Questions persist around where and when recreational marijuana will be sold locally

DAYTON — Even as the legal right to sell and use recreational marijuana goes into effect Dec. 7, questions about who will dispense it or where it will be dispenses are still very much up in the air.

The first sales aren’t likely to occur until about this time in 2024. And that gap in time is giving anyone interested in the issue - from lawmakers to sellers to customers -- to weigh in on what those sales will look like.

>> RELATED: 3 area municipalities temporarily halt parts of Issue 2

At the Smoke Spot in Dayton, manager Katrina Walton said customers want to know if the Smoke Spot is going to be selling it also.

“We rent from this place, so we would have to bypass it through the people that we’re renting from,” Walton told News Center 7′s Brandon Lewis on Thursday night. " If they was OK with it, we would definitely apply. If not, we’re planning on getting a place that’s our own and then we would definitely apply.”

Since issue 2 passed, Ohio’s Department of Commerce is able to create the Division of Cannabis Control, which has nine months to create rules for rolling out the non-medical marijuana program.

Since issue 2 changes state law, lawmakers could change the law also.

This week, state Rep. Gary Click, (R-Vickery) who represents District 88 just outside Toledo, introduced a bill that would reallocate the tax revenue raised from non-medical cannabis and give local municipalities the ability to create their own measures to handle adult use of marijuana.

“At the end of the day, I do not expect this bill to come out of committee the same way that it went in,” he said.

When it comes to recreational marijuana, Click said, everyone from lawmakers to residents should have a say in the rollout.

“I want to hear from everyone in the committee process, good, bad, indifferent.” he said.

" Let the voice of the people continue to be heard.”

About Issue 2:

* People 21 and older, who smoke in prohibited areas, could be charged with a misdemeanor

* Public places and private businesses, including restaurants and stores, can ban the use of marijuana

* Some state lawmakers have said they want to change the language in the law.

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