Ohio medical marijuana owners get preview of adult-use application

Ohio’s 132 medical marijuana dispensaries can’t begin applying for licenses to sell adult-use products until Friday, but they’ve already gotten a sneak peek at the application.

According to Cleveland TV station WJW, the application for licenses to sell both medical and adult-use cannabis was published Tuesday on the state Division of Cannabis Control’s website.

“They had what they needed to publish the documents ahead of schedule so people could gather what they needed and prepare,” Pete Nischt, vice president of compliance and communications with Klutch Cannabis in Akron, told WJW.

“This is really exciting. This is what we were waiting for.”

Applicants for either dual-use or adult-use licenses must pay a $5,000 application fee.

No date has been set for the launch of recreational marijuana sales, but the regulator must decide by Sept. 7 whether to approve adult-use licenses.

There has been speculation sales could begin as soon as this month, and such talk persists.

According to Cleveland TV station WKYC, application processing “could take two weeks, which means recreational sales could begin before the end of the month.”

However, WJW reported that even though the process opens Friday, “cannabis operators remind people not to expect dispensaries to begin serving recreational marijuana as soon as Saturday.”

Ohio voters overwhelmingly approved legalizing the cultivation and sale of recreational marijuana last November.

But only days after that vote, Gov. Mike DeWine ordered state lawmakers to make changes to the initiative, a demand that has slowed the launch of adult-use sales.