DELAWARE — Delaware city residents puff-puffed and passed the money they spent at local dispensaries along to the city’s general fund.
The Ohio Department of Taxation released funds generated by the statewide cannabis sales tax on Jan. 7 to cities and villages that allowed dispensaries to open and operate.
Delaware received $150,387, representing sales from August 2024 to November 2025, according to city communications specialist Bob Hogensen.
“This money can be used for any purpose, so it is now in our general fund,” Hogensen said in an email to Delaware Source.
There are no specific plans for how the city will spend the money, Hogensen said, but city council is in charge of approving how city money is spent.
Council was previously hesitant about dispensaries in Delaware, passing a temporary moratorium on adult-use cannabis operators on Sept. 9, 2024. The six-month ban gave city officials time to evaluate how they wanted to regulate marijuana businesses.
“Certainly, we’re not talking about prohibiting these, but to decide if we want to have additional limits. I, at least, think that’s a discussion worth having,” then-vice mayor Kent Shafer said at the September meeting.
The moratorium was repealed in November 2024 after city council passed new zoning regulations to govern where cannabis businesses can operate, prohibiting them from being located within 500 feet of a school, church, library, playground or park.
Since then, Nar Reserve, a Michigan-based recreational and medical marijuana shop, has opened up shop on Coughlin Lane in Delaware. It joins Pollen Cannabis Dispensary, formerly called Bear River Dispensaries, on Moore Street.
Why is the city just now receiving money?
Delaware voters approved adult use of cannabis in Ohio during the Nov. 7, 2023, election, when Issue 2 hit the ballots.
The constitutional amendment received a total of 96,311 votes with 60% of voters saying yes, according to results posted on the Delaware County Board of Elections website.
The first dispensaries in the Buckeye State officially opened their doors in August of 2024.
Local governments are just now seeing the money because lawmakers updated the law’s language in November. The change required childproof packaging, prohibiting public and vehicle smoking, and banning hemp product sales outside of dispensaries.
The update also included the disbursement of tax funds; 36% of the tax money collected goes to a Cannabis Social Equity and Jobs Fund and a Host Community Cannabis Fund, which eventually gets dispersed to the cities and villages that allowed dispensaries.
The rest of the taxes collected go to the state’s general revenue fund.
Total funds released to Ohio villages and cities came in over $33 million, collected via dispensary sales from July 2024 to November 2025 across the state, according to an Ohio Senate article.
Cities and villages received a slice of that money proportional to the amount of sales at their local dispensaries, with bigger cities receiving more money due to more dispensary locations and more sales from larger populations.
For example, Cincinnati received nearly $3 million, Columbus over $4 million and Dayton received nearly $1.1 million.
