Ohio attorney general sues 9 marijuana companies

PERKINS TWP. — Local marijuana consumers shopping in licensed Ohio dispensaries are among those harmed by anti-competitive practices by multi-state cannabis companies, a lawsuit by Ohio's attorney general claims. The lawsuit that Attorney General Dave Yost recently filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court claims nine cannabis companies engaged in a secret agreement that limited product choice and kept prices artificially high, harming both consumers and Ohio-based cannabis businesses. The nine named in Yost's lawsuit include Ascend Cannabis, which operates the Ascend Cannabis Dispensary at 6019 Milan Road (U.S. 250) in Perkins Township. The website for Ascend Wellness Holdings lists six dispensaries in Ohio and also lists retail outlets in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The nine also included the Cannabist Co., which operates a dispensary at 383 Milan Ave. in Norwalk. Cannabist has six other dispensaries in Ohio and also has dispensaries in Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Virginia and West Virginia. The lawsuit states it has Cannabist emails detailing promotional agreements not offered to local Ohio companies. The other companies Yost sued are Ayr Wellness, Cresco Labs, Curaleaf, Green Thumb Industries, Jushi, Trulieve and Verano. What's alleged A press release from Yost says that, in October 2024, an employee in the Ohio cannabis business submitted a tip claiming there were widespread "shelf-space allotments" in Ohio dispensaries run by large, multistate marijuana companies. The agreement among the nine, allegedly made in late 2022 before recreational sales even began in Ohio, reserved substantial shelf space for products from the nine companies. Yost claims the nine companies reached agreements to give priority to each other's products in Ohio dispensaries while reducing or eliminating products from independent Ohio businesses. Yost claims, for example, that Ascend and Green Thumb Industries have at times had agreements that their Ohio dispensaries will reserve 25% of their dispensary shelves for each other's products. Ascend emails are cited as evidence in the lawsuit. "Our investigation uncovered allegations of an industry-wide scheme designed to push small Ohio businesses out of the market," Yost said. "Ohio's antitrust laws protect competition and consumers, not backroom deals that rig the system for a select few." Yost says he's seeking an injunction to shut down the alleged agreement, which he says reduced product choice and quality for Ohio weed consumers and allowed the nine companies to prop up store prices. The newspaper asked Ascend Wellness and the Cannabist Co. for comment on the lawsuit. Neither company immediately responded.