Lorain trails Elyria in recreational cannabis tax revenue so far

With the state finally paying out municipalities which host marijuana dispensaries, Lorain earned less from the first 16 months of sales than Elyria did. Last week, Lorain received a payment from the Ohio Division of Tax for $275,133.86 of tax revenue from non-medical cannabis sales between August 2024 and November 2025. "I am glad we received the money," Lorain Mayor Jack Bradley said. "It will be placed into our general fund, and that can help us ... it is nice to receive a couple hundred thousand to assist with things like employee costs and other expenses." Bradley said that the city anticipates to earn about $200,000 per year in cannabis tax revenue from its two existing dispensaries. While that money is a welcome addition, Bradley stressed that it was only a drop in the bucket for a city that had nearly $43 million in general fund revenue in 2024. Lorain made markedly less from cannabis excise taxes than the $373,984.38 that Elyria earned in that same time period. That disparity was due largely to the fact that while Elyria had two dispensaries begin adult-use sales as soon as they were legalized, Lorain had only one until the opening of a second dispensary, Trulieve Cannabis Dispensary on Oak Point Road, in May 2025. The other dispensary in Lorain is Rise on Cooper Foster Park Road and the two in Elyria are Nirvana on Cleveland Street and FRX on Sugar Lane. The fifth and final adult-use marijuana dispensary in Lorain County is Klutch Cannabis in Sheffield Township. Unlike Elyria and Lorain, though, officials said that the township had yet to receive its tax funds. Sheffield Township Fiscal Officer Laura Maltarich said that she had not received any communication from the state about how much money the Township would receive as of Thursday afternoon. While Elyria Mayor Kevin Brubaker said that his city was happy with the two dispensaries it has now, Bradley said Lorain would welcome more with open arms as long as they continue to abide by state and local laws, as the two existing dispensaries have. "As long as they are not creating issues in the city, we certainly welcome new businesses to our community," Bradley said. "... It has to function like any other business in our community. And certainly we welcome the income, but we don't want to have associated problems that we have to spend our law enforcement, our firefighters and our city workers on. So it's a balancing, and as long as they're good members of our community, we'll welcome them." When Ohioans voted to pass Issue 2 and legalize recreational cannabis sales in 2023, they also approved a 10 percent excise tax on all such sales. Of that tax, 36 percent was designated to go to the host municipality where the sale occurred. The marijuana business boomed when adult use sales started in early August of 2024, but cities and townships that welcomed dispensaries saw no benefit of the revenue they had expected. Payouts from the state were delayed as legislators in Columbus argued over how to use cannabis funds, despite the fact that Issue 2 laid out a full funding split. In addition to the local proportion, the ballot issue had dictated that 36 percent of cannabis tax revenue to a Cannabis Social Equity and Jobs Fund, 25 percent to a Substance Abuse and Addiction Fund and the remainder go to support the new Division of Cannabis Control. Because Issue 2 was a citizen initiative and not a constitutional amendment, legislators were able to make changes to it. An amended version of legalized recreational cannabis, Senate Bill 56, was passed by Republicans and signed by Gov. Mike DeWine in December. This bill cleared the way for appropriations of the collected tax money to finally be made. The 36 percent funding split for host municipalities was maintained, but the other funding sources in Issue 2 were dispensed of in favor of simply placing the remaining 64 percent of the money into the state's general fund. According to the Ohio Division of Cannabis Control, as of January 10 there had been $1,109,405,593 of total recreational marijuana sales in the state since legalization. Based on the 10 percent excise tax, the state took in just under $111,000,000 in that time, and $39.9 million should be slated to go to host municipalities. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.