MARION — A Columbus-area business has been named as eligible for a provisional licence to sell medical marijuana just outside Marion.
John Hondros, an Ohio businessman – along with an ex-sheriff from New Mexico, Darren White I, and four other people backing Verdant Creations – submitted an application for the only license for a dispensary in the four-county district that includes Marion.
Verdant Creations also was named as eligible for provisional licenses for three other locations in Chillicothe, Columbus and Newark, according to the Ohio Board of Pharmacy.
There were six total applicants for the single license in the four-county district here, but Hondros’ business scored the most points during the state’s selection process, according to the pharmacy board. His proposed pot shop would be located at 326 James Way, near the intersection of Marion’s main commercial corridor along Ohio 95 and U.S. 23.
The subject of a medical marijuana shop in town caused a stir among local officials late last year when the state began accepting applications for medical marijuana dispensaries and applicants wanted to know how officials felt about them.
While Marion Township welcomed them, Marion City Council struggled with how or whether to restrict the shops in the city limits, ultimately narrowly turning down a city law that would have temporarily banned them.
The Ohio Board of Pharmacy – one of three state agencies regulating Ohio’s Medical Marijuana Control Program – chose those eligible for licenses from 376 applicants in nearly 30 geographic areas.
“Today’s announcement ends months of speculation about where patients will be able to purchase medical marijuana,” said Thomas Rosenberger, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association of Ohio. “We look forward to working with the provisional license winners to provide Ohio’s patients with safe access to medical marijuana.”
The retail shops will be allowed to sell edibles, oils, patches and vaping concentrates to medical marijuana patients with nearly two dozen qualifying conditions.
However, smoking marijuana is still illegal in Ohio, and the dispensaries are banned from selling marijuana bud or flowers for smoking.
State law requires the businesses to begin filling orders for Ohioans by Sept. 8 – the deadline for the state’s medical marijuana program to become fully operational. But officials on Tuesday said the state will not hit that deadline.
Local dispensaries must first be inspected by the state and granted a certificate to operate before they can open for business. Only patients and caregivers registered with the state who have received medical ID cards and recommendations from a physician will be allowed to buy from the dispensaries.
So far, 89 doctors have been approved by the State Medical Board to recommend medical marijuana once the program goes live.
And an online patient registry and portal is being set up by the pharmacy board.
The location of the dispensaries is key, experts say, because patients or approved caregivers will have to physically go to the dispensaries to get prescriptions filled.
The more dispensaries there are in a certain geographical area the more likely patients are to have access to the right strain of weed to treat their conditions, said Robert Ryan, executive director of the Ohio Patient Network.
The dispensaries will join 25 large and small marijuana growers as the only businesses so far to receive approval for provisional licenses to operate. No other marijuana businesses essential to the program have received preliminary approval, and no businesses have been fully licensed yet.
That includes up to 40 provisional licenses expected to be awarded to companies that will process marijuana into edibles and other permissible forms, and provisional licenses for an unknown number of testing labs necessary to ensure the quality of the medical marijuana sold in the state. Cincinnati Enquirer Reporter Randy Tucker contributed to this report.
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Credit: marionstar.com
