“A lot of people think you are building a little stoner head shop. It’s not like that at all,” said Jimmy Gould, chairman of CannAscend Alternative, a company that received provisional licenses to operate four Strawberry Fields-branded dispensaries.
“It’s nothing like anyone’s ever seen. I think a lot of people just don’t understand what these dispensaries look like for people who have never been in one.”
The Strawberry Fields outlets in southwest Ohio will be located at 333 Wayne Ave. in Dayton and at 300 N. Main St. in Monroe.
Both will be similar in size — about 3,000 square feet — to Strawberry Fields dispensaries in Colorado and Maryland, Gould said.
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A new building will be constructed at the shovel-ready Monroe site. An existing small building at the Wayne Avenue site will likely be razed to make way for new construction there, he said.
Dispensaries can only be open between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. and must be located at least 500 feet from properties with a school, church, public library, public playground or public park.
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Ohio designers worked on the plans to make the environment not necessarily upscale, but inviting, Gould said.
“We wanted people to feel comfortable. We wanted people to pull up a chair in the waiting room,” he said.
Once inside the dispensary area, visitors will be able to examine products under a glass display case. Ohio dispensaries are allowed to sell medical marijuana as oils, tinctures, plant material, edibles and patches. Patients are allowed to vape, but not light up.
Sale of marijuana was set to begin in early September, but officials announced last week the start date will be delayed.
» Patients won't be able to get medical marijuana in Ohio by Sept. 8 deadline
Gould said the company’s plans are ready and hopes to be selling medical marijuana from facilities by the end of the year.
“Now we just have to get in there and time this right and get this up and operating,” he said.
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