(WJW) — When voters approved Issue 2 and sales began last August, Ohio joined a growing list of states allowing adults to buy and use marijuana recreationally.
Since then, the Buckeye state has seen a booming new industry, though not without some growing pains.
“It’s been a fun ride,” said Sage Graham, director of operations for Amplify Dispensaries, which has several locations throughout Northeast Ohio.
He said while Ohio’s recreational sales actually outpaced Michigan’s initial rollout, his industry is still facing many challenges — particularly the surge of unregulated delta-8 THC products, sold at gas stations and vape shops, pulling customers away from Ohio’s licensed dispensaries.
“They’re kind of putting out product that they don’t really know what it is, and people are attesting that to their dispensary experience, and it’s kind of giving them a bit of confusion,” Graham said.
According to the Ohio Division of Cannabis Control, 100,000 pounds of marijuana flower were sold in the state since legal sales began.
Meanwhile, medical sales dipped as officials say patients are choosing to avoid the bureaucracy of maintaining a medicinal card.
“The legislature can do whatever it wants,” said Jonathan Entin, a retired Case Western Reserve University law professor, who weighed in as lawmakers are still debating how to handle delta-8, as well as possible changes to the marijuana law Ohioans voted in.
“People who object to what the legislature does then would have to go back and get on the ballot a proposal to do away with what the legislature has done, or to change what the legislature has done.
Ohio dispensaries have sold more than $702 million in non-medical cannabis as of Aug. 2, according to the latest sales update from the cannabis division.
When non-medical sales began in Ohio on Aug. 6, 2024, there were 98 dispensaries across the state who had a certificate of operation to operate as a dual-use dispensary to sell cannabis to both medical and non-medical customers. As of Monday, there were 162 dispensaries in the state.
