Jean Gould, owner of Care Med with her partner and pharmacist Linda Schlemmer, hope to open their Cincinnati medical marijuana dispensary in October. "We have an awful lot to do between now and then," Gould says. "The amount of regulation is actually great."
Care Med, at 5149 Kennedy Avenue, is one of two medical marijuana dispensaries in Columbia Township and one of 13 in Southwest Ohio.
Gould says she is driven to help people who need cannibis. Separately, her ex-husband, Jimmy Gould, is trying to secure a cultivation license.
Columbia Township Administrator Mike Lemon looks at the site to be occupied by Care Med. He said the clinics project they could do as much as $50 million in three to five years.
Pharmacann is the other Columbia Township dispensary on Ridge Road. It has dispensaries and cultivation sites in other cities and states, according to the company's Director of Regulatory Affairs Jeremy Unruh.
"We are operational now in Illinois and New York with nine facilities in those locations," he says. "We're also operational in Massachusetts and we are in the process of developing dispensaries and or cultivation centers in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio."
Columbia Township passed legislation last year allowing dispensaries.
Many Hamilton County townships have banned both cultivation and dispensaries, including Sycamore Township, which made an exception for Jewish Hospital. It will be allowed to dispense medical marijuana to its patients but cannot sell to the general public.
Whitewater Township says it has no restrictions on growing or selling.
Anderson Township allows cultivation in an industrial development corridor along Roundbottom Road and will revisit whether to allow dispensaries in the future.
Here is a list of businesses awarded dispensary licenses in Southwest Ohio:
- Care Med; 5149 Kennedy Ave, Cincinnati
- Green Rx; 8420 Vine St., Cincinnati
- Pharmacann; 5445 Ridge Rd., Cincinnati
- 127 OH; Village of Seven Mile
- Cannascend; 300 North Main St., Monroe
- Pure Ohio Wellness; 1875 Needmore Rd., Dayton
- Cannascend Alternative; 333 Wayne Ave., Dayton
- Schottenstein Aphria; 5604 Airway Rd., Riverside
- Therapeutic Health Care II; 1525 Genntown Dr., Lebanon
- Debbie's Dispensary Ohio; 1088 N. High St., Hillsboro
- Harvest of Ohio; 4370 Tonawanda Trail, Beavercreek
- Pure Ohio Wellness; 1711 West Main St., Springfield
- Cannamed Therapeutics; 0 Raydo Circle, Springfield
