Update, 7:05 a.m.:
A Madisonville resident made the first recreational marijuana purchase at a Greater Cincinnati dispensary Tuesday morning, the first day of legal sales in Ohio.
A crowd of roughly a dozen people gathered outside the Sunnyside dispensary on Kennedy Avenue in Columbia Township before daylight Tuesday hoping to be among the first to buy recreational marijuana legally in Ohio.
Jeff Riede was first in line. The 55-year-old said he’d been waiting in his car in the parking lot since about 6:30 p.m. Monday for the dispensary to open at 7 a.m. He planned to buy edibles and some flower.
“Yeah, I slept in my car,” Riede said. “This is pretty epic to me. I wanted to be the first one here.”
Riede, who is self-employed, said he's been smoking marijuana since he was 18, but he doesn’t like the risk associated with buying marijuana on the black market. That’s one of the reasons he’s so excited about the dispensary opening for recreational users.
“It’s just safer at the dispensary,” he said. “You don’t have to worry about getting arrived or about it (marijuana) being laced with something that might hurt you.”
Previous reporting:
Bummer.
That’s how several regular medical marijuana customers at the Sunnyside dispensary in Oakley reacted Monday to staff members setting up for sales of non-medical cannabis.
The dispensary is expected to be one of the first in the state to sell marijuana for recreational use when it opens its doors at 7 a.m. Tuesday.
Some customers were anticipating long lines and a crowded parking lot, which they said brought them to the dispensary Monday to get ahead of the crowds.
Smart move, according to Jason Erkes, chief communications officer at Chicago-based Cresco Labs, which owns Sunnyside.
“I would think that medical patients are aware of how crowded it’s going to be tomorrow and realize it’s probably not the best day to come shopping for their medicine,’’ he said. “But if they do, their medical card will be a VIP card and get them right through to get their medicine.’’
Erkes said he based his crowd estimate on the barrage of calls the store has received since Ohio’s Division of Cannabis Control announced Friday that it intended to issue the first dual-use certificates of operation to eligible dispensaries.
“It’s been nonstop,’’ he said. “People are asking how early they can come to wait in the parking lot to try to be one of the first customers. There’s a lot of excitement. People want to be part of history.’’
Where is it being sold?
On Monday, the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Cannabis Control said 98 dispensaries are set to be issued dual-use certificates of operation statewide Tuesday morning.
The 19 in the Cincinnati region are:
- Ascend Dispensary Outlet, 830 Reedy St., Cincinnati.
- Beyond Hello, 693 Old State Route 74, Cincinnati.
- Bloom Medicinals, 403 S. Main St., Seven Mile.
- Columbia Care, 300 N. Main Street, Monroe.
- Consume Oxford, 3620 Southpointe Pkwy, Oxford.
- Nectar, 3405 Werk Road, Cincinnati.
- Pure Iconic, 5280 College Corner Pike, Oxford.
- Queen City Cannabis, 3764 Montgomery Road, Norwood.
- Queen City Cannabis, 10140 Suspension Bridge Road, Harrison.
- Shangri-La Dispensary, 211 Brooks Dr., Monroe.
- Shangri-La Dispensary, 100 Clarence F. Warner Dr., Monroe.
- Sunyside, 5149 Kennedy Ave., Cincinnati.
- The Forest Cincinnati, 4412 Mount Carmel Tobasco Road, Cincinnati.
- The Landing, 4029 Smith Road, Cincinnati.
- The Landing, 1312 Hamilton Lebanon Road, Monroe.
- Uplift, 101 Mercy Boulevard, Mount Orab.
- Uplift, 401 Rivers Edge, Milford.
- Verilife, 5431 Ridge Ave., Cincinnati.
- Zen Leaf Cincinnati, 8420 Vine St., Cincinnati.
These dispensaries will be allowed to sell to both medical and recreational customers age 21 and older.
"The issuance of (certificates) is based on roughly the order in which completed applications were received by the Division and when compliance asks were fulfilled," the agency said in a statement. "To help ensure a fair and equitable rollout of the non-medical cannabis market in Ohio, the Division intends to award (certificates) to all remaining eligible dispensaries later this week."
Adults 21 and older can possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis and 15 grams of extracts or edibles in Ohio since voters legalized its use inlast November's election.
But there are limits on what you can buy in one transaction. Initially, recreational customers can purchase no more than:
- One ounce of dried plant material, called flower.
- Ten units of oil to vape, each containing 590mg of THC.
- Ten packages of edibles totaling no more than 1,100mg of THC.
The caps are combined across all types of products. That means you can't purchase the maximum amount of flower, vape cartridges and edibles in one sitting.
The Enquirer will update this report.
