CLEVELAND — It’s been a long time coming, and there’s a good chance medical marijuana will be available to patients by the end of the week. At least three dispensaries are expected to open their doors at some point this week.
But a few things still must go right. Processors, testing labs and dispensaries have to be on the same page. Those involved in the process are confident this is the week.
Ohio’s medical marijuana program has been slow to get off the ground, more than two years in the making.
Buckeye Relief was the first to harvest their crop of marijuana last month. It wasn’t until after a 3-week drying process that they were able to move marijuana to the next step which was the testing phase. That has now happened.
There are at least two testing labs operating in the state. They’re responsible for telling us the potency of the cannabis and making sure it can be safely used to treat patients.
We took you inside North Coast Labs and the other is a lab at Hocking College. While Hocking’s first tests aren’t complete, North Coast is already generating results that prove marijuana is ready to go. Because there are only two facilities doing the work so far, they’re getting slammed with requests for testing.
As far as dispensaries go, they’re the last part of the chain. Three of them plan to open this week with products on the shelves. The first to receive full licensing was CY+ in Wintersville. The other two are The Forest in Sandusky and The Botanist expected to open in Canton this week.
The Forest tells WKYC that they will be opening on Wednesday morning at 9:00 a.m.
The Botanist also was awarded a certificate of operation for a Wickliffe location, but didn’t say whether it would open this week.
At the end of 2018, 4,962 patients had been entered in the medical marijuana registry meaning there’s a lot of business to go around.
Dispensaries are warning customers that lines are likely and there’s a good chance the program starts off with a small inventory of products. But for patients who have been waiting, anything is better than nothing.
For those looking to visit a dispensary when they open, security will be tight. Only patients and caregivers who are actively registered will be allowed inside the dispensary doors.