Who applied to grow medical marijuana in Ohio? The state isn't saying.

After legalizing medical marijuana last year, the state is setting up a massive program to oversee the businesses who grow and sell marijuana as well as doctors who recommend it to patients.

Those who want to grow the drug must apply with the Ohio Department of Commerce, which has already collected applications to be one of Ohio's 12 small-scale medical marijuana farms. But when The Enquirer requested those applications, seeking to report where marijuana growers might be located, the state said it didn't have to share the applications with the public right now. 

Addyson Benton has come home.

To celebrate, her parents Heather and Adam Benton threw a bash June 17 for Addyson’s sixth birthday at EnterTrainment Junction, with pizza, cake, presents, grandparents, relatives and friends. Addyson and a young pal walked hand in hand around the venue, with Addyson smiling and pointing at the lights and train sounds.

“She’s been the ultimate factor on every decision,” said Heather Benton, brushing a hand over her daughter’s hair. “Her well-being is the only thing that matters.”

It appears the deadly synthetic opiate fentanyl is now being mixed with marijuana in some Ohio communities – sparking some concern that this dangerous trend could soon spread across more of the United States.

What started out as a rumor last week on social media networks has been confirmed as gospel. Hamilton County Coroner Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco said during a recent press conference with Senator Rob Portman that she has seen some cases in which fentanyl, a hardcore painkiller with a potency up to 100 times greater than morphine, has been mixed with marijuana.

Ohio's capital city is opening its arms to medical marijuana growers.

Columbus is changing zoning laws to accommodate cannabis cultivators and has already signed off on six businesses seeking approval from Ohio to obtain one of the state's 24 medical marijuana grow licenses.

A city zoning officials says Columbus plans to allow indoor grow facilities in manufacturing districts. The city also will consider where dispensaries can sell cannabis products in the zoning changes.

Columbus officials have been supportive of Ohio's new medical marijuana law that allows doctors to recommend cannabis to patients with at least one of 21 qualifying medical conditions. Medical marijuana is supposed to become available by September 2018.

The landscape has changed since Gov. John Kasich signed Ohio's medical marijuana law one year ago today.

Details of the new, tightly-controlled program began rolling out in November. The state began accepting applications for 24 grow licenses on Monday, and other businesses are preparing to apply for dispensary and processor licenses in a few months.  

Investigators said three U.S. postal employees in Akron targeted packages being shipped by drug traffickers, stole the packages and then sold the marijuana to a drug dealer, splitting the profits.

Rabih Kairouz, 29, of Akron, Anton D. Easter, Jr., 26, of Akron, Scott Gay, Jr., 33, of Canton, and Corey Turnbull, 26, of Ravenna were named in the three-count indictment filed Tuesday.

Kairouz, Gay and Turnbull worked as supervisors for the U.S. Postal Service in Akron.

The trio allegedly set aside parcels that they believed to contain drugs, later opened the packages and sold close to 100 pounds of marijuana to Easter, sharing the profits.

In West Virginia, a new law includes a provision that requires regulators to encourage minority-owned business owners to apply for growing licenses. (Photo by Heath Korvola/ Digital Vision/Getty Images)

In some states that have legalized marijuana, officials are trying to entice nonwhite citizens to join the cannabis industry with breaks aimed at making up for the toll unequal drug enforcement has taken on Black and brown communities.

So far, the booming industry has overwhelmingly line the pockets of white cannabis sellers.

Andre Shavers was sentenced to five years on felony probation after authorities burst into the house where he was living in one of Oakland's most heavily policed neighborhoods and found a quarter ounce of marijuana.

After the 2007 raid, Shavers couldn't leave the state without permission. He was subject to police searches at any time. He walked to the corner store one night for maple syrup and came back in a police car. Officers wanted to search his home again.

All the while, cannabis storefronts flourished elsewhere in a state where medical marijuana was authorized in 1996.

Ohioans wanting medical marijuana have been crossing the border into Michigan, where some Detroit-area dispensaries will sell to out-of-staters who are issued recommendations for cannabis use months ahead of the drug becoming available in their home state, according to officials from a company providing the recommendations.

Those recommendations, given by doctors working for a Toledo business or any other Ohio physician, won’t necessarily help someone in court if they are busted for having pot into Ohio. Possession of less than 100 grams (about 3.5 ounces) is a minor misdemeanor in Ohio with a maximum $150 fine, but could lead to someone losing their driving privileges for six months.

When the state of Ohio goes through the process of selecting the 24 growers who will cultivate cannabis for medicinal uses, the selectors will not know the identities of the applicants. The state wants to ensure there is no pressure, political or otherwise, in the granting of permits.

That’s how it should be, given the very lucrative nature of this flourishing industry nationwide.

In 2016, legal marijuana sales – for medicinal and recreational purposes – topped $6.7 billion, a 24 percent increase over 2015.

There are 26 states that allow the use of cannabis. Ohio joined the list in 2016 when Republican Gov. John R. Kasich signed into law a bill passed by the GOP-controlled General Assembly.