Second Mahoning County Medical Marijuana Dispensary to Open
STRUTHERS, Ohio – Mahoning County’s second medical marijuana dispensary is set to open next month, as patient demand continues to stay strong throughout the area, one of the owners said Monday.
Green Leaf Therapy at 93 S. Bridge St., plans to officially open for business April 10, said co-owner Vicki Groner. Groner owns the dispensary with her son, Cory Groner.
“My son, Cory, actually brought it to us and said it was a great business opportunity,” Groner said. “There aren’t enough dispensaries, and they need relief.”
Renovations are underway at the Bridge Street location, and Groner projects business is likely to be strong. “We have really good projections. We think we’ll do very well.”
Groner noted that the Struthers location is proximate to Campbell, Youngstown, Lowellville and Poland, so it has the potential to draw from all of these areas plus other communities within a 10-mile radius.
Green Leaf would become the second licensed operating dispensary in Mahoning County and the fourth dispensary between Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties, according to records from the state of Ohio’s Medical Marijuana Control Program’s website.
It’s been a two-year process to get this far, said Groner’s daughter, Mariah Churchiglia, Green Leaf’s human resources manager.
“We started getting the application going in February 2021,” she said.
The Ohio Board of Pharmacy regulates medical marijuana dispensaries across the state, Churchiglia said. Once the Struthers site passes all of the necessary inspections and is completely certified, it could start selling medicinal marijuana to anyone in the state with an approved medical marijuana card.
Patients, however, must first consult with a referring physician through an office or virtual visit, Churchiglia said. Then, the patient must register with the Ohio Board of Pharmacy and then register to buy the product.
“From this location, we’ll buy cannabis from different cultivators and sell topicals, edibles, oils and flower,” she said.
“Demand is still very strong,” Churchiglia said, gauging the response from social media. “We’re already getting a lot of positive feedback from Facebook and Instagram.”
Three other dispensaries are active in the three-county region. FRX Health operates a dispensary on Dresden Street in East Liverpool, Leaf Relief runs a dispensary on Market Street in Youngstown and gLeaf Medical Cannabis has a dispensary on Youngstown Road in Warren.
A fifth company, B Cubed Operations Ohio, was awarded a provisional license last year to open a dispensary on Liberty Street in Hubbard, according to state records.
The three-county region is currently home to three medical marijuana cultivation facilities. Farmeceutial RX LLC owns a grow operation in East Liverpool, while Pure Ohio LLC operates a cultivation site in East Palestine. Both also hold processing licenses.
Riviera Creek LLC opened its facility in 2018 in Youngstown and was also awarded a processor’s license.
A second Youngstown company, Quest Wellness Ohio III LLC, is also a licensed processor, according to state records.
Data from the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control’s website show there are 346,582 patients who are registered for medical marijuana use. There are 660 physicians in the state who are certified to recommend patients. These physicians have issued 686,320 recommendations (some patients have received multiple recommendations).
Under Ohio law, medical marijuana can be used to treat conditions such as AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and many other ailments such as chronic pain.
As of March 19, cultivators have sold 152,155 pounds of plant material, and the industry has yielded $1.24 billion in product sales.
Pictured at top: Vicki Groner, co-owner of Green Leaf Therapy.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
