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Ohio Announces Licenses for 56 Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

photo of Ohio Pharmacy Board
JO INGLES
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
The state expects the stores to be open by September.

There’s now a clearer picture of who will be allowed to open medical marijuana dispensaries in Ohio and where they can be located.

The Board of Pharmacy awarded up to 56 dispensary licenses; 376 companies had applied. 

Three geographic areas, two in Northeast Ohio and one in Southwest Ohio, will not get a dispensary due to lack of viable applications. But board liaison Ali Simon says that doesn’t mean those areas won’t have dispensaries someday.

“That is something we can look at after the Sept. 8th deadline. We do have the authority to review if there needs to be more licenses allocated on a geographic basis,” Simon said.

The licensees are expected to open medical marijuana stores around Sept. 8th – when by law Ohio’s medical marijuana program is set to be fully operational.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.