The Ohio state government has bestowed Grow Ohio with the state’s first medical marijuana processor certificate.
With this, the medical marijuana patients in the state will now have a wide variety of options to choose from viz. topical creams, edible oil, tinctures, etc. Earlier, the patients were restricted to only the marijuana flower as no other variant was available at the dispensaries, which opened in January.
Unlike the majority of US states, Ohio is still struggling to set its foot in the legal marijuana market. The state had legalized cannabis for medical use in 2016; however, even after three long years, not much has changed. The reasons for the delay were numerous- poor licensing process, lethargy in announcing the dispensary locations, lawsuits, etc.
As January came, patients had to go through a lot of setbacks, including dealing with aggressive law enforcement, limited access to dispensaries, confiscations and interference from healthcare providers.
Now with Grow Ohio in the picture, things should get easier for both patients and businesses alike. However, this was just the first processor permit; state regulators are now looking to award 39 more certificates at the earliest.
Being a licensed processor, a company has the authority to convert its own harvested buds into a number of forms, like oil, tinctures, capsules, edibles, ointments, etc. Grow Ohio, through an official statement, stated that it will first produce edible oil, and tinctures, and later it will move its focus to topical creams and capsules.
Ohio, just like most of the other states, does not allow patients to smoke their medical marijuana. Since it was, so far, available only in the flower form, patients were left with no other option than to buy expensive herb vaporizers. Although smoking cannabis can hamper with the respiratory system, it still remains the most inexpensive method of consuming cannabis- whether medical or recreational.
Employing around 80 people, Grow Ohio boasts a 60,000 square feet indoor cultivation and processing facility. After receiving the state’s first medical marijuana processing certificate, the company is now looking to quickly expand its business.
