{"id":195742,"date":"2025-08-10T20:55:57","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T01:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=195742"},"modified":"2025-08-10T20:55:58","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T01:55:58","slug":"legal-pot-sales-top-700m-in-year-no-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/08\/10\/legal-pot-sales-top-700m-in-year-no-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal pot sales top $700M in Year No. 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

VW independent staff\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COLUMBUS — Ohio legal marijuana sales topped $702.5 million in the first year, according to a report by the Ohio Capital Journal. However, that number may not be as \u201chigh\u201d as originally projected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week marked one year since Ohio began selling\u00a0recreational marijuana\u00a0and\u00a0sales totaled $702,587,948\u00a0with 109,706 pounds sold as of last Tuesday, according to the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Cannabis Control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohioans passed a citizen-initiated law to\u00a0legalize recreational marijuana in 2023\u00a0with 57 percent of the vote, and\u00a0sales started in August 2024. Ohio lawmakers can change the law since it passed as a citizen initiative not a constitutional amendment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio Cannabis Coalition Executive Director David Bowling said there is still work to be done around letting people know they can legally buy marijuana in Ohio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI talk to people all the time that aren\u2019t aware that you can buy cannabis legally,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom a revenue perspective, things aren\u2019t exactly where we thought they would be, but they\u2019re not terrible,\u201d Bowling said. \u201cI think people thought we would get closer to $2 billion in revenue.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio has 159 dispensaries\u00a0licensed to sell both medical and recreational marijuana, according to the Ohio Department of Commerce.\u00a0One is located in Van Wert County (Delphos), while another is located in Paulding County (Antwerp). There is currently no limit on the number of licenses for dispensaries in Ohio.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio lawmakers have tried to change Ohio\u2019s marijuana laws, but according to the Ohio Capital Journal, their efforts have been unsuccessful.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio Senate Bill 56\u00a0passed in the\u00a0Senate earlier this year, but has yet to make it out of committee in the House.\u00a0 The bill\u00a0would\u00a0reduce the THC levels\u00a0in adult-use marijuana extracts from a maximum of 90 percent down to a maximum of 70 percent, limit the number of active dispensaries to 400 and prohibit smoking in most public places.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S.B. 56 would also regulate intoxicating hemp products. Only a licensed marijuana dispensary would be able to sell intoxicating hemp products that have been tested and complied with packaging, labeling and advertising requirements. The Ohio Department of Commerce would regulate intoxicating hemp products and drinkable cannabinoid products. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VW independent staff\/submitted information COLUMBUS — Ohio legal marijuana sales topped $702.5 million in the first year, according to a report by the Ohio Capital Journal. However, that number may not be as \u201chigh\u201d as originally projected. Last week marked one year since Ohio began selling\u00a0recreational marijuana\u00a0and\u00a0sales totaled $702,587,948\u00a0with 109,706 pounds sold as of last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-04 20:02:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195743,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195742\/revisions\/195743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}