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Ohio set to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars from medical Marijuana

The state of Ohio is set to make a lot of money when its Medical Marijuana program rolls out.

Columbus — The state of Ohio is set to make a lot of money when its Medical Marijuana program rolls out.

Some projections put it at hundreds of millions of dollars annually after a few years.

The problem is, because of the delays in getting the medical marijuana program off the ground,it could be quite some time before they see all that cash and before patients can get their hands on it.

It will be like Ohio's printing, or shall I say growing money when the program does get rolling.

Between Cultivators, Processors, Testing Labs and Dispensaries, all who pay Application, Licensing and Renewal Fees some, upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and add in the sales tax, and the money's going to be sky…high.

Yes, they'll be lots of puns in this story.

There's also the fees being charged for the Doctors prescribing the marijuana and the people buying it.

Plus taxes for the ancillary business, like people who sell the lighting to grow the plants.

And that's just the States cut.

"I think property values will go up once we're up and running says Eastlake Mayor Dennis Morley.

In his city, Buckeye Relief, which did not get a Dispensary license Monday, but does have one for Cultivation...they’re set to collect more than $40,000 thousand a year of their own.

"Things that could come up, that maybe we didn't have money to fix, now we can fix," he told us.

But here's the problem.

Hitting the September date, when the program is set to start...is probably a pipe dream.

"Maybe you'll get a few. But you will absolutely not have 60 dispensaries open on September 8th as the State planned," says Attorney Kevin Murphy.

He is an attorney who specializes in the Marijuana industry. He says the delay is primarily due to the lawsuits filed by companies who didn't get licenses in November...and those who did, having to hold off on construction during winter.

So the projected income from THC...is TBD, not just for the State and Cities but the businesses as well.

Murphy says, "For all those to be aligned up, typically takes in most states 18 to 24 months, so most of these businesses won't be making any income. In fact, there'll be losses for a period of almost two years."

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