Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost on Thursday sued nine major marijuana multistate operators for allegedly conspiring in “anti-competitive conduct to reduce product choice and keep prices artificially high” that harmed small businesses in violation of state antitrust laws.
In a statement Friday, Yost said the publicly traded companies engaged in “an industry-wide scheme designed to push small Ohio businesses out of the market.”
“Ohio’s antitrust laws protect competition and consumers, not backroom deals that rig the system for a select few,” Yost said in a news release.
According to the lawsuit, 13 of Ohio’s 60 counties with cannabis retailers have only MSO-owned stores.
Major cannabis MSOs sued in Ohio
The cannabis companies named in Yost’s lawsuit are:
- New Jersey-headquartered Ascend Wellness
- Ayr Wellness, based in Florida
- Massachusetts-based The Cannabist Co., formerly known as Columbia Care
- Chicago-headquartered Cresco Labs
- Curaleaf Holdings, headquartered in Connecticut
- Chicago-based Green Thumb Industries
- Boca Raton, Florida-based Jushi Holdings
- Tallahassee, Florida-based Trulieve Cannabis Corp.
- Chicago-headquartered Verano Holdings
Ohio attorney general accuses marijuana MSOs of running a ‘cannabis cartel’
In the lawsuit, Yost claims these firms are “actively suppressing” competition – and have engaged in the same “cartel” conduct in “other states, not just Ohio,” using three techniques:
- The use of “reciprocal supply agreements and dispensary shelf space allotments,” in which the MSOs agree to buy each other’s products in multiple states
- “Exchanging competitively sensitive non-public information”
- “Implementing discriminatory supply arrangements and promotional terms”
“Until now, the cartels’ activities have gone unchallenged,” the lawsuit states.
The language – particularly describing cannabis companies as a “cartel” – is similar to how the legal industry is described by prominent anti-legalization organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM).
Cannabis companies respond to Ohio antitrust lawsuit
MJBizDaily contacted several companies for comment.
“Jushi is aware of the complaint filed in Franklin County, Ohio,” Trent Woloveck, chief strategy officer for Jushi, said in a statement.
“We respectfully disagree with the allegations against Jushi and believe the complaint reflects several mischaracterizations.
“We are concerned that the investigation appears to have solely focused on publicly traded operators such as Jushi and neglects the fact that Jushi has and continues to do significant business with dozens of Ohio single-state operators, on terms that do not provide preferential treatment to any class of operator.
“We intend to vigorously defend our company while remaining focused on providing safe, high-quality cannabis products to Ohio patients and consumers at competitive prices.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Green Thumb Industries said the company does not comment on pending litigation.
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Ohio cannabis antitrust investigation began with a whistleblower complaint
According to Yost, an investigation began after his office received a tip in October 2024 from “an Ohio cannabis industry employee.”
That anonymous tipster “claimed that the cannabis MSOs were colluding with one another to “prioritize one another’s products in Ohio dispensaries while reducing or eliminating purchases from independent Ohio cultivators and processors.”
These “reciprocal purchasing agreements” between the MSOs were “negotiated at a national level,” Yost said.
Adult-use marijuana sales began in August 2024 in Ohio, which recorded $1.06 billion in cannabis sales in 2025, the first full year of legalization.
The Ohio adult-use marijuana landscape
There are 190 stores that sell both medicinal and recreational cannabis in the state, where local restrictions are limiting growth opportunities for new businesses, according to recent state data.
A statewide license cap of 400 permits goes into effect in March.
Cannabis companies big and small favor limited-license markets as the antidote to the supply gluts and price compressions that affect markets without caps, such as California, Michigan and Oregon.
Ohio law allows vertically integrated cannabis operators but caps companies to no more than eight medical marijuana dispensary licenses and one cultivator and processor license.
There are 37 licensed cultivators in Ohio.
Chris Roberts can be reached at chris.roberts@mjbizdaily.com.
