State delays marijuana cultivation licenses

The Ohio Department of Commerce announced this week that it is delaying the awarding of licenses for cultivating marijuana by two months until November 2017, a move that may mean the state misses its September 2018 deadline for the availability of medical marijuana (Source: “Pot growers worry Ohio will miss deadline for finished product,” Columbus Dispatch, Aug. 10, 2017).

The deadline change means the nascent cannabis industry will have only about 10 months to build growing facilities, grow and process a crop, go through inspections and permitting processes and get products in the hands of patients. House Bill 523, which legalized medical marijuana in Ohio, mandates that the program be fully operational by Sept. 8, 2018.

“We are well on track to reach the September 2018 deadline,” said Kerry Francis, spokeswoman for the Commerce Department. The time frame is not officially shortened, she said, because there was never a previously announced deadline for the cultivator licenses.