Medical-pot sales draw from afar
WINTERSVILLE — Patients who have waited years for medical relief made their first purchases of legal cannabis in Ohio on Wednesday.
Alex Griffith, a Marine veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, traveled from the Cincinnati area to this Jefferson County village near Steubenville in eastern Ohio in search of something to help him sleep more than five hours every four days.
"Now that I have medical cannabis, I can start living my life, and I can get that quality of life back, and I can be Alex again," he said at the CY+ dispensary.
About 30 people from across the state waited in frigid weather outside CY+ in the hours before it opened. Several patients said they already knew the relief that cannabis brings them. Many said they prefer it to unpleasant side effects of traditional medications.
The dispensary operated by Cresco Labs was the first to receive a state certificate of operation. It opened Wednesday alongside Ohio Valley Natural Relief, also in Wintersville; The Botanist in Canton; and The Forest Sandusky in Sandusky.
The first day of sales came more than four months after the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program was scheduled to begin, and two-and-a-half years after Ohio legalized medical cannabis.
Joan Caleodis, a multiplesclerosis patient who advocated for cannabis legalization, was first in line at the CY+ dispensary. She bought three containers of 2.83 grams of indica cannabis for $150.
“It’s a good day for Ohio,” she said after collecting the brown paper bag.
Caleodis said the nearest doctor who could recommend marijuana was two hours from her home in Martins Ferry. Caleodis, wearing studded cannabis leaf earrings and a shirt bearing the promarijuana slang “420,” said more education efforts are needed to counter the stigma of cannabis use. She also noted the highly priced and regulated products available in Ohio, as compared with those in other states, but she said she thinks prices “will come down eventually.”
First-day sales were limited to 2 ounces at CY+, where hundreds of customers were expected, said spokesman Jason Erkes.
“Just so we make sure everyone that comes out for the first day can go home with something,” he said.
The Botanist in Canton also limited first-day sales and expects to do so again Thursday, said Caroline Henry, chief compliance and communications officer. The dispensary increased the amount from initial estimates, however, allowing patients as many as seven “whole day units.”
Not all of Ohio’s planned cultivators, processors and testing labs are operating, so only plant material is available for now. Sales are cash-only because of federal laws and banking regulations.
State law allows a patient or caregiver to buy a 90-day supply of cannabis at a time — 8 ounces of plant material with up to 23 percent THC, or 5.3 ounces of cannabis with up to 35 percent THC for most conditions. Terminally ill patients can buy larger and stronger amounts. Blood drives are open today at:
Carriage Place Blood Donation Center, 4820 Sawmill Road, 11:45 a.m.-7 p.m. Ohiohealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, 3535 Olentangy River Road, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Polaris Blood Donation Center, 1327 Cameron Ave., Lewis Center, 11:45 a.m.-6:45 p.m.
Revlocal, 4009 Columbus Road, Granville, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
St. Cecilia Church, 434 Norton Road, 2-8 p.m.
Stone Ridge Blood Donation Center, 337 Stoneridge Lane, Gahanna, 7:15 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
Westbelt Blood Donation Center, 4327 Equity Drive, 1-7 p.m.