Ohio will soon get 73 new medical cannabis dispensary licenses in addition to the 56 medical dispensaries already licensed to operate in the state.
Yesterday the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program announced Jan. 27 as the drawing date for the 73 eligible dispensary license applications.
The Ohio Lottery Commission, using a Random Number Generator (RNG) process with each application assigned a unique draw identification number, will hold drawings for all eligible applications submitted during the second request for dispensary applications.
The new dispensary licenses could be even more valuable if new legislation winding through the Ohio General Assembly gets enacted. Last month the Ohio State Senate passed a cannabis bill that revises the state’s medical marijuana law, expands the list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana, and consolidates regulation into a single agency.
“This bill is not about if we have a medical marijuana program in Ohio, it’s about making it business-friendly and improving on what we did five years ago,” said chief sponsor State Senator Stephen Huffman.
If the suite of new qualifying conditions are approved in the legislature, Ohio dispensary operators expect patient numbers to increase. As of November 2021, there were 231,165 patients, but as much as a third of those patients are not “active”.
