Riviera Creek employee Jose Arturo Malave Perez of Warren does a preharvest flower inspection of a marijuana plant Thursday at its facility in Youngstown. Riviera Creek — the only medical marijuana cultivator in Trumbull and Mahoning counties — doesn’t have immediate plans to expand, or otherwise change its operations, ahead of the outcome of Issue 2, the Marijuana Legalization Initiative.

At least one of the medical marijuana dispensaries in the Mahoning Valley is making plans to expand into the adult-use market should Ohio voters next month decide to legalize recreational cannabis.

“We would be 100% looking to expand into adult use, for sure,” Cory Groner, co-owner of Green Leaf Therapy in Struthers, said. “With how the bill is written now, we would be able to turn our current facility into a med (medical) and rec (recreational) dispensary and then hopefully get a second license to expand to one extra location.”

As it stands now, Riviera Creek — the only medical marijuana cultivator in Trumbull and Mahoning counties — doesn’t have immediate plans to expand, or otherwise change its operations, ahead of the outcome of Issue 2, the Marijuana Legalization Initiative.

“The reality is nothing,” Daniel Kessler, chief executive of Riviera Creek, said when asked what’s on the near horizon for his company if Ohioans on Nov. 7 approve recreational adult use. “The medical market is still a reality.”

“Once it does pass, at that point our plan is to continue our current progress into the medical market but then start to continue to expand,” Kessler said.

Meanwhile, a Cleveland-area school that offers seed-to-sale cannabis education programs expects that with passage there would be a greater need for workers in the industry, so it has been readying itself to prepare a workforce that can jump in when the market goes live.

ABOUT THE ISSUE

If approved, the initiative would allow Ohioans who are at least 21 years old to buy and possess 2.5 ounces of cannabis and 15 grams of concentrates. In addition, they also could grow up to six plants individually and no more than 12 in a house with more than one adult.

The proposal is not a constitutional amendment but an initiated statute, which means state lawmakers could make changes to it.

Also, it’s different from medical marijuana, which became legal in Ohio in 2016 but only to Ohioans with a qualified health condition and medical marijuana card.

Still, cultivators and dispensaries operating in the medical marijuana space already can transition to the adult-use market.

Under Issue 2, existing medical marijuana dispensaries would be allowed to apply to the Ohio Department of Commerce for an adult-use retail license at their existing location, Tom Haren, an attorney and spokesman for the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, said.

“The goal being, from a patient or consumer facing standpoint, is that it’s a smooth transition,” Haren said.

“You’re going to the same place and, really, the primary difference is “Am I a patient with a medical card, or am I an adult-use consumer that pays a 10% tax at the point of sale?” he said.

Allowable forms of marijuana to be sold include plants and seeds, extracts, drops, lozenges, oils, tinctures, edibles, patches, smoking or combustible product, vaporization, beverages, pills, capsules, suppositories, oral pouches, oral strips, oral and topical sprays, salves, lotions and inhalers, according to the text of the law.

Distinctions exist between what medical cardholders can purchase versus what adult users could purchase. For example, medical cardholders cannot smoke a marijuana flower, but they are available to use in a vaporizers.

Haren said the proposal contains a provision that allows communities to opt out from the adult-use component, even for an existing medical-use facility. A governing body, like a city council for example, could pass an ordinance stating they don’t want adult-use in the city. If that were to happen, the owner or operator of a dispensary can place the matter on a ballot for voters in that community to decide.

As for cultivators, existing level-one cultivators, like Riviera Creek, can expand their cultivation space from 25,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet. Level-two cultivators could go from 3,000 square feet to 5,000 square feet.

The proposal also calls for 50 new social-equity dispensary licenses and 40 new social-equity cultivator licenses to be made available, Haren said.

The proposal faces serious opposition.

The Protect Ohio Workers and Families — a coalition that includes the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association, the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police, the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio, the Ohio Business Roundtable, the Ohio Christian Alliance and the Ohio Farm Bureau — likened the proposal to “today’s version of Big Tobacco — big corporations getting rich at the expense of our kids and society.”

The coalition says if children see adults using marijuana, “they may think it’s OK for them to use it as well.” Also, the coalition calls the issue “a welfare program for drug dealers” and “a rigged game for a few greedy investors who want to change Ohio’s law for their own gain.”

The Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board also opposes the legalization.

GROWTH

“We definitely have our eyes on some land and stuff if we were to expand to a different building for our second license,” Groner of Green Leaf Therapy said. “We do know for sure that if it does pass, our current facility here in Struthers will both be still medical and opened up to the recreational side of it.”

Groner said some questions remain, so the company isn’t planning too far ahead, but there are “steps ready to go in place for what we are going to do when it does pass.”

Riviera Creek’s Kessler said the company can’t do much until Issue 2 passes, but if it does, “then the intention is to continue to build more cultivation space, add more jobs, add more capacity.”

At the company’s facility in Youngstown, it has about 18,000 square feet of cultivation space already. The building is about 72,000 square feet, giving them plenty of room to expand. But since Issue 2 allows cultivators of Riviera Creek’s size to go to 100,000 square feet, it’s “highly likely that if the market can bear it, we’ll expand our building once we build out our existing footprint,” Kessler said.

About 170,000 medical marijuana users are in Ohio, but that number has hit a plateau in recent months. But will adult-use, if approved, overpower the medical marijuana industry?

“The answer is no. I think the medical market will remain,” Kessler said, adding the medical side might shrink, but patients who use marijuana for medical treatment won’t pay the 10% tax an adult user would.

“If we are able to get adult use passed, not only does it create a safe, regulated, tested product, but it provides a tax benefit to the local communities,” Kessler said.

ECONOMICS

The 10% tax, it’s estimated, would generate more than $400 million per year in revenue for Ohio.

Of that amount, 36%, or about $144 million, would go to social equity and jobs programs in Ohio and another 36% would go to communities with adult-use cannabis dispensaries.

“Those two pieces, I think, are really important to think about in the context of economic development,” Haren said.

The money coming back to the communities can be used on things like parks, infrastructure and law enforcement, Haren said, while the social equity piece can encourage entrepreneurialism and lead to new jobs.

Also, 25%, about $100 million, would go to research and treat substance abuse in Ohio with 3% going to the newly created state Division of Cannabis Control to fund oversight of the industry in Ohio.

The official argument in opposition to the issue, written by three Republican state legislators, called the 10% amount a “pitiful” tax rate.

Also, ending the prohibition would make it easier for people, for example, to get into college, get a loan to start a business or participate in the workforce “because they don’t have to worry about prior convictions on their record,” Haren said.

“When it comes to marijuana possession, it’s not just the direct criminal consequences … but there are collateral consequences that impact somebody even with a very minor conviction on his or her record,” Haren said.

EDUCATION

The Cleveland School of Cannabis has been planning for approval, which Kevin Greene, the school’s vice president, said is necessary to get workers ready for what’s expected to be a need.

For example, he said, a cultivator that has to raise production would need additional workers, “so we have to be a bit ahead” of them “because they will need people to hire.

“So it’s going to take six to eight months for people to get educated and ready to go, so we need to have people ready to be in the marketplace,” Greene said. That includes people to work in all aspects of the industry, from cultivation to dispensary sales.

The school offers a variety of programs, from cannabis horticulture, extraction and dispensary courses, as well as courses in CBD and hemp. Upon completion, job placement assistance will be available.

The courses are 150 hours each, and the school has an executive program that contains a combination of core classes from across the various courses that is 300 hours.

“Our education is the foundational education for you to work in the cannabis industry. That is cultivation. That is extraction. That is dispensary operations. That is hemp / CBD. That is the endocannabinoid system and the research studies,” Green said.

“That does not change once our laws change. What will open up to the marketplace is more individuals who will have access to cannabis without having to go through a medical professional to get a medical card to access cannabis.”

The school already has a presence in the Valley. It’s been a partner with United Returning Citizens in Youngstown, a nonprofit organization that helps formerly incarcerated citizens reenter society, to help people enroll and graduate from the school to find work in the medical marijuana industry.