(Cuyahoga) - Cleveland is giving a green light to medical marijuana businesses.
City Council has approved zoning legislation that limits growing, processing or dispensing businesses to industrial areas located away from schools, parks and churches.
The Ohio Department of Commerce is expected to award licenses to 24 marijuana cultivators, and up to 40 processors sometime in November.
Nearly 200 businesses have filed applications for licenses.
The State is allowing cities where the medical products can be grown, processed, and sold.
Cuyahoga County is being allowed to have up to 5 dispensaries.Councilman Mike Polensek admits there's no guarantee any Cleveland-based businesses will be selected, but feels the legislation will allow the city to compete.
Polensek says medical marijuana is here to stay, and feels the business could bring much needed new jobs and development to Cleveland's abandoned industrial areas.
Plants would be grow hydroponically in a high security factory setting.
Polensek is among the 15 lawmakers who voted for the legislation that would restrict state-licensed medical marijuana cultivators, processors, retail dispensaries, and testing laboratories from operating within 500 feet of schools, parks, churches, and libraries. Only 1 voted against.
(Photos by Getty Images)
(c) 2017 iHeartMedia, Inc.