History of Cannabis in Ohio

2016: How did Ohio’s medical program begin?

Ohio’s legislature passed House Bill 523 in 2016, creating the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program, known as OMMCP, and setting up the licensing structure for cultivators, processors, and dispensaries that would eventually serve patients. No sales happened yet; this was the legal foundation.

Building a licensed cannabis industry from nothing takes time: growing facilities have to be built and licensed, products have to be tested, and dispensaries have to be constructed and approved. All of that groundwork happened between 2016 and the first actual sale.

This step matters more than it might seem at first glance, because the testing labs, licensing rules, and regulatory agency built for the medical program became the same infrastructure Ohio’s adult-use market relies on today.

2019: What did first medical sales look like?

Ohio’s first licensed medical marijuana sales began in 2019, three years after House Bill 523 passed, giving registered patients legal access to tested cannabis products for the first time in state history. It was a medical-only market, with no recreational sales permitted.

For years, this medical program was the only legal cannabis access point in Ohio. Patients needed a qualifying condition and state registration, and the product selection was narrower than what adult-use shoppers see today.

This period established the testing and licensing standards, state-approved labs checking every product for potency and contaminants, that still apply to every product sold at The Garden, medical or adult-use, today.

November 2023: What did Issue 2 actually change?

Ohio voters approved Issue 2 in November 2023, legalizing adult-use cannabis for any adult 21 or older statewide. It did not create instant sales; it set the legal framework and possession limits, including home grow, that adult-use dispensaries would later operate under.

Issue 2 set the possession limit at 2.5 ounces of flower or 15 grams of extract and allowed home grow of up to six plants per adult and twelve per household, the same limits that apply today. It also handed regulatory authority to what is now the Ohio Division of Cannabis Control.

Between the November 2023 vote and actual adult-use sales, the state had to build out licensing for adult-use retail specifically, a process that took roughly nine months before the first legal recreational purchase.

August 2024: What happened when adult-use sales began?

Licensed adult-use cannabis sales began in Ohio in August 2024, giving any adult 21 or older with valid ID legal access to recreational cannabis for the first time in state history, without needing a medical card or qualifying condition.

This is the milestone that most directly created the market The Garden operates in today. Existing medical dispensaries could apply for dual licensure, and new adult-use-focused stores opened alongside them across the state.

Every product sold under this expanded market still runs through the same state-approved lab testing the medical program established years earlier, so the testing standard did not change with adult-use legalization, only who could legally buy.

Where does The Garden fit into that timeline?

The Garden Dispensary operates two Ohio adult-use and medical dispensaries that opened within this same state timeline, in Camp Washington and Sycamore Township. The store’s own opening dates and press history are tracked separately on the news page rather than restated here.

For The Garden’s own announcements, openings, and press coverage over time, see the news page, which keeps a running record of the store’s own milestones alongside the statewide changes described above.

To understand how the current rules apply to a purchase today, our Ohio marijuana laws guide and purchase limits guide cover the present-day version of everything this timeline built toward.

2016

House Bill 523 creates OMMCP

2019

First licensed medical sales begin

November 2023

Issue 2 legalizes adult-use

August 2024

Licensed adult-use sales begin

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