Medical marijuana dispensaries across Ohio last week were issued their dual-license certificates of operation from the state, the final step needed before dispensaries could begin selling recreational products. Customers locally lined up out the doors of area dispensaries to participate in the first days of recreational sale.
Heather Trela, the director of operations of the institute and an expert on cannabis policy, said multiple factors contribute to the length of a state’s launch.
This can include lack of political buy-in from players needed to put a program into action, global events like the COVID-19 pandemic and the style of program the state is implementing.
“There’s no silver bullet,” Trela said. “There may be some things in one state that make it quick, but another factor can slow that state down.”
Ohio Division of Cannabis Control leaders last week said they were able to issue licenses necessary for recreational sale nearly a month before the initiated statute deadline of Sept. 7, mostly due to the framework made by the state’s existing medical marijuana program.
“Since existing licensees had already met stringent requirements of that program, we anticipated this process to be rather smooth, said Ohio Division of Cannabis Control superintendent James Canepa. “They had already undergone many of the comprehensive checks as part of that process.”
Trela said this has made a difference for many states.
“The states that are relying on their preexisting structure of medical dispensaries, that has helped them get to the finish line more quickly,” she said. “They’re already geared up, they already know how to do this, they already have everything in place.”
Other states, like New York, have decided to start entirely new when adding a recreational program to an existing medical marijuana program. New York launched recreational cannabis sales at the end of 2022 and did not allow its medical marijuana dispensaries into the pool first in order to emphasize social equity.
Only six other states had faster launches than Ohio: Nevada, Maryland, Rhode Island, Illinois, Missouri and Arizona, which had the quickest turnaround time from legalization to the start to recreational sales, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government.
The state with the longest amount of time passing from the day of legalization to the beginning of recreational sales was Maine.
Roughly four years passed from the day of legalization to the start of recreational sales, and one of the main factors that contributed to that length was major political players not being on board with legalization, Trela said.
Trela said she’s interested to see how the recreational cannabis market fares in Ohio’s first month, as many recreational programs nationwide see fervent sales and dwindling product in their first weeks.
“We’ve seen states where they run low on the supply,” Trela said. “Finding the actual, natural equilibrium can take some time.”
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