Exhibitor Spotlight

Our Mission: Changing the Cannabis Stigma

In early 2019, our team began developing content and a style guideline around reporting on Ohio’s medical marijuana industry. While we hoped to educate patients via the traditional digital magazine advertising model, we quickly found that this wouldn’t work in Ohio. The strict marketing rules imposed by the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program (OMMCP) on the cultivators and dispensaries made it nearly impossible to seek revenue via an ad model. Furthermore, Facebook’s arbitrary rules about reporting on legal medical marijuana impeded our ability to tell our stories in a way that would reach the patients who needed to have this education.

Throughout the first year of publication, MedicateOH continued to grow despite these challenges. We kicked off the year by hosting a live Facebook panel discussion about changing the stigma of cannabis, bringing Ohioans breaking news about the first dispensary openings at Terrasana and giving readers a sneak peak inside Ohio’s first marijuana cultivation facility at Buckeye Relief. We learned more about the process of getting a medical marijuana card from Dr. Steve Davis at Advocare Clinic in Canton and began analyzing figures and statistics from Ohio’s medical marijuana program as patient numbers began to grow and important data started to be collected.