State gets 370 pot dispensary applications

11/20/2017

COLUMBUS — The state of Ohio has received 18 applications seeking to open local retail outlets for medical marijuana products in Lucas County.

Friday marked the deadline for applications for businesses that would be licensed to sell oils, patches, edibles, plant matter, and other approved products for medical use only.

The Ohio Board of Pharmacy received 370 applications for dispensary licenses. The rules provide for up to 60 licenses to be approved statewide, but no applications were submitted for two geographic districts of Ohio that were slated for a total of three licenses.

Pharmacy spokesman Cameron McNamee said those slots will not be shifted to other regions so, for now, a maximum of 57 can be awarded this round. Up to two can be approved for Lucas County. Final decisions have not been made.

The entire northwest Ohio quadrant was to be limited to a total of 10. But one of the districts making up that quadrant — the one containing Indiana border counties Paulding, Van Wert, and Mercer — was one of those in which no applications were submitted.

That region was slated to receive one license. The other region that won’t be served, one located in southwest Ohio, had been slated for two dispensaries.

A single application was received in District 1 on the northwest quadrant, the district covering Defiance, Williams, and Fulton counties. Assuming it qualifies under the scoring system, Cannabiz LLC in Defiance County, which lists Jamie Ridenour as contact, would be virtually assured of receiving that district’s license.

In addition to the 18 Lucas County applications, five were submitted from Erie County, three from Wood County, three from Sandusky County, and the one from Defiance.

According to records obtained from the Toledo Plan Commission, 12 of the 18 applications were submitted to be located in the city of Toledo.

According to the pharmacy board, applications to obtain licenses in cities or townships outside Toledo but in Lucas County came from 127 OH, LLC, Bloom Medicinal, with Nicole Van Rensburg listed as the main contact; Glass City Alternatives, LLC, with Mark Jacobs listed as agent; KDJOH, LLC, with Mitchell Kahn as contact; Serenity Dispensary & Wellness Center, LLC, with Deitra Hickey as contact; Sheerpower Clinic, Inc., with Kenneth Power as contact, and WGB, LLC, with Steven Weisman as contact.

On the Toledo list, Glass City Alternatives and GTI Ohio have submitted documents to Toledo to obtain special use permits to operate dispensaries within a block of each other. Glass City Alternatives, which hosted a neighborhood meeting two weeks ago to discuss their plans, is scheduled to go before the Toledo Plan Commission on Dec. 7.

Mr. Shteyngarts of Temperance said he believes application submitted by his group, Goodtree Healthcare, has an excellent chance of winning one of the two Lucas County sites. He said his company also is asking to have a level 1 cultivation operation on Summit Street in North Toledo.

The Commerce Department could approve more if it decides the market will bear it after the program is up and running by Sept. 8, 2018.

A number of applicants submitted multiple applications for licenses at differing sites in the state.

The state kept pushing back the application filing deadline on Friday because of the heavy volume of last-minute applications. Mr. McNamee said there is no target date for approving the licenses.

“We are certainly cognizant of the Sept. 8, 2018, deadline to get the program operational, but we have not put out a time frame for scoring applications,” he said.

He noted that it is possible that fewer than 57 applications might be awarded if applications don’t meet the minimum scores.

The dispensaries would serve as the last stop in the newly legal supply chain for patients or their caregivers. The state had already announced licenses for smaller growing facilities and is expected to announce approvals for larger-scale operations yet this month.

In addition to dispensaries, still to come are licenses for processors and a testing facility.

According to the pharmacy board, three applications were submitted for the single location to serve the counties of Wood, Henry, and Hancock counties.

Debbie's Dispensary Ohio 2, with Sara Presler as contact, is proposing a dispensary at 106 Napoleon Rd. in Bowling Green. Serenity Dispensary & Wellness Center has selected 2701 Woodville Rd., in Northwood, and Glass City Alternatives is asking for approval for a third site in Wood County.

Other applications for northwest Ohio sites came from Cannamed Therapeutics LLC, also known as Terrasana Labs, with Todd Yaross as contact in Sandusky County; Ohio Way LLC with Rita Tsalyuk as contact, also in Sandusky County; Eagle Dispensaries, LLC, with James Kaufman as contact, in Erie County; Golden Buckeye Wellness LLC with Pradipkumar Patel as contact, in Erie County; Great Lakes Alternative Medicine LLC, doing business as First Choice Medical with Gregg Winnestaffer as contact, in Erie County, OPC Retail, LLC, also doing business as Ohio Patients’ Choice, with Jeffrey McCourt as contact, in Erie County; The Forest Fremont LLC, also known as Forest Ohio LLC, with Erik Vaughan as contact, in Sandusky County, and The Forest Sandusky, LLC, with the same information for Fremont site, also in Erie.

Contact Jim Provance at jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.