'I slept in my car': Cincinnati man camps out overnight for first recreational weed sale
Ohio Sees First Recreational Marijuana Sales After Legalization.
One of the first legal sales of recreational marijuana in Ohio went to a 55-year-old Cincinnati resident who camped out in his car overnight in a dispensary parking lot.
Jeff Riede of Cincinnati's Madisonville neighborhood was first in line among a crowd of a dozen people gathered outside the Sunnyside dispensary on Kennedy Avenue in Columbia Township before daylight Tuesday. It was one of several dispensaries that opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday.
He said he’d been waiting in his car in the parking lot since about 6:30 p.m. Monday for the dispensary to open at 7 a.m. to buy edibles and some flower.
“Yeah, I slept in my car,” Riede said. “This is pretty epic to me. I wanted to be the first one here.”
Riede, who is self-employed, said he's been smoking marijuana since he was 18, but he doesn’t like the risk associated with buying marijuana on the black market. That’s one of the reasons he’s so excited about the dispensary opening for recreational users.
“It’s just safer at the dispensary,” he said. “You don’t have to worry about getting robbed or about it (marijuana) being laced with something that might hurt you.”
On Monday, the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Cannabis Control said 98 dispensaries are set to be issued dual-use certificates of operation statewide Tuesday morning.
Ohioans voted last year to legalize recreational marijuana for consumers 21 and older in last November's election, making it lawful to possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis and 15 grams of extracts or edibles.
