MARIJUANA
a provision that further licenses to sell marijuana may be added based on “the state population, patient population, and geographic location.” The number still remains far below the 1,150 dispensaries that would have been permitted by a statewide marijuana ballot issue Ohio voters defeated in 2015.
The pharmacy board, after receiving public comment, decided that home delivery of marijuana will not be allowed because of the expanded access offered by additional dispensaries.
The revisions also reduce the biennial fee for dispensaries to $70,000 from $80,000 every two years, expand permitted operating hours to 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily (closing time previously was 7 p.m.), and limit coupons and discounts to use by indigent and veteran patients.
Another rule was tweaked to prohibit dispensaries from advertising on broadcast media. They also are
blocked from advertising their products on clothing or hand-held signs and cannot use marijuana leaves in ads.
The dispensary regulations are the second set of rules revised after public comment. Late last year, officials doubled the number of small marijuana growing sites allowed to 12 from six, keeping larger growers capped at 12 locations. Large growing sites were increased to 25,000 square feet from 15,000; small ones were increased to 3,000 square feet from 1,600. The revised rules permit a one-time “build out” of growing sites to a maximum of 50,000 square feet for large ones and 6,000 square feet for small ones.
One of the 12 large growing sites is being sought by CannAscend Ohio, a company involving two veterans of the failed 2015 statewide ballot issue for medical and recreational marijuana. The company said Wednesday it will apply for a state permit to build a 25,000-squarefoot medical marijuana facility on 19.2 acres near the Wilmington Air Park.
The principals of CannAscend Ohio are businessmen Jimmy Gould and Ian James, and Bill Brisben, a Cincinnati real estate developer who was President George W. Bush’s appointee as ambassador to UNICEF.
If granted a cultivation permit, CannAscend will seek to expand its grow facility to 50,000 square feet and then 75,000 square feet, as permitted by law. The company also will seek a product manufacturing license to build a “cannabis campus” next to the growing site.
The cultivator rules now face the final regulatory step, oversight by the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review. The legislative panel technically does not approve rules submitted by state agencies, typically allowing them to take effect without action. However, JCARR occasionally delays or rejects rules.
JCARR will hold a public hearing on the cultivator rules from noon until 5 p.m. March 20 at the State Fire Marshall’s office, 8895 E. Main St., Reynoldsburg. A final date for JCARR action on the rules has not been set; the law requires they be in place by May 6 so applicants can file for permission to set up growing sites.
Proposed rules for physicians, marijuana processors, testing facilities, patients and caregivers are in the review process. All rules must be finalized by September 2017; medical marijuana is expected to be available to patients by September 2018.
House Bill 523, the medical-marijuana law signed by Gov. John Kasich, took effect Sept. 8 last year. It will allow people with any of 20 specified diseases or conditions to get a recommendation — not a prescription — from a doctor to obtain the drug in the form of plant material, oil, tincture, edible or a patch. Under the law, it can be vaped but not smoked.