Current through all regulations passed and filed through September 16, 2024
(A) The board
may
award provisional dispensary licenses
via competitive scoring, a drawing, or a combination of
competitive scoring and drawing, as determined by the board, and described in a
request for applications issued by the board pursuant to rule
3796:6-2-01
of the Administrative Code
.
(B)
Provisional
dispensary licenses shall only be awarded after final approval by the board,
which shall include an evaluation of the application and the applicant for the
following:
(1)
Compliance with Chapter 3796. of the Revised Code and the
rules adopted thereunder;
(2)
Compliance with the relevant request for applications
issued by the board; and
(3)
All license limitations, set forth in paragraph (C)(1)
of this rule or otherwise specified by the board.
(C)
If the board
utilizes a drawing component in awarding provisional dispensary licenses:
(1)
Provisional
dispensary applicants may submit an unlimited number of applications
except:
(a)
Applications are site-specific and provisional dispensary
applicants with any common ownership may not submit more than one application
for the same parcel or any adjoining parcels;
(b)
No owner, as
defined in rule
3796:6-2-03
of the Administrative Code, may be issued more than five dispensary
certificates of operation and/or provisional dispensary licenses at any
time;
(c)
No owner, as defined in rule
3796:6-2-03
of the Administrative Code, may be issued more than sixty-six per cent of the
total number of dispensary certificates of operation and/or provisional
dispensary licenses in a multi-license district; and
(d)
Provisional
dispensary applicants shall only be awarded the total number of provisional
dispensary licenses for which they have adequate liquid assets, as demonstrated
in the applications submitted to the board, pursuant to rule
3796:6-2-02
of the Administrative Code.
(2)
If the number of
provisional dispensary license applications submitted in a district is equal to
or less than the number of available provisional dispensary licenses for that
district, as described in the relevant request for applications, no drawing
will be held and all provisional dispensary applications submitted for that
district will be awarded a provisional dispensary license, subject to paragraph
(B) of this rule.
(3)
If the number of provisional dispensary license
applications submitted in a district is greater than the number of available
provisional dispensary licenses for that district, a drawing will be held in
order to produce a randomly-ranked order list of all provisional dispensary
license applications submitted for that district.
(a)
The list shall
include all provisional dispensary applications submitted for that district,
subject to any automatic disqualifications as outlined in the relevant request
for applications. Disqualified applications will not be included in the
drawing.
(b)
The order in which the district drawings will occur
shall be listed in the relevant request for applications.
(c)
The ranked order
lists shall be used to award provisional dispensary licenses for each district,
subject to paragraph (B) of this rule, until all available provisional
dispensary licenses for that district are awarded.
(d)
If, during the
evaluation described in paragraph (B) of this rule, a provisional dispensary
license application or applicant is found not to be eligible for licensure, the
board will proceed to review the next provisional dispensary license
application in the ranked order list. The evaluation process will continue
until as many provisional dispensary license applications have been found
eligible for licensure as provisional dispensary licenses are available for
that district, subject to the board-approval described in paragraph (B) of this
rule.
(D)
If the board
determines an owner will be limited in the number of provisional dispensary
licenses pursuant to paragraph (C)(1) of this rule, the provisional dispensary
licenses will be issued in the order in which they were drawn, or would have
been drawn if a drawing had been held, consistent with paragraphs (C)(2) and
(C)(3) of this rule.
(E)
If more than one application identifies the same parcel
for a proposed dispensary location, the highest ranked provisional dispensary
application found to be eligible for licensure shall be awarded a provisional
dispensary license.
(F)
The burden of proving an applicant's
qualifications rests with the applicant.
(G) The board may
request additional information the board determines is necessary to process and
fully investigate an application.
(1) The
applicant shall provide requested additional information by the close of
business of the tenth
calendar day after the request has been received by
the applicant;
(2) If the applicant
does not provide the requested information within ten
calendar days, the board shall consider the application to be an
abandoned application and will cease evaluation of the
application.
(H) Pursuant to
division (B) of section
3796.10
of the Revised Code, the state board of pharmacy shall not consider any
provisional dispensary applicant
that:
(1) Submits an application containing one or
more associated key employees who has a conviction for,
judicial finding of guilt of, or plea of guilty to a
disqualifying offense. A dispensary may disassociate with a prospective
associated key employee for failure to comply with Chapter 3796. of the Revised
Code and this division only upon approval from the state board of
pharmacy;
(2) Has an ownership
interest or investment interest in a testing laboratory, an applicant for a
license as a testing laboratory; or shares any corporate officers or employees
with a testing laboratory or applicant for a testing laboratory;
(3) Is a physician with a certificate to
recommend medical marijuana or such a physician has an ownership or investment
interest in or a compensation arrangement with the applicant;
(4) Will be located within five hundred feet
of a prohibited facility; or
(5) Is
not in compliance with the applicable tax laws of this state or its political
subdivisions.
(I)
The state board of pharmacy
may deny a provisional dispensary license to any
applicant who:
(1) Submits an incomplete,
inaccurate, false, or misleading application;
(2) Knowingly employs a person who has been
disciplined by the state board of pharmacy or any professional licensing
board;
(3) Will be located within
five hundred feet of an opioid treatment program as defined in rule
4729:5-21-01
of the Administrative Code; or
(4) Fails to pay applicable fees.
(J) The state board of
pharmacy shall review for a provisional dispensary license, the submitted applications
consistent with this division of the Administrative Code, for each designated
dispensary district established by the board. If there are an insufficient
number of qualified applicants to award all the dispensary licenses available
through the open application, the board may republish, in accordance with rule
3796:6-2-01
of the Administrative Code, a request for applications for
provisional dispensary licenses in the applicable district.
(K) Within ten
calendar days of the board's
decision, the board shall notify applicants who will be awarded a provisional
dispensary license.
(L)
Unless the
provisional dispensary license holder has requested and received a variance in
accordance with rule
3796:6-4-10 of the
Administrative Code, the provisional dispensary licensee shall commence
operations within two hundred and seventy days after the provisional dispensary
licensee was issued a provisional dispensary license. Failure to commence
operations within the requisite timeframe may result in the commencement of
administrative action pursuant to Chapter 119. of the Revised Code, up to and
including revocation of the provisional dispensary license.
(M)
Every applicant awarded a provisional dispensary
license shall provide a written report to the board of pharmacy no later than
the first day of every month following the month the applicant was awarded a
provisional dispensary license. The reports shall detail the progress of the
applicant to become operational and shall be submitted until the medical
marijuana dispensary receives a certificate of operation or the applicant
receives a notice pursuant to section
119.07
of the Revised Code.
(N)
An applicant awarded a medical marijuana dispensary
license shall be deemed to have commenced operations if the medical marijuana
dispensary is capable of operating in accordance with the information contained
in the application and the licensee passes a final inspection by the state
board of pharmacy in accordance with rule
3796:6-2-06
of the Administrative Code.
(O) A provisional
dispensary license issued under this rule is
exclusive to the entity and location identified in the application and is
non-transferrable.
