dispensaries

Ohio Medical Cannabis Dispensaries Officially Open

January 18, 2019 by Staff Writer Leave a Comment

Medical cannabis dispensaries in Ohio officially sold the first legal plant medicine this week. According to a report from Ohio 10 TV, four dispensaries were open for the first day of sales. This is good news for patients in need of cannabis medicine, but the state’s program is definitely not without its fair share of complications.

The state government has issued over 56 licenses to dispensaries, but unfortunately, only four of those were open this week – two in Wintersville, one in Canton, and one in Sandusky. A dispensary in the Cleveland area also expects to open within the next few days, according to Ohio 10 TV.

And only cannabis growers are currently licensed and certified to operate. Processing and manufacturing facilities for cannabis will still have to wait longer to be licensed, which is naturally causing some challenges. The medical program in Ohio currently allows for physicians to recommend patients use medical cannabis if they have one of 21 qualifying conditions. At this time, only cannabis flowers are being sold. Edibles, vape pens and tinctures will be available for purchase once the processing centers are open and operating.

As we are seeing with other legal states, the prices of the first legal cannabis being sold in Ohio are sky-high. An ounce of cannabis in Ohio medical cannabis dispensaries costs an astronomical $500. This, of course, isn’t including what it costs to see a doctor for a recommendation, and any costs for a medical card itself. This is a shame, because such high costs encourage the black market to flourish.

In addition to the high costs of the product itself, the medical cannabis program in Ohio has been delayed several times. Cannabis sales were initially slated to being last September, but regulators say that the quality of license applicants was lacking. Ohio Senate Minority Leader Kenny Yuko, a cannabis legalization advocate, made a public statement criticizing the regulatory officials in the state for delaying sales and making patients wait for the cannabis medicine they need. He says that the number of dispensaries and processor licenses needs to continue to grow, creating “An opportunity for the new governor to do right by people who are suffering,” he said.

Yuko went on to urge Ohio Governor Mike DeWine to prioritize the growth of the medical cannabis program in the state. At any rate, at least some Ohio patients are finally given access to the medicine that they need and have been waiting for, and hopefully the program continues to expand successfully.

Ohio Medical Cannabis Dispensaries Officially Open
Source: Marijuana Times

Michigan Sees A Shortage of Medical Cannabis So Unlicensed Facilities Are Re-opened

January 17, 2019 by Staff Writer Leave a Comment

At the beginning of the year Michigan legislature required that all non-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries shut down until proper licensing is obtained. Unfortunately, the closing of over 70 dispensaries left very few with their doors open to patients. This, in turn, abruptly left many patients without access to their medicine.

Last Wednesday, the Medical Marihuana Licensing Board agreed in a unanimous 4-0 vote to allow dispensaries that are in the process of applying for a license and have a local buy-in to re-open their doors – at least until March 31st.

“We have heard from Michiganders closely affected by the ongoing transition to licensed marijuana facilities,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a news release Tuesday. “It is important that we ensure that patients have access to their medicine while the medical marijuana industry continues to develop.”

Along with the lack of open dispensaries, 72 unlicensed provisioning centers were closed at the start of the year and there are not enough established licensed growers in the state. All of this has led to an extreme shortage of product. Regulators have now put temporary regulations in place in an effort to fix this problem, allowing licensed provisioning centers to continue buying marijuana from a caregiver or temporarily operating facility and sell it without testing it until March 31st.

“There is a shortage of supply in the market because there are only a handful of licensed growers in Michigan,” Jeff Schroder with law firm Plunkett Cooney said. “This would allow dispensaries and retail provisioning centers to purchase their quantities from caregivers again.”

However, patients are required to sign an acknowledgement that states that the product has not met complete testing requirements before they are able to purchase it. As it stands now, there are nearly 300,000 medical marijuana cardholders in the state of Michigan. For several years they have been purchasing their medical marijuana from local dispensaries that get their product from unlicensed growers or even local caregivers – so most of them are frustrated with the less than smooth transition to a more regulated market.

“I think it’s a step forward,” said The Reef’s Rush Hassan. “It’s definitely a short term solution but it does open up patient access for these products.”

Until the medical marijuana industry in the state is functioning optimally, it will be almost impossible to successfully roll out the recreational industry that was legalized in November 2018. Hopefully by the time these temporary regulations expire at the end of March there will be enough licenses for the industry to properly sustain itself.

Michigan Sees A Shortage of Medical Cannabis So Unlicensed Facilities Are Re-opened
Source: Marijuana Times

City of Detroit Cracking Down on Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

June 5, 2017 by Staff Writer Leave a Comment

Under a new medical marijuana ordinance that took effect a little over a year ago, the vast majority of medical marijuana dispensaries operating in the city of Detroit have been deemed illegal by authorities. In that time some 167 dispensaries have been forced to close their doors, their patients forced to look elsewhere for their medicine.

In total, 283 dispensaries have been told to cease operations since they were not legally licensed under city rules. “None of them were operating lawfully,” Detroit corporation counsel Melvin Butch Hollowell said. “At the time I sent a letter to each one of them indicating that unless you have a fully licensed facility, you are operating at your own risk.”

The coming weeks will see another 51 closures; as of right now, only 5 are legally licensed to operate. Five dispensaries in a city with over 4 million people in its metro area, in a state with almost 250,000 registered patients.

“The voters of the state made medical marijuana legal so we have to manage that in a way that is consistent with keeping our neighborhoods respected and at the same time, allowing for those dispensaries to operate in their specific areas that we’ve identified as being lawful,” Hollowell said. “There was very significant public input in this process.”

While local control and input is a good thing, there is also the suffering of thousands of medical marijuana patients in Detroit, one of the poorest and most crime-ridden cities in the nation, to consider.

For example, under the new rules, dispensaries are barred from operating within a 1,000-foot radius of a church, school, park, liquor store, another dispensary, library or child care center. Can’t that list be pared-down? Why 1,000 feet from a liquor store or another dispensary? What danger exists at 900 feet that doesn’t exist at 1,100 feet in that situation? And this at a time when the Michigan Liquor Control Commission recently lifted a regulation that state liquor stores have to be at least a half-mile from each other.

One can see why a neighborhood would want sensible requirements for any business that operates near their location. But why is medical cannabis singled out for harsher treatment than other industries, like the alcohol sales industry? Where are the people who depend on those closed dispensaries supposed to go?

Some, to be sure, will go to the handful of legal dispensaries left in the city. But most will end up buying from the black market or even worse, going without their medicine completely. Some of those people will migrate back to addictive and deadly prescription drugs.

But I guess as long as Johnny’s Liquor Store isn’t 700 feet from Bob’s Medical Marijuana Dispensary then all is right with the world.

City of Detroit Cracking Down on Medical Marijuana Dispensaries
Source: Marijuana Times