For the first time, a company has been given the go-ahead to start growing marijuana in Ohio. The group just received an official cultivator license from the state.
Now, more than a dozen other companies are lined up for inspections, though it’s likely not enough to keep the state’s medical marijuana program on schedule.
WellSpring Fields in Portage County will start growing marijuana for medical purposes after receiving the state’s first cultivator license.
The state has a whole slate of inspections scheduled, including seven more in July. According to the Medical Marijuana Control Program, it will also issue two provisional licenses for testing laboratories, for Central State University and Hocking College.
In June, Ohio awarded 56 provisional dispensary licenses for businesses to sell medical marijuana. The sites were given just six months to meet state operation requirements. Of those licenses, Central Ohio received five, while areas in Northeast Ohio and Southwest Ohio were not awarded any.
Medicinal marijuana will officially be legal to distribute, sell, and purchase on September 8.
However, due to a delay in issuing licenses, the Ohio Department of Commerce says it’s unlikely the crop will be ready by then.