Six months into the adult-use market, cannabis sales have totaled more than $255 million in Ohio, The Ohio Newsroom reports. The sales equate to about $40 million in cannabis tax revenues for the state.
The sales occurred at the state’s 123 operational dispensaries.
About 36% of the excise tax funds go directly back into dispensary host communities while another 36% in earmarked for to the Cannabis Social Equity Fund and Jobs Program, and 25% is sent to the Substance Abuse and Addiction Fund. The remaining 3% is sent to the Division of Cannabis Control and Tax Commissioner Fund which runs the cannabis program.
Jana Hrdinova, the administrative director at Ohio State University’s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center told the Ohio Newsroom that those funds “can be really helpful in terms of paying for things that would uplift those communities and potentially also invest in things like record relief for people who have criminal records because of the past marijuana prohibition.”
State lawmakers are currently considering changes to the adult-use cannabis law, including raising the excise tax from 10% to 15% and sending all of the revenues to the state’s general fund. The
