Recreational Weed Sales Legal in Ohio, Banned in Certain Cities

Starting August 6th, people in Ohio can legally purchase recreational weed, a step that’s another logical progression in the state’s historically open attitudes toward cannabis use.

Weed has been largely decriminalized in Ohio as far back as 1975 , and the state has had legalized medical marijuana on the books since 2016.

At the end of 2023, Ohio officially made recreational cannabis use legal , but dispensaries were not yet permitted to open their doors and legally sell weed to people without a medical card.

Now, medical marijuana dispensaries across Ohio already in operation are permitted to sell recreational cannabis to all customers 21 years or older.

Recreational weed technically refers to any cannabis that has a THC content of more than 0.3% per dry weight and is not prescribed for medicinal purposes.

The newly enacted legislation provides that adults 21 and older in Ohio are permitted a maximum of 2.5 ounces of cannabis and up to 15 grams of weed edibles and extracts.

As far as how much weed you can buy at once, there are a few restrictions in place. According to the revised code of law , each adult is limited to the following quantities per purchase:

• 1 oz cannabis flower
• 10 packages THC edibles (maximum 1,100mg THC total)
• 10 units of THC vapes (maximum 590mg THC total)

Across the internet, it appears Ohioans are stoked at the legislative milestone. However, not every town in Ohio wants their communities inundated with new dispensaries trying to cash in.

Just one example is the city of Albany, where they’ve already enacted a ban on recreational marijuana sales.

The Albany City Council just approved a special ordinance that will block dispensaries from selling legal weed in the interest of safety and health. The ordinance only applies to the commercialization of legalized cannabis though, and Albany residents are still allowed up to six plants per person and 12 per residence, according to Ohio state law.

Albany, Ohio is just one example among a running total of 56 Ohio cities and towns that have already banned the sale of recreational marijuana on the heels of the new legislation.

This is part of a larger trend that happens when states go legal all the way. Recreational weed dispensaries can dramatically change the landscape of small cities, usually ending up gathered in clusters that are referred to as ‘the green part of town’, ‘dispensary boulevard’, etc.

While these operations can bring a lot of localized benefits like jobs, more tax revenue for public projects, and of course, unfettered cannabis access, legal dispensaries can also disrupt communities in a negative way.

When recreational weed was legalized in Colorado over 20 years ago, the same thing happened that we’re seeing in Ohio:

Many jobs and opportunities led to overwhelming public support, but at the end of the day, cities and towns themselves wanted to be able to decide whether or not they would allow legal dispensaries to operate in their territory.

It will be interesting to see what kind of benefits average Ohioans will see from the commercial sale of cannabis. Recreational marijuana historically has been a huge source of tax revenue for state governments, but some argue, it’s a slippery slope to a relaxed attitude toward more illicit street drugs, as referenced by a Colorado official in this article about what happened in Denver post-legalization.