COLUMBUS – Facilities that grow marijuana and create cannabis products will receive priority when the state doles out certificates of operation ahead of recreational sale in Ohio.
A total of 14 dispensaries, five cultivators and six processors in this region have received provisional dual-use licensing as of this week. A few final steps remain before any facility or business can begin working with recreational cannabis, according to the state.
“The different entities in the non-medical sales space have different requirements to obtain their certificate of operation and some may take a bit longer to process due to those requirements,” said Jamie Crawford, a spokesperson of the Ohio Division of Cannabis Control. “That said, to help ensure an efficient supply chain, applications from cultivators, processors, and testing laboratories will receive priority.”
Cultivators operate marijuana grow facilities, while processors manufacture cannabis products like lotions, ointments, capsules, patches, edibles and oils, according to the state cannabis division.
Roughly 30 facilities in the state are licensed to legally grow marijuana.
Dayton is home to Ohio Clean Leaf, a grow facility off Valley Street. Another facility, under the company Paragon Development Group, is located north of Huber Heights. In Greene County, Cresco Labs operates in Yellow Springs. All three facilities have received dual-use provisional licenses, but await certificates of operation.
In Butler County, a company called Marichron Pharma operates a grow facility. Five miles away in Middletown is a cultivation and processing location owned by a company called Hemma LLC. Both have received dual-use provisional licenses, according to state records.
Pure Ohio Wellness, a cannabis business that has a grow facility and processing location in Springfield, says it’s ready to roll as soon as the state passes down its approval.
“We have submitted all of the documentation they have requested,” said Tracey McMillin, the chief operating officer at Pure Ohio Wellness. “So we’re just waiting. For us as a cultivator, or processor, there’s nothing different that we’ll be doing.”
The company is in the process of completing its vertical growing system and should be finished by September.
“From the regard of being able to grow more flower, we’re able to do that. We’ve already prepared for that,” McMillin said. “We’re also in the planning stages to add on to our building to add more cultivation space, and we have been approved by the state to do so.”
A dual-use provisional license is issued as a placeholder while the provisional licensee works to meet the necessary requirements to obtain a certificate of operation from the Division of Cannabis Control.
The Division of Cannabis Control has not awarded any certificates of operation to dispensaries to begin selling non-medical cannabis as of this week, according to Crawford.
After the recreational marijuana initiated statute went into effect last year, many Ohioans 21 and over have been legally growing and possessing cannabis at home. Although adults can legally possess marijuana, they have nowhere to legally buy it.
Cultivators, processors, and testing laboratories will likely receive final approval for operation by the state also due to having fewer requirements to meet compared to dispensaries, Crawford said.
“In order to receive their certificate of operation, dispensaries will be required to show they are able to properly process adult use and medical sales, as well as provide proof of training, which could take a little longer to process than the other types of operators,” Crawford said.
No testing labs exist in the Miami Valley, according to Division of Cannabis Control records.
Division officials say there isn’t a day selected as the first day of recreational sale. Dual license applications opened earlier in June, and the state must approve or deny by Sept. 7.
This story appeared in Yahoo News.
