Columbus has collected more than $4.7 million in excise tax revenue since recreational marijuana sales started in August 2024, more than any other city in Ohio, according to figures from the Ohio Department of Taxation.
Sales started off relatively slow in summer 2024, but revenue has been growing since then.
Cities get 36% of the 10% excise tax collected on the sales, while the rest of the cash goes to the state’s general fund. The state delayed reimbursements to local governments, which only started in January.
“This was funding that these communities have been waiting on,” said Adrienne Robbins, deputy executive director for the Ohio Cannabis Coalition. “It’s certainly something they were promised.”
Whitehall is the only other city in Franklin County that has dispensaries. Other cities, such as Dublin, have banned dispensaries outright, while others, like Grove City, imposed stringent rules on where they could be located. A dispensary that met Grove City’s narrow regulations still was rejected by the city council.
In Whitehall, total excise tax collection, which didn’t start until spring 2025, has totaled nearly $92,000 and has likewise been steadily increasing throughout 2025.
Columbus leads the Buckeye state in recreational marijuana sales, amounting to 13% of the statewide total. Local dispensaries have made approximately $131.6 million in sales since recreational marijuana sales started.
Cincinnati ranks second, with just over $2.5 million in excise tax revenue collected from August 2024 to December 2025 from $69.8 million in recreational marijuana sales, state data shows.
Columbia Township, a Cincinnati suburb, ranked third with nearly $1.6 million in excise taxes, and Dayton came in fourth, with nearly $1.2 million in the same period.
Although Toledo is the fourth-largest city in Ohio by population – about twice as many people as Dayton – dispensaries there only collected $161,000 in excise taxes. Toledo is close to the Michigan border, where recreational marijuana has been sold since December 2019 and prices are often lower than in Ohio.
Marijuana tax revenue has steadily increased in the city of Delaware, from modest beginnings of $5,000 in August and September 2024 to more than $39,000 in the last quarter of 2025.
The tax was collected on nearly $4.6 million in sales since recreational marijuana was legalized.
In Newark, nearly $650,000 in marijuana tax revenue has been collected since August 2024.
The collections have grown from more than $33,000 in August and September 2024 to $43,467 in December alone, according to state data.
The majority of the excise tax revenue – 64% – goes back into the state’s general fund. The other 36% goes to the local government where the dispensary is located, whether it’s a city or a township, which has discretion to use the funding however it wishes.
Marijuana sales are also subject to a 5.75% state sales tax, as well as any local sales taxes.
The Columbus City Council set up a fund to use marijuana tax money for human services and nonprofit organizations.
Anna Lynn Winfrey covers the northwestern suburbs for The Columbus Dispatch. She can be reached at awinfrey@dispatch.com.
Ohio Statehouse Bureau reporter Haley BeMiller contributed to this report.