Michael Hudson from Columbus' south side was one of The Botanist's first recreational adult-use marijuana customers on Tuesday.
Hudson has been smoking marijuana for almost 15 years and said he has been arrested in the past when it was illegal to do so. Hudson said Tuesday was "like a holiday" and cheered as a car drove past honking its horn at the dispensary right next to the North Market on Vine Street.
"I've been pulled over. I've been arrested, I've been frisked, touched, and... all types of things. And so just to smoke weed, which I don't think is like a real crime, it's super exciting because today is the first day of recreational weed sales in Columbus, Ohio," Hudson said.
Hudson was one of hundreds of people who woke up early to visit one of several dispensaries in Columbus. On Monday, the Ohio Division of Cannabis Control released the list of dispensaries that could begin selling marijuana to non-medical customers.
Hudson said like the many other people who will be purchasing marijuana that he came "to get my weed on."
The Botanist had a tent set up outside for customers to order and then enter the dispensary to pick up their order.
Hudson said the price is a little higher than when he purchased marijuana in Michigan or California on road trips, but he said the quality is higher and its safer to purchase than in the past in Ohio.
"It's not laced with anything. I know the price before I'm going. There's no surprises. You walk in and you get exactly what you paid for," Hudson said.
Hudson said he bought his favorite strand, apple fritter from KYND. He said the store also had a deal for two 14 gram halves of weed for $200.
Hudson said that was not a bad price for that grade of marijuana.
Trulieve, one of the largest marijuana dispensaries with over 200 locations in the United States, opened the doors of both its Columbus locations at 7 a.m.
Nick Rassler, the state director of Trulieve in Ohio, was directing traffic at the Westerville location off of Sancus Boulevard. He said their first customer arrived at 6:30 a.m. and there had been a steady flow of customers since.
A line of about two dozen people waited in the shade as Trulieve employees took orders on tablets.
Rassler said it would be about a 15-to-20 minute wait for customers to get inside. The wait for medical customers would be shorter because they allowed those customers with a pre-existing medical license to cut the line.
Dispensaries are also required to set aside enough stock to satisfy the demand of their medical customers and prioritize them over non-medical customers.
Despite the lines, Rassler said Trulieve is prepared to satisfy their potential customers' demand for the foreseeable future.
"We've been kind of setting ourselves up, for a couple day, a couple of weeks, actually, to be ready for this in all three of our locations. We have plenty to get through the next two weeks," Rassler said.
At Trulieve's other location, which was just purchased on North High Street in Clintonville, there was less of a line.
Bucky Fehrenbach, who lives in the South of Hudson neighborhood in Columbus, bought a vape cartridge with an indica strain at the Clintonville Trulieve dispensary for $68. The inside of the store had a line of about a half dozen people inside the store around 9 a.m.
Fehrenbach said it was only a 15-minute wait for him to buy the products.
"It's honestly a little expensive at the moment, but I'm definitely excited to see, you know, once more recreational stores starts opening, you know, seeing where those go," Fehrenbach said.
Rassler said prices are higher in Ohio than in other states like Michigan. He said that may change in the future.
"Prices are a little bit higher than what you would have seen in medical, but that will likely, over the course of a couple months, correct itself into something that's a little more normal," Rassler said.
Rassler said flower is cheaper at the moment at Trulieve whereas processed products like edibles and vapes are more expensive.
"People are happy. People are excited. I think keeping the wait times at a reasonable pace here has been huge. But generally, everybody is just happy to come in and kind of get to talk and engage with people out in the open about something they've loved or known about, for either a long time, or this is their first time and they get to kind of get a feel for it," Rassler said.
Terrasana on Grandview Avenue in Columbus also had a line right when they opened up at 10 a.m. The dispensary was also splitting customers into two lines and prioritizing medical patients.
Jay Sheppard and Jessica Handley are two friends that arrived at Terrasana and got in line to wait. Sheppard said he has smoked marijuana in the past, but Handley said it is going to be her first time buying an edible.
Handley said she has osteoarthritis but she never got a medical card to purchase marijuana before. She said the line didn't worry her.
"I'm not impatient, so after this I will probably go home and play some music and relax and try it," Handley said.
Both Handley and Sheppard said they voted for Issue 2 in November, which made recreational marijuana legal in Ohio, and are glad to see their votes come to fruition.
Hudson said it was a great feeling to purchase legal marijuana for the first time in Ohio and he will likely try other dispensaries in the future.
"It's the first time we could do it without having to watch your back," Hudson said.
