Ohio’s governor says the state’s current marijuana law—under which it is now legal for adults to grow, possess and consume but with no place to purchase regulated cannabis—has created a “goofy situation” and “real mess” in light of the fact that retailers aren’t expected to open for business until at least the end of this year.
“It’s legal to consume marijuana. It’s legal to grow marijuana. But you can’t buy the seeds and you can’t buy the marijuana,” Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said Thursday in a media interview. “All this is doing is fostering a bigger black market, because people think they can buy it legally, and you’re seeing advertising that is being done.”
DeWine proposed allowing the state’s existing medical dispensaries to begin selling marijuana to all adults, not just registered medical patients—a change that would need to be made by state lawmakers.
“Give us the authority to start selling marijuana in the state of Ohio, and the way that we would have to do it, to start with at least, is to do the medical dispensaries,” he said. “We could do that and probably turn that on within about 60 days after the legislature passes an initiative.”
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