Login | May 05, 2025
Medical marijuana dispensary opens downtown Akron
RICHARD WEINER
Legal News Reporter
Published: December 17, 2019
After numerous legal processes, convolutions and snags, the first medical marijuana dispensary in Summit County is finally open.
The Botanist opened its doors at 46 S. Summit St. in downtown Akron, offering a full range of medical marijuana products to patients who have qualified for a medical marijuana card, said Catherine “Kate” Nelson, president of Greenleaf Apothecaries, the company that owns the five Ohio Botanist locations.
In the month or so that the dispensary has been opened, Nelson said that it has served over 2,000 patients.
“We are proud to have been the first dispensary to open in Summit County,” she said.
Nelson said that the new dispensary employs a pharmacist, security personnel and several managers, salespeople and other helpers.
All of the product is accessed through a secured entryway and is not visible to the street. It is securely kept in the back of the store, where patients can browse the selections and make their choices out of view.
Richard Swirski, Akron city council person for the 1st Ward, which includes downtown Akron, said “I am glad that people with various health issues can get some medical help to cope with or feel less pain.”
In addition, Swirski welcomed this new business downtown.
“This will have a positive impact and help draw people to the downtown Akron area,” he said.
While Akron city council voted unanimously to allow the opening of this store, Nelson said that it was really Swirski who “drove the deal,” helping the company navigate all the necessary avenues toward the city’s approval.
The 3,600-square-foot store is now open, which makes at least one anonymous patient happy.
The Kent resident had been to three other dispensaries over the last three months, and said that the Botanist in downtown Akron was by far the most enjoyable experience of all of them.
“They were very professional,” she said. “They knew the laws, they knew their products, and they could discuss the medical conditions.”
Tight Security
They also understood security better than any other location, at least from the patients’ perspective, she said.
Nelson noted that the store has an agreement with Akron Police Department that puts an officer at the front of, or in the store, while it is open.
But the anonymous patient said that the Botanist takes things further.
“I didn’t know this,” she said, “But you aren’t allowed to have weapons in a dispensary. I have a container of mace, which they told me I couldn’t take in. They said they’d escort me to my car, which I didn’t need. But then after I made the purchase, they had me leave from a side door and again asked me if I needed an escort to the car. That made me feel very comfortable with them.”
She added that none of those security measures was taken by any other dispensary that she had been to.
Pharmacy Board delays and settlement
Even so, there was a considerable delay in opening the store, a holdup of several months while the Ohio Pharmacy Board examined possible violations of the new medical marijuana regulations by Greenleaf Holdings, said company attorney Thomas Haren.
Greenleaf Holdings had entered into a somewhat complicated business relationship with a New York cannabis investment company called Acreage Holdings.
Acreage had loaned Greenleaf $3 million to open their Ohio facilities, with the expectation that Acreage would be able to purchase Greenleaf at some point.
The sticking point arose from the fact that Ohio law does not allow any marijuana business to be sold to an out-of-state investor until the Ohio business has been opened for at least one year.
After two of Greenleaf’s five locations had already been opened, the Pharmacy Board took the position that Greenleaf’s agreement with Acreage violated the one-year limit and refused to grant permission for the other three locations, including the Akron location, to open until the situation was resolved.
Enter Tom Haren, who wrangled with the Pharmacy Board for a time before helping to craft the settlement that resulted in the last three stores being allowed to open.
Haren is an attorney with Cleveland’s Frantz Ward law firm. He specializes in growing businesses, particularly legal marijuana businesses. He worked with Greenleaf through the entire application process.
Haren’s position as Greenleaf’s attorney was that the Pharmacy Board’s position was ridiculous.
“Greenleaf had signed an agreement to sell to Acreage, but at some time in the future,” he said. Greenleaf had always considered that that agreement did not constitute an example of a present ownership interest under the law.
Furthermore, Harem pointed out that Greenleaf’s applications had been scored among the highest of any of the almost 400 applicants for dispensary locations and that, in fact, the Akron location had scored the highest of any application.
In the end, though, Haren and Greenleaf reached a settlement with the Board in which Greenleaf agreed to pay a $300,000 fine to the state (in installments, said Haren), to repay the money to Acreage (also over time), and to not sell the business until 18 months had elapsed.
“We are happy with the settlement,” Haren said, noting that “we had been losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.” Now, he said everybody is happy.
Back to the store
Under Ohio law, legal marijuana dispensaries can only dispense Ohio-sourced products. The downtown Akron Botanist location dispenses “every product available to us,” said Nelson.
Our anonymous patient only uses one product—440 ml bottles of tincture that is ingested by drops under the tongue.
But the Botanist has every product that exists, said Nelson, including gummies, chocolates, flowers, oils, topicals and lotions. They also sell vaporizing devices (vaping devices), since medical marijuana cannot be burned under state law but only vaporized.
Nelson said that Greenleaf has begun the process to produce their own products as well and expects them to come online within a year or so.
The patient said that the fact that vaping pens are available for sale is unique to the Botanist in her experience.
“Nobody else I went to sells vaporizers,” she said. “They are so professional and friendly. I’m just really happy that they’re here.”
Two thousand patients a month would seem to agree with her.