View a Yellow Springs growing facility's inaugural crop of recreational marijuana in the video player above.
TALLMADGE, Ohio (WCMH) -- One of two marijuana festivals planned on the eve of recreational marijuana sales in Ohio has been canceled, part of a dispute between organizers and local officials.
A Pennsylvania-based company, Zick Productions, said its team spent six months preparing to launch the Ohio Cannabis Festival at the Summit County Fairgrounds in Tallmadge. The event was set to run from Aug. 31 to Sept. 1, but by June 11 its website had been locked down to a solitary message.
"Summit County Agricultural Society has decided to cancel the upcoming Ohio Cannabis Festival contracted to be held Aug. 31 - Sept. 1 in a statement received by mail to organizers," Zick Productions wrote. "This breach of contract was in accordance with city and county officials' direction who cited ownership of the land, our commercial speech and state law."
NBC4 reached out to SCAS, which maintains the fairgrounds, with questions about the cancellation on Thursday. An employee said over the phone that management was working on a response on Friday, but the group had not sent any statement as of Monday.
Tallmadge Mayor Carol Kilway said that while the city doesn't serve as a legal adviser for the agricultural society or have authority over them, her team was in the loop on the decision SCAS made about the Ohio Cannabis Festival.
"Based on the event's promotional materials, the city raised concerns regarding how the event would comply with state law," Kilway said. "The event organizer was invited to address those concerns and did not respond."
Jeff Zick, the owner of Zick Productions, gave his perspective to NBC4 on how this exchange played out. He called the city's actions "governmental pressure" on SCAS and mentioned a "lease issue" with Summit County, the owner of the fairgrounds over the agricultural society.
"The City of Tallmadge invited Summit County and SCAS to a meeting about the scheduled event on June 3 at city hall," Zick said. "The SCAS cancellation letter was dated June 4."
An earlier copy of Ohio Cannabis Festival's website preserved by the Wayback Machine shows promotional materials the city officials may have looked at. On the homepage, the festival showed the three sponsors it racked up were either cannabis dispensaries or marijuana product makers:
In a frequently asked questions section further down the page, however, the organizers addressed whether cannabis products would be sold at the event with the response: "Vendors will only be permitted to sell products in accordance with state laws."
After getting no response from Zick, Kilway said the agricultural society made the call to cancel the Ohio Cannabis Festival. Zick Productions' law firm, Thomas A. Will and Associates, told NBC4 that this was a breach of contract.
"Our client did their due diligence, contracted with the appropriate authorities, invested countless hours into securing vendors, and invested substantial time, effort and resources in the preparation of the festival pursuant to the contract our client had with SCAS," the attorneys wrote. "Our client intends to pursue all possible claims against SCAS, and any and all appropriate parties, for this breach."
Stargazer Cannabis Festival, organized separately by Chad Thompson, is going ahead as planned in July in Meigs County. He also had to clarify recreational marijuana's role after the event website advertised a farmer's market with video of adult cannabis plants. While the festival will allow attendees to bring recreational marijuana and even allow them to use it in a joint rolling contest, the vendors will only be allowed to sell cannabis seeds and hemp-derived products.
Ohio Cannabis Festival's website said it would be issuing refunds and "offering remedies," but did not specify if those would go to both ticket holders and vendors that signed on. It isn't Zick's only event, and two others remained greenlit as of Monday. His Pennsylvania Cannabis Fall Marketplace has been running annually since 2017 and will go for another round Oct. 5-6. The state neighboring Ohio only allows medical marijuana since legalizing it in a 2016 vote.
Zick's Florida Cannabis Festival has run since 2020 in yet another medical-only state. But Florida voters will decide on a ballot initiative that would legalize recreational use, similar to Ohio's Issue 2, in November.
In Ohio, the state's Division of Cannabis Control plans to let medical dispensaries convert to "dual-use" to facilitate recreational sales. In June, the agency began letting the companies apply for provisional licenses to do so. While these don't immediately let them begin sales, the dispensaries essentially reserved a spot in line for DCC to chronologically issue a license back. DCC Public Information Officer Jamie Crawford hinted "over the summer" for an estimate when they could start going out, with September being named as the absolute latest sales could begin.
Some of the businesses anticipate sales will start sooner rather than later. Cresco Labs, which owns dispensaries in Ohio as well as its own Yellow Springs cannabis growing greenhouse, planted its first crop of recreational marijuana in May.
