For Brian Wingfield, the early hours of Tuesday morning felt like the end of December, even though it was already 75 degrees Fahrenheit in Columbus at 4 a.m.
“I felt like a child on Christmas morning, getting up before his parents, knowing he can’t get out of bed yet, and just sitting there waiting for the right time to get up,” Wingfield said in an interview.
He owns three medical marijuana dispensaries, and Ohio Cannabis Co. was among 98 dispensaries across the state that received a dual-use operating license to sell to both medical and non-medical customers age 21 or older.
The Division of Cannabis Control, which oversees the recreational program, began notifying dispensaries of their operating permits on Friday – the final piece of the puzzle most had been waiting for. Before Friday, only cultivators, processors and labs had the permits.
A few days later, nationwide sales began on Tuesday.
Just off Interstate 75 in Piqua, some of Ohio Cannabis Co.’s first non-medical customers waited for a short line outside and a crowded waiting room inside, where most flipped through a printed product packet while others were led down the double-door hallway to make a purchase. Under the summer sun, a line of cars waiting in the drive-thru line for online orders snaked around the black-and-brown building at times.
Todd Toner, 47, and his son Sean, 24, took a break from their family’s drywall installation business and made the short drive from Sidney.
“When we got here, there was already a line and everything,” Sean said in an interview in the parking lot after shopping inside. “It was almost full.”
His father said he was not upset about the cost of their individual loot, which included flowers and edibles hidden in black plastic bags.
“I didn’t drive to Michigan, but I know people who have done it,” Toner said in an interview. “It’s been there so long that they have so many pharmacies, they basically flooded the market, and then they had to become competitive, and their prices went down.”
He expects Ohio to follow that trend. Ozius Sharp, on the other hand, let his health insurance card expire before selling it for recreational purposes, but is now reconsidering it.
“I’ll do the math,” Sharp said in an interview.
The soon-to-be 29-year-old said the non-medical prices put him off. He bought a THC cartridge.
“I didn’t freak out today. It wasn’t like a kid in a candy store,” Sharp said.
The products are more expensive, Wingfield says, because there are concerns about shortages – even in the next two to three months. It will take some time for producers to gain a foothold in the non-medical sector, which is much broader than before.
“And then we’ll see prices come back down,” Wingfield said. “As someone who’s been on both sides of the counter, I’d like to see prices come down as well.”
He believes that this shortage will be most severe in plant products, less so in processed products such as cartridges or oils.
Despite the price, Sharp said he was excited that Ohio has legalized recreational cultivation, consumption and sales.
“I think it provides me and a lot of other people with a safe way to work despite our medical conditions,” he said. “Just having the opportunity to go there, even if you have to pay a little more to do it, that’s a big deal. It saves lives.”
