Ohio is planning to nearly double the number of medical marijuana dispensaries in the state by the next year.
Businesses will be able to apply for 73 new dispensary licenses this summer. This will bring the statewide total to 130. Consequently, on Monday, the Ohio Board of Pharmacy approved the expansion.
Under the expansion plan, applications will need to apply by the same rules as the initial 2017 application process. This includes the security and business plan requirements. Applicants that meet the qualifications will be entered into a lottery to allocate licenses by the dispensary district. A dispensary district is typically, one county or a group of two or three smaller counties. Businesses with current licenses have a limit of five total licenses statewide.
Patient Demand is Growing
Initially, in 2017 the pharmacy board set a limit of 60 medical marijuana dispensaries, spread amongst the state by single or multi-county districts. They based this number on the estimated patient count between 12,00 and 24,000 over a two-year timeline.
Now there are at least 92,772 patients with active registrations. In 2018 the board awarded 57 new licenses, although three districts did not have enough qualified applicants to award the maximum number of licenses.
In January 2019 four of the dispensaries began making sales. The majority of the others were operational by the end of the summer. But five still have yet to open.
This push comes as more patients are complaining about high prices and the long distances they travel to find a dispensary that provides certain products. The board’s director of medical marijuana operations, Maerten-Moore said that these two factors are the main reason patients are not renewing their cards.
“We feel that if additional dispensaries are added and patient travel decreases and due to more competition in the market, prices will decrease over time,” Maerten-Moore said Monday.
Commitment to Expand
The board every two years considers expansion. Based on the state population, patient population, and geographic distribution of patients. Ohio has fewer dispensaries per capita than Pennsylvania and Michigan.
The expansion is based on the number of patients in each district. For example, Franklin County currently has six dispensaries. Their number will increase to 15. Hamilton County currently has three and that will increase to 11. Summit County currently has three and that will increase to five.
When determining the number for expansion the board considers multiple statistics. The expansion aims to average 1,200 patients per dispensary per district and 300 to 600 per dispensary.
An exact timeline for accepting applications has not been set, but it will most likely not begin before June.
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