Ohio regulators have chosen the final 12 medical cannabis cultivators rounding out the 24 firms approved by the state out of 185 applicants, according to a Business Insider report. The new approvals include 11 large growers are one small cultivator.
The large-scale growers – up to 25,000 square feet – had to pay $20,000 just to apply to operate in the state, while their initial licenses cost $180,000 and renewals run $200,000 per year.
The large growers chosen include: Grow Ohio Pharmaceuticals LLC, OPC Cultivation LLC Riviera Creek Holdings, Pure Ohio Wellness LLC, Columbia Care OH LLC, Terradiol Ohio LLC, AT-CPC of Ohio LLC, Standard Wellness Company LLC in Gibsonburg, Cresco Labs Ohio LLC, Parma Wellness Center LLC, Harvest Grows LLC, and Buckeye Relief LLC. The small grower selected was Farkas Farms LLC.
Ohio officials upped the number of available cultivation licenses from 18 to 24 in April.
The approvals push the state one step closer toward making medical cannabis available for patients, which is expected in September. In August, the state awarded the $1.2 million seed-to-sale contract to Lakeland, Florida’s Metrc, and a $573,600 licensing contract to Persistent Systems Inc. to handle the design, development, and implementation of cannabis cultivation, processing, and laboratory licenses.
Under the original legislature-approved law, product testing would have been the responsibility of institutes of higher education; and, to that end, Hocking College, a two-year technical school, and Central State University in Columbus have both applied. However, regulators determined more labs would be needed and opened up an application window for private labs from Nov. 27 to Dec. 8.