Oxford’s medical marijuana dispensaries could be licensed to sell recreational cannabis by September 2024, according to the Ohio Department of Commerce’s Division of Cannabis Control (DCC) and an industry lawyer.
Consume Cannabis at 3620 Southpointe Parkway and Pure Iconic at 5280 College Corner Pike will be the only two businesses allowed to sell recreational cannabis in Oxford. A Jan. 16 ordinance by the city limited the number of licenses for recreational sale to two, and awarded both to the already-existing medical dispensaries, which will be able to apply for licensing at the state level when Ohio finalizes its legislation.
As a medical dispensary, Pure Iconic will enter a lottery to become a “dual-use” dispensary. The license it will seek has been designated a 10(B) license by Ohio.
Licensing will take months, though, as Ohio lawmakers work out the specifics. Paula Givens, a cannabis industry attorney and member of Pure Iconic’s ownership, wrote in an email that she doesn’t expect the state to get things up and running before September.
“September is the best case scenario for the 10(B) licenses if there is no legislative intervention, assuming the lottery process goes very smoothly,” Givens wrote.
As a prospective 10(B) licensee, Pure Iconic is gearing up for increased sales.
“We are also working with our vendors to ensure that when adult use sales begin that we have a sufficient supply, including variety, to serve the anticipated volume of adult use consumers,” Givens wrote. “Adult use is going to create far more consumer traffic than we have now. We will be adding many new positions/employees prior to day 1 of adult use sales.”
City Manager Jessica Greene said the incentive to cap Oxford dispensaries at two came from looking at the high number of local tobacco and vape shops.
“What happened with us, kind of by surprise, was a proliferation of tobacco and vape shops, and that was really shocking,” Greene said.
Seeing how those stores popped up, the city decided to prevent non-medical dispensaries from doing the same before any stores became operational.
According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 1.3 million Ohioans over the age of 18 reported using marijuana within a month of the survey in 2021. Voters in Butler County favored recreational cannabis, with 57% support in last November’s election. In Oxford’s precincts, thousands voted “yes” on Issue 2, suggesting the industry could be sizable.
Wild Berry manager Kimberly Clark expects sales to decline for their marijuana-related products as consumers switch to getting their paraphernalia straight from licensed dispensaries.
“With other states that have passed recreational, it negatively impacts existing head shops almost without fail,” Clark said.
The gift store, which sells glassware and growing supplies, won’t make any big changes in response to the new laws and will continue to rely centrally on its incense sales. People who are not medical patients or caretakers are still not allowed in Ohio dispensaries, and marijuana cannot be smoked in public according to the DCC’s FAQ on the matter.
