After nearly three years, dissatisfaction over Ohio’s medical marijuana prices is widespread

Nearly three years after the first medical marijuana dispensary opened in Ohio, slightly over half of the state’s marijuana card holders say they are dissatisfied with the program.

Those are the results of a late September report prepared by the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, which tracks the state’s medicinal cannabis program.

The group sent survey questions to 1,402 patients and prospective patients — 1,326 responded — who reported a common complaint: Medical pot is too expensive.

“This program still needs a lot of work,” said Angelica Warren, a patient and activist who lives in Westerville.

Some costs have fallen, Warren acknowledged, but said prices for some manufactured products are “increasingly outrageous.”

“In other states, I can find a gram of concentrate for $15, yet Ohio has more than quadrupled that price amount,” Warren said.

Medical marijuana: Why is it so expensive in Ohio?

Prices for the drug — while lower than in January 2019 when Ohio’s first dispensary opened — have largely defied predictions that costs would become affordable as the program matured.

However, plans to award more dispensary licenses and let cultivators grow more cannabis have industry insiders optimistic.

[Read more at The Columbus Dispatch]