio’s medical marijuana law in June 2016.
Yuko urged new Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to make full implementation of the medical marijuana program a priority.