Streetsboro City Council on Monday tweaked its zoning code to regulate marijuana dispensaries and businesses selling unregulated psychoactive substances.
The code bans medical marijuana and adult-use cultivators, processors and testing labs, and classifies businesses that are both licensed medical marijuana dispensaries and adult-use recreational marijuana dispensaries as single dispensaries. Streetsboro does not currently have a marijuana dispensary of any kind.
The state Commerce Department last week began accepting applications from medical marijuana dispensaries that wish to also become licensed as recreational marijuana dispensaries. The state set a Sept. 7 deadline for approving or denying license applications, but has indicated that approval could come sooner, and that recreational sales could start in a few weeks.
Would-be entrepreneurs that do not own medical marijuana dispensaries but wish to sell recreational marijuana have until June 14 to submit their applications and nonrefundable $5,000 fees. The Ohio Lottery will hold a drawing June 21, and businesses selected in that drawing will also receive their licenses by Sept. 7, provided they meet the state’s other application criteria.
The county’s only medical marijuana dispensaries are Bliss Ohio in Kent and Supergood in Ravenna, but Streetsboro is looking ahead to gaining its own dual-use dispensary.
Streetsboro’s Planning Commission in March greenlit entrepreneur Tom Hobson’s plans to site a combined medical and adult-use dispensary in a former leather shop at 9156 Route 14, near the town square. The state has not indicated when it will begin accepting applications for additional medical marijuana facilities. Hobson owns Wellspring Fields, the county’s only medical marijuana cultivation site, in Ravenna Township.
The state’s draft rules stipulate that no two dispensaries can be within a mile of each other, but Streetsboro’s code specifies a 2,000-foot distance. Had Streetsboro’s ordinance adhered to the state’s one-mile limit, a second dispensary could only be located near the city limits, Mayor Glenn Broska said.
Streetsboro currently has five retail businesses that sell paraphernalia, cannabinoid compounds and derivatives as a primary business. Streetsboro’s ordinance cuts that number to three and sets a 1,000-foot distance between establishments.
Competition is good, but an oversaturation of the market could result in businesses being unsuccessful, Broska said, adding that the city isn’t about to close the five existing shops, but if one or two of them closes, they will not be replaced.
Though unregulated products like Delta-8 or Delta-9 can be obtained in many grocery stores and gas stations, there is no way to know if the state’s final rules would allow adult-use dispensaries to sell them.
Wary of what any of the state’s final rules might be, different towns are taking different approaches. Bliss co-owners Pamela and Dwayne Siekman asked Kent City Council in April to lift a city-wide moratorium on adult-use dispensaries, but received a hard no.
With nearby cities taking a more proactive approach, the Siekmans held out the real possibility that Bliss could have little choice but to move out of Kent just to stay in business.
Aurora also has a 12-month moratorium on marijuana dispensaries and is eying a permanent ban on all cannabis operations. Its legislation, citing the lack of the city’s planning and zoning framework and the state’s lack of final regulations, was first enacted in November 2023.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.