COLUMBUS – Ohio’s licensed marijuana market appears to be an outlier among the 24 states that have legalized cannabis. Ohio is expected to grow rapidly, while legal sales in more mature markets have stagnated.
That’s likely to make the Buckeye State one of the primary drivers of the broader industry’s potentially huge growth in the coming years.
According to estimates published this week by cannabis market analysis firm LeafLink, nationwide legal cannabis sales volumes could balloon from about $32 billion in retail sales this year to as much as $55 billion by 2030.
Still it pales in comparison to its Michigan neighbor, where sales for the second straight year are projected to top $3 billion. In June alone, Michigan cannabis topped $260 million.
The second “key growth driver” in that national scope, per LeafLink, is New York, where recreational cannabis sales started in December 2022.
“Growth is concentrated primarily in New York and Ohio due to new licenses and adult-use roll-out,” according to the report. “Retail and wholesale sales remain resilient, powered by expansion in states like New York and Ohio and underpinned by improving supply-demand dynamics across mature markets.”
While most markets outside Ohio and New York have remained largely stable in terms of license count, Ohio is expecting a surge in dispensary licensing over the coming months and years.
Additional licensing stands to scale up the number of dispensaries in Ohio from the 156 in operation as of Thursday, July 17, to as many as 350, LeafLink forecast.
That projection may be a bit optimistic, however. Jamie Crawford of the Ohio Division of Cannabis Control, said in a statement on Friday, July 18, that more dispensary licenses are being issued “on a rolling basis,” and that the agency expects a total of 308 dispensaries “when all is said and done.”
But, Crawford noted, that final number is also subject to change by the DCC based on a mandatory biannual review of the market.
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