This is the second installment of The Portager’s three-part series detailing where each community in the county stands on marijuana sales, cultivators, processors and testing labs.
The first installment, published June 26, covered northern Portage County. This article covers central cities, villages and townships. The Portager will publish a final article covering southern Portage County in the coming weeks.
Ohio voters in November approved Issue 2, legalizing recreational marijuana in the state. State officials got busy writing rules and regulations and haven’t finished the job yet.
Even so, the Ohio Division of Cannabis Control, an arm of the state’s Department of Commerce, on June 7 started accepting applications for provisional licenses from current medical marijuana license holders and set a Sept. 7 deadline for granting them.
In Portage County, FN Group Holdings LLC, aka Wellspring Fields, at 4000 Lake Rockwell Road in Ravenna Township, received a provisional license as a level 2 dual-use cultivator. And North Coast Analytical Laboratories LLC at 10100 Wellman Road in Streetsboro received a provisional license as a dual-use testing laboratory.
The Division of Cannabis Control also licenses two medical marijuana dispensaries in the county: Simple AG Ohio, doing business as Supergood at 554 N. Chestnut St. in Ravenna, and Next-Level Operators LLC, doing business as Bliss Ohio at 331 E. Main St. in Kent. As of June 27, neither had received a provisional license as a dual-use dispensary.
FN Group Holdings already holds “processor co-owned, co-located” and level 2 cultivator certificates of operation. Level 2 cultivation licenses permit operating facilities to have up to 3,000 square feet of designated growing space upon initial licensure.
Provisional licenses give facility owners time to meet the standards the state is setting for actual certificates of operation. They do not allow the owners to begin commercial operations or sales, and the state has not indicated when properly licensed medical marijuana dispensaries may begin such sales.
There is also no word when the state will begin accepting applications from entrepreneurs who wish to sell only recreational marijuana, much less start granting those licenses. And, according to the Division of Cannabis Control’s website, the state also reserves the right to amend the laws governing adult-use marijuana at any time.
Franklin Township in April 2023 renewed its 2019 moratorium (first enacted in 2017) on medical marijuana dispensaries, cultivators, processors and distributors. In December 2023, township trustees extended the moratorium to include adult-use (recreational) marijuana dispensaries.
The moratoriums do not have an end date. Township trustees state in the resolutions that they wish to see “the practical impact and actual implementation” of the state’s rules and regulations before they would consider any such activities in the township.
Kent is home to Bliss Ohio, one of the county’s two licensed medical marijuana dispensaries. City council in June partially lifted its temporary moratorium, first enacted in January, on adult-use (recreational) cannabis, cannabis operators, testing labs “and individuals” to allow sales of recreational marijuana and vape retail stores in the city’s industrial districts.
Level 1, 2 and 3 adult-use cultivators are welcome, as are adult-use processors, testing labs, dispensaries and sales.
Adult-use cannabis facilities must be located at least 500 feet from any residential district. Adult-use facilities also have to be further than 500 feet from all schools, churches, public libraries, public playgrounds, public parks and community addiction services providers.
That eliminates the downtown area, placing the closest possible sites on Mogadore Road or near the Crain Avenue bridge, both of which are “walkable from downtown,” Council Member Chris Hook said.
Vape shops and adult-use facilities must be sited at least 500 feet apart from each other.
Since Bliss Ohio is not in an industrial district, city officials are considering a separate operating agreement that would exempt the dispensary from the strictures of the recently enacted zoning amendment, Hook said.
He said he looks forward to reexamining Kent’s newly amended zoning code once the state finalizes its rules and regulations regarding adult-use facilities.
Ravenna is home to Supergood, the county’s only other medical marijuana facility, located in one of the city’s industrial zones at 554 N. Chestnut St.
City council in May placed a one-year moratorium on adult-use dispensaries and banned all adult-use dispensaries from Ravenna’s central business district. The moratorium limits licensed dispensaries, cultivators and processors to the city’s industrial zoning districts.
It excludes Supergood, and council members noted the dispensary owners are eligible to apply for a dual-use license from the state.
The city currently allows medical marijuana dispensaries as a conditionally permitted use in commercial districts, including the central business district.
“According to Ohio law, this city cannot stop Supergood from selling recreational marijuana because we’ve permitted medical marijuana at the site,” City Engineer Bob Finney said. “City council will reconsider the marijuana moratorium once the state has final guidelines and the city’s comprehensive plan has been completed and approved by city council.”
Citing needed modifications, Ravenna’s planning commission recently tabled Supergood’s application for a parking lot expansion. Once the commission approves the dispensary owner’s site plan, city council will take up the matter, Finney said.
Ravenna Township allows processors and cultivation, but does not permit dispensaries of any kind at this time, Trustee Jim DiPaola said. Trustees are waiting for the state to finalize its rules and regulations regarding all marijuana facilities before approving resolutions regarding dispensaries and testing labs.
The township is home to FN Group Holdings, which does business as Wellspring Fields and holds a provisional license as a dual-use level 2 cultivator, a certificate of operation as a level 2 cultivator and a certificate of operation as a processor.
Streetsboro’s Planning Commission in March greenlit Wellspring Fields’ request to site a combined medical and adult-use dispensary in a former leather shop at 9156 State Route 14, near the town square. The facility would be contingent on FN Group Holdings receiving a dual-use license, which hasn’t yet happened.
At this time, the state is only accepting applications for dual-use cannabis licenses from current medical marijuana cultivators, processors, testing laboratories and dispensaries. FN Group Holdings does not hold a medical marijuana dispensary license, and it is unclear when or if the state will accept or issue additional applications for solely medical, recreational or dual-use dispensaries.
Less than a month after Ohio voters approved Issue 2, Charlestown Township trustees unanimously banned adult-use cannabis operators and medical marijuana cultivators, processors and retail establishments. Their Nov. 27, resolution cited “the best interest of the township.”
“We just didn’t see any benefit by having that. The only people who are going to reap any money from this are the municipalities that have dispensaries,” Trustee Bruce Lange said.
The township trustees are open to revisiting their decision, and will proceed with whatever they feel is best for the majority of citizens of Charlestown, he said.
Paris Township has not taken an official stance. Like Ravenna Township, the trustees are waiting for the state’s final rules and regulations regarding all marijuana facilities before approving resolutions, Trustee Dorene Spicer said.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.