Initial conversations began on whether to allow adult-use cannabis operations in the city during a economic development committee meeting Monday.
Law Director Dennis Nevar said Ohio Revised Code’s newly adopted recreational cannabis provisions permits municipalities to adopt an ordinance to prohibit or limit the number of adult-use cannabis operators within the city. Operators include processors, dispensaries and cultivators.
The number of dispensary licenses are issued by the state of Ohio, he said. Dispensaries that already had a medical license were grandfathered in, and there were another 50 available. The cannabis commission will meet again in two years and consider if additional permits should be issued.
“It’s very possible that even if somebody wanted to come to the city of Brunswick and have a retail dispensary, at this point, I don’t think there’s permits available,” Nevar said. “There very well may not be permits available for a couple years out.”
Economic Development Director Grant Aungst said there is a 10 percent excise tax on cannabis products.
Out of the 10 percent tax, 36 percent goes into the state’s cannabis social equity and job fund, 25 percent goes to the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and 3 percent goes to cover the administrative costs for the Division of Cannabis Control and Department of Taxation, he said. The remaining 36 percent will be distributed to municipalities that host dispensaries.
“The municipal corporation is not allowed to impose additional taxes beyond that 10 percent excise tax and beyond the taxes that are customarily charged to businesses like income taxes, those types of taxes that our code permits and the state of Ohio permits,” Nevar said. “It’s not something that you could single out and raise that excise tax or anything like that.”
Fadi Boumitri, CEO of Northeast Ohio cultivation facility Ascension BioMedical, spoke of the economic benefit of being a host city during the meeting. According to Ohio’s Division of Cannabis Control historical sales data, there have been approximately $55 million in nonmedical sales from Aug. 6 to Saturday.
“Those dispensaries making adult-use sales are guaranteeing the host city that they’re in is going to get a portion of that,” he said. “The alternative to that is the state is either stealing your funds, and you’re going to sue them for it, or the state has to change the law, at which point you either got in before the law was changed and you have an argument for being grandfathered into the 36 percent.”
Aungst said nobody can say with certainty how much money will come to a host city. The Office of Budget and Management has not set a date for when or how often funds would be dispersed to host cities.
“Depending upon what people think about dispensaries in general, they think there’s going to be a big cash flow coming in,” Aungst said. “There’s not a big cash flow from medical marijuana. All my colleagues I spoke to about that said it was not a big cash flow across the board.”
According to data from the Medina County Board of Elections, approximately 58 percent of city of Brunswick residents who voted in the November 2023 election voted yes on Issue 2. Every one of Brunswick’s 22 precincts had more people voting yes on Issue 2 than no.
The city has not yet made a decision whether to allow recreational-use cannabis operators in Brunswick.
