Ohio conditions a dispensary's certificate of operation on evidence of financial responsibility — an escrow account or a $50,000 surety bond filed with the Division of Cannabis Control under OAC 1301:18-3-08. Ours is $1,025 flat, and the price you see is the price at checkout. The application includes a credit consent, but it authorizes a soft credit pull only — a soft inquiry that never affects your score.
















Financial responsibility is the quickest item on a dispensary compliance list, and the only one you can finish in a browser tab. Here's the entire process:
Entity details, your county, your dual-use cannabis license number, and an effective date — plus a short set of commercial questions and a one-time consent to a soft credit pull.
Cannabis license bonds like this issue right after purchase for most applicants. At most, 1–2 business days.
Your executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email. The bond carries your business name and your division-issued license number, and precludes the surety from cancelling it without the division's prior written authorization. Wet-ink original mailed to the address you enter.
Ohio does not let a dispensary open on a promise. OAC 1301:18-3-08 makes every cannabis licensee carry two things at once: commercial general liability insurance covering products liability, and either an escrow account or a surety bond. For a dispensary the figure is $50,000. The other license types carry their own amounts — $750,000 for a level one cultivator, $75,000 for level two, $250,000 for a processor, $75,000 for a testing laboratory — so the dispensary tier is the smallest in the program, and the only one most retail operators ever file.
The bond is payable to the division if a licensee fails to comply with the chapter's mandates, and its terms are prescribed rather than left to the surety: it has to carry your business name and the license number the division issued, and it must preclude the surety from cancelling without the division's prior written authorization. If your financial responsibility is ever released or cancelled, replacement evidence has to be in front of the division on or before the cancellation date — the rule builds in no grace period, which is why a lapse is a certificate problem and not just a paperwork problem.
The requirement shrinks as you build history. After one full calendar year in operation and in compliance, a dispensary may petition to reduce financial responsibility by $15,000; after two consecutive years, by another $15,000; after three consecutive years, to terminate it altogether. Reduction is not automatic — the division has to approve it — so until it does, the filing stands at the full amount. The same filing applies whether you hold a medical certificate of operation or a dual-use certificate selling both medical and non-medical cannabis.
These are the actual issuing fields, including your dual-use cannabis license number and a one-time consent to a soft credit pull that never affects your score.
Start the application →$1,025 flat, soft pull only, bond often issued in the same sitting. Free until issued.