Marijuana Business Magazine September 2018

Ohio State regulators awarded seven provisional medical mari- juana processing licenses, and six more potential licensees are pending tax and background checks. The state, which received 104 processing applications, is allowed to award up to 40 provisional licenses. The state also issued its first cer- tificate of operation to a cultivator, FN Group Holdings, one of 25 companies that won provisional MMJ grow licenses. However, Ohio remains months behind schedule to have a fully operational MMJ market by Sept. 8. Oregon The agency overseeing the state medical marijuana indus- try admitted its oversight of growers and others in the indus- try has been ineffective, creating opportunities for cannabis to be diverted to the black market. Oregon Health Authority Director Patrick Allen ordered the internal review, which showed there were more than 20,000 grow sites, but only 58 inspections were carried out in 2017. The Oregon Medi- cal Marijuana Program has far too few inspectors, the report concluded, and the agency lacks reliable, independent tools to validate grow site locations. Meanwhile, Oregon regulators cited seven cannabis businesses for a variety of infractions, such as failing to comply with the state traceability system and neglecting to keep proper surveillance records.