COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A national cannabis company predicts Ohio will be a $2 billion market in 2027 if legislators do not alter marijuana laws.
LeafLink, a wholesale cannabis platform that connects marijuana distributors and retailers, identified Ohio as one of six expanding markets, projecting $2 billion in sales in the next two years. LeafLink pointed to Ohio’s rapid growth in 2024, with monthly sales doubling after recreational sales began.
LeafLink said new dispensary openings in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, Illinois and Minnesota will drive national market growth in the next few years. these six states will make up 75% of cannabis growth sales in the U.S. by the end of 2027.
LeafLink said neighboring Michigan is the largest cannabis market in the country and continues to expand, hitting retail sales of $327 per resident. In Ohio, retail sales average $58 per resident, meaning total sales are equal to if every Ohioan purchased $58 of marijuana.
LeafLink predicts Ohio’s dispensaries and cultivators will grow in the next two years. Already, the company said, Ohio averaged $5.2 million in sales at each of its 134 licensed dispensaries in 2024.
Some Ohio lawmakers are working to slow Ohio’s growth, however. Competing bills in the House and Senate are looking to adjust the state’s recreational marijuana laws by adjusting tax revenue distributions, cracking down on where residents can smoke, and decreasing the legal THC level. Both bills would also cap the number of active dispensaries in the state at 350. See previous coverage of these bills in the video player above.
Under Ohio’s current cannabis laws, LeafLink believes around 350 new retailers and 40 new growers or processors will join the market by 2027. The company said if existing licensed dispensaries are each granted one new storefront, cultivators will also get increased access. LeafLink believes this would triple retail access for Ohioans.
Between the six key states LeafLink identified, the company predicts the U.S. will get 5,000 new dispensary locations.