Right now in Ohio, the possession of marijuana is legal, but there is nowhere people can legally purchase it. The timeline for when adults can buy it legally depends on what lawmakers do. For now, Ohioans can only legally purchase marijuana from a medical dispensary if they have a medical license.
A bill passed by the Senate Wednesday night would have allowed for the immediate sale of marijuana at dispensaries for those 21 and older.
On Wednesday, Governor DeWine said he wanted to sign that Senate-approved proposal into law before midnight, but the House adjourned before that could happen.
DeWine said he was concerned about Ohioans getting marijuana off the black market while they wait until they can legally purchase it at a dispensary, where the products are regulated.
But how safe are the products people can purchase at a dispensary? WSYX went behind the scenes and visited a processing facility to see how it’s creating safe products that eventually end up on dispensary shelves.
“What’s great about this program is if you are buying from a dispensary, you know what you are getting every single time,” CEO of BeneLeaves Bill Williams said.
Williams continued, “Anything from the black market, you just have no idea what is in your product. I wouldn’t take that risk for my body. Just eating something from a bag and saying, I hope this works, versus, everything we make is triple tested and you know exactly what you are getting.”
Williams said their product labeling also helps patients understand what type of product they are getting. “We try and give as much information as possible to the patients and the bud tenders too so they can help the patients who are coming in and asking the questions,” Williams.
“We’ve got our cannabinoids on our label. We’ve got our nutrition facts on our gummies, and then we go a step further and have a QR code that takes us to the testing results. So you can know everything that is in your product.”
Williams and the team at BeneLeaves showed WSYX each step they take from extraction, creating in the kitchen, sorting, and packaging.
“We make gummies, but we also do gluten-free baking. We do fudge, truffles, and caramels,” BeneLeaves Kitchen Manager Sam Lazano said. “We want to make sure everything that leaves this kitchen is perfect.
Everything gets tested. We like to make sure everything is in a range of 5.6 to 6.4 grams. We want every gummy to come out between that line. Everything is exactly dosed.”
