A week after Ohio recreational marijuana sales became legal, one local dispensary owner said sales have boomed and include customers from other states.
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Recreational marijuana sales in Ohio have been legal for a week and business is booming.
Sales in Ohio and the Greater Cincinnati area are rivaling some of the top cannabis markets in the country. It’s also attracting customers from nearby states, where recreational marijuana isn’t legal.
“We’re seeing numbers at dispensaries that rival numbers in established markets like Illinois, that have been up and running for years,” Jason Erkes of Cresco Labs said. “We’re seeing that in the first week in Ohio.”
Cresco Labs owns Sunnyside Dispensary in Cincinnati. Erkes said the demand has been high from Ohioans and out-of-staters.
“We’re seeing a lot of out-of-state licenses when people are checking in,” Erkes said. “A lot of out-of-state license plates in the parking lot. We know that people want access to regulated lab-tested products and they don’t have access to that in those states.”
Anyone from Indiana or Kentucky, where marijuana sales are prohibited, can buy cannabis in Ohio if they’re old enough. But bringing it across state lines is illegal because marijuana is illegal at the federal level.
“Some people are willing to take that risk to get safe products,” Erkes said. “Once they walk out of the dispensary, where they consume it is really on them.”
Erkes said he couldn’t give a specific number or percentage on out-of-state sales and customers, but he’s seen enough to know there’s a market in those states.
“Those states are leaving a lot of tax revenue on the table,” Erkes said.
Not all of Ohio’s neighbors have prohibited recreational marijuana sales. Michigan legalized recreational marijuana in 2018 and prices are considerably lower there.
“Every state has a different set of structures and rules,” Erkes said. “Michigan is not a limited license state, which means the state is really saturated with stores and they’re competing against each other driving prices down and a lot of businesses are failing.”
While prices are higher and consumers are spending more, Erkes believes Ohio’s approach is better for the long term.
“By allowing it to ramp up with a number of stores and building on that, it’s really a smart way to make sure there’s stability and sustainability in the cannabis program,” Erkes said.
FOX19 NOW reached out to the Kentucky State Police to ask how they would approach the interstate transport of cannabis from Ohio to Kentucky. We asked whether people should expect more patrols near bridges or should use increased caution during traffic stops, but KSP hadn’t replied at the time this article was published.
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