Source: FOX 19 Now
CINCINNATI (WXIX) - The legalization of recreational marijuana in Ohio comes with promises of more money for the state and job growth, but what the state’s weed industry will look like remains cloudy.
To get a good idea of what Ohioans can expect, FOX19 NOW Investigates went to Michigan to learn more about their cannabis market.
Bryson Purrenhage is the general manager of Dreams Canna. The business is a small dispensary in Southfield, Michigan, that recently expanded its medical operation to include recreational products.
“We were going 75, maybe 85 customers on a good day, and now we’re doing anything from 175 to 225 on a casual day,” says Purrenhage.
That boom in business has been so big, that Purrenhage says they have had to hire additional staff.
“I think we had about six or seven full-time employees and now we’re up to about 24, 25 people,” Purrenhage explains.
More money has brought more big players to the table in Michigan.
“The market over these last 12-18 months has gotten pretty crazy,” says the founder and president of C3 CRE, Corbin Yaldoo. “There’s a lot of consolidation going on with your larger operators gobbling up your smaller operators and some companies merging.”
Yaldoo says the Michigan market is easily the most competitive he has seen.
“Just as years have gone on, more municipalities have opened up, and that brings more competition to the table and that’s part of why you’re seeing consolidation,” Yaldoo explains. “For many operators, it’s just too competitive to stay afloat.”
The surge in Michigan’s marijuana industry has led to an influx of money for the state.
An October report from the Michigan House Fiscal Agency reports the sale of legal marijuana contributed more than $266 million in tax revenue to the state last fiscal year.
That is a nearly 50% increase from the year prior.
Michigan made more money from marijuana than it did from liquor, beer and wine taxes combined.
Evan Trout and Courtney Brown with Detroit Dispensary Nuggets say they have seen the benefits from state funds through things like road construction projects, which they say include a road right outside of their location.
“We do a lot of giving back. We work with the humane society, shelters all of these things, and a lot of those proceeds go to those things because they’re the ones who are helping us,” explained Trout and Brown. “So, it’s only right that we give back.”
In Michigan, there is a 10% tax in addition to sales tax.
That tax is the same rate as was written in Issue 2 and passed by Ohio voters.
However, a change in Ohio’s tax from 10% to 15% was in the revisions passed by the state senate on Wednesday.
Age of Consumers
Marijuana is often associated with young adults, but according to research, the number of older Americans using cannabis products is growing.
The University of Michigan’s Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation found that the number of people between 50 and 80 years old using a THC-containing substance is on the rise.
Around 12%, or one in eight Americans in that age range, say they have used a cannabis product in the past year, according to the UM department.
Anne Fernandez, who led the study, is an addiction psychologist at the University of Michigan.
“A few decades ago, national studies in that age group showed cannabis usage was as low as 3% and just before the pandemic, about 9.5%, and it seems to have gone up since 2020, as well,” explained Fernandez.
Several factors could have resulted in the rise of older Americans using cannabis products.
“Yeah, so I think there are a host of things that were and are going on both in the time period and in that generation,” explains Fernandez. “So, Baby Boomers, who were alive in the 60s and 70s and have more liberal attitudes toward cannabis use, are now in older age, but that doesn’t really explain that cannabis use is going up in all age groups. So, I think part of it is just the increasing acceptability of cannabis use as it’s being legalized in more places, so legalization has made it easier to access.”
Fernandez says the study found older adults who drink alcohol were more likely to use cannabis.
“And those who drank heavily, and at levels that could be harmful were up to eight times more likely to use cannabis,” Fernandez says the study concluded.
There are risks with using cannabis, according to Fernandez.
She says anyone thinking about using cannabis products should consult with their doctor first.
“It does interact with medications that many older adults take, very common medications, and so that’s something to consider and talk to a doctor about,” Fernandez recommends.
The effects of this increase in usage are not widely known, according to Fernandez.
Over time, she says, we may learn more about how this impacts both users and society.
See: 1 in 8 older adults use cannabis products, suggesting need to screen for risks
