The number of medical marijuana dispensaries in Ohio will more than double after the Ohio Board of Pharmacy approved 70 new licenses with three more pending review.
Ohio has 58 dispensaries but after the new licenses were awarded via lottery, that number will grow to 131. Some smaller towns that didn’t have dispensaries will now have at least one.
Nine new dispensaries were awarded to locations in Columbus and another in Delaware. Other dispensaries in Central and Eastern Ohio were awarded for a location in Marengo, New Lexington, Coshocton, Cambridge, Proctorville and Athens.
More than 261,000 patients in Ohio are currently registered in the medical marijuana program. About 138,000 of those have an active recommendation from a physician.
Many of those who are registered but do not have an active recommendation have said the product is too expensive or they need to drive long distances to find a retailer. This expansion could help with both of those problems.
There are 25 medical conditions for which Ohioans can obtain medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation. They include
- AIDS
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Cachexia
- Cancer
- Chronic traumatic encephalopathy
- Crohn’s disease
- Epilepsy or another seizure disorder
- Fibromyalgia
- Glaucoma
- Hepatitis C
- Huntington’s disease
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- Multiple sclerosis
- Pain that is either chronic and severe or intractable
- Parkinson’s disease
- Positive status for HIV
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Sickle cell anemia
- Spasticity
- Spinal cord disease or injury
- Terminal illness
- Tourette’s syndrome
- Traumatic brain injury
- Ulcerative colitis
Right now, medical marijuana is the only legal way to get the product in the state. An initiated statute effort that could have resulted in a vote on legalizing marijuana to Ohioans over 21 has been shelved for now. Ohio lawmakers will consider it next year, or voters may see it on the ballot next November.
Copyright 2022 The Statehouse News Bureau. To see more, visit The Statehouse News Bureau.
