The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
People reported reduced satisfaction with Ohio’s medical marijuana program since recreational marijuana sales started, according to a new Ohio State University Drug Enforcement and Policy Center survey.
Slightly more than half of the people surveyed (56%) reported being either extremely satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program (OMMCP) — a drop compared to 74% on last year’s survey.
More people also reported some level of dissatisfaction on this year’s survey — 30% in 2025 compared to 20% in 2024.
“I think the drop in dissatisfaction was … a little more than I expected,” said Jana Hrdinová, administrative director of the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center. “I expected a little bit of a drop … but going from (74%) to (56%), that’s a pretty big drop.”
The Drug Enforcement and Policy Center has been surveying medical marijuana patients every year since sales started in 2019 and the latest report is the first year when Ohio’s medical and recreational programs have coexisted. More than 4,000 marijuana users were surveyed.
Ohio medical marijuana sales started Jan. 14, 2019, and totaled $2.23 billion with 331,341 pounds sold as of Sept. 13, according to the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Cannabis Control.
Ohioans passed a citizen-initiated law to legalize recreational marijuana in 2023 with 57% of the vote, and sales started in August 2024. Ohio legal marijuana sales topped $702.5 million in the first year.
The state’s medical marijuana program saw a 43% decline in active patients from May 2024 to July 2025 — going from 165,746 active patients in May 2024 down to 94,294 active patients in July 2025, according to the survey.
The program had 184,958 patients at its peak in October 2023.
More than half of those surveyed (56%) said they were extremely likely to continue to register as a medical marijuana patient and 16% reported being somewhat likely, according to the survey.
It’s hard to know what this will mean for the future of Ohio’s medical marijuana program, but Hrdinová expects there will be a further drop in patients before the number of patients in the program eventually stabilizes.
“For the medical patients, they do not want to necessarily see themselves as recreational patients or recreational users,” she said. “I think there is a perception or cultural difference in those two terms, so I think some patients will continue to register with the program regardless.”
The average monthly price of plant products rose to $7.42 per gram during fiscal year 2025 compared to $6.16 per gram in fiscal year 2024, according to the survey.
Michigan’s average monthly price of flower in recreational dispensaries was $2.52 per gram, according to the survey.
“Unfortunately, I think we are always going to be compared to Michigan,” Hrdinová said.
“But at the end of the day, the fact is, if you drive to Michigan, you pay way less than you pay in Ohio dispensaries, and that’s just frustrating for people who cannot make the trip on a regular basis.”
More than three-fourths of those surveyed (79%) said using marijuana has reduced their need to use prescription pain killers and 26% said using marijuana helped them reduce their use of illegal drugs, according to the report.
“There seems to be some public and private benefit for some people when it comes to replacing other substances with marijuana which might be less harmful than the other substances,” Hrdinová said.
The Drug Enforcement and Policy Center laid out three policy priorities: regulating intoxicating hemp products, collecting data and funding Ohio-specific research, and providing education to the public.
There are a handful of bills in the Ohio legislature that are trying to regulate intoxicating hemp products in various ways.
The Drug Enforcement and Policy Center recommends having a 21-year-old age requirement to buy intoxicating hemp products, have specific safety and production standards on intoxicating hemp products, and not marketing those products to children, among other recommendations.
