Two of the people who played a big part in the marijuana legalization plan rejected by Ohio voters in 2015 are planning to take a key role in Ohio’s new medical marijuana program.
ResponsibleOhio backers Jimmy Gould and Ian James plan to partner with Cincinnati developer Bill Brisbane to develop a medical marijuana campus. Gould says the trio plans to get licenses to grow and process medical marijuana in Wilmington in southwest Ohio.
“Our whole goal in choosing Wilmington was because we wanted a community that had resilience, character, integrity — that had been through the wars," Gould said. "I mean to lose DHL, to lose Airborne, to lose Amazon, it’s just devastating.”
Gould, who also served on last year’s task force that developed the state’s medical marijuana law, says this campus would eventually bring nearly 300 jobs to the community hard-hit with job losses.
Gould says the plan is to expand to the largest allowed under new state guidelines for medical marijuana facilities. And he says that will include a research facility where different strains of marijuana could be tested for possible cures or treatments.
