It was exciting for people to finally be able to purchase legal products and step onto this market.
By Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal
Ohio legal marijuana sales reached $702.5 Million in their first year.
This week marks one year since Ohio began selling recreational marijuana and sales totaled $702,587,948 with 109,706 pounds sold as of Tuesday, according to the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Cannabis Control. Average price per gram was $6.63 during the week from July 27 to August 2.
Pete Nischt is the vice president responsible for communications and compliance at Klutch Cannabis. “The first-day sales were awesome,” he said. “It was really exciting to see people across the state finally get to step into this legal market and purchase safe products… I think there were still a lot of people at the time that thought the sky was falling.”
Ohioans passed a citizen-initiated law to legalize recreational marijuana in 2023 with 57 percent of the vote, and sales started in August 2024. Ohio lawmakers have the power to change this law, since it is a citizen’s initiative rather than a constitutional amendment.
Ohio Cannabis Coalition Executive Director David Bowling said there is still work to be done around letting people know they can legally buy marijuana in Ohio.
He said: “I speak to people every day who don’t know that they can legally buy cannabis.” “From a revenue perspective, things aren’t exactly where we thought they would be, but they’re not terrible,” Bowling said. “I believe people believed we’d get close to $2 billion of revenue,” Bowling said.
Nischt says that Klutch Cannabis’ four Northeast Ohio dispensaries regularly have customers who are first-time marijuana users.
He said, “For people who used the product decades ago, but hadn’t used them in years, there are so many changes now. One of the great things about a state-regulated market is the fact that regulations have addressed a lot the concerns that people, including myself, had regarding these products.”[You] “We now produce high-quality products in a facility that is safe.”
Ohio has 159 dispensaries licensed to sell both medical and recreational marijuana, according to the Ohio Department of Commerce. The number of dispensaries licensed in Ohio is not currently limited.
Ohio lawmakers have tried—unsuccessfully so far—to change Ohio’s marijuana laws.
Ohio Senate Bill 56 passed in the Senate earlier this year, but has yet to make it out of committee in the House.
The bill would reduce the THC levels in adult-use marijuana extracts from a maximum of 90 percent down to a maximum of 70 percent, limit the number of active dispensaries to 400 and prohibit smoking in most public places.
S.B. 56 would also regulate intoxicating hemp products. Intoxicating hemp product sales would only be allowed by licensed marijuana dispensaries that met packaging, labeling, and advertising standards. Ohio Department of Commerce will regulate the intoxicating products made from hemp and cannabinoid.
In the 2018 Farm Bill hemp that contains less than 0.3 % THC can be legally grown.
Bowling, a city in Ohio, wants to see lawmakers take action against the use of hemp as a drug.
The intoxicating issue with hemp is still a problem on the legislative side, and that’s what will move the program forward,” said he. “I believe when [the lawmakers] “Come back to October. There’s definitely a desire to do that.”
The original publication of this story is Ohio Capital Journal.