Today is another important day for Ohio. The Ohio Department of Development’s Division of Cannabis Control (DCC) has issued 98 Certificates of Operation (COO) to dispensaries across the state, allowing them to sell recreational marijuana at their existing medical marijuana locations (i.e., a “dual-use” license). The COOs issued represent nearly 75% of the provisional licenses previously issued. The remaining provisional licenses will not be issued until those licensees meet the requirements to obtain a COO.
All locations of the dispensaries that have received their COOs can be found on the DCC’s website, which the DCC will update as it issues additional COOs. As the DCC noted, although these dispensaries have been issued COOs, not all of them will be open for adult-use sales today. Opening dates will be determined by each licensee.
What’s next?
Readers may recall from our previous articles that on June 7, in addition to accepting applications for dual-use licenses, DCC also began accepting applications for “10(B)” licenses. Under the 10(B) program, Tier I medical marijuana cultivators, Tier II medical marijuana cultivators, and medical marijuana dispensaries that do not share common ownership or control with a cultivator or processor and that had their medical operating certificate or provisional license as of December 7, 2023 were eligible to apply for these licenses. After being issued a 10(B) operating certificate, these licensees are permitted to operate at locations other than their current medical or dual-use location. Because these locations are largely sites being built from scratch (i.e., they must be built out and then inspected by DCC), COOs for these locations are not issued as quickly as for dual-use licenses and may require some legal savvy in some cases. As with COOs issued for dual-use licenses, the DCC pharmacy card is updated when 10(B) COOs are issued.
Congratulations, Ohio!
