COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Cuyahoga and Franklin counties would get five medical marijuana stores each, while many rural and some suburban counties would have none under a proposal to distribute Ohio's limited number of available licenses.

The Ohio State Board of Pharmacy expects more than 200 applications for up to 60 dispensary licenses. The board released draft maps this week showing how it would disperse them across the state.

Industry experts and patients have been concerned that number won't be enough to serve the state, especially in rural areas. The districts are supposed to ensure patients won't have to travel far to buy their medicine.

The draft maps bear out that concern, at least for the program's roll-out, expected in late summer 2018. The board can add more licenses after September 2018 to meet patient demand.

The state's six largest counties are single districts allotted three to five licenses apiece.

The rest of the state's 88 counties are grouped with at least two other counties to form a district. Fourteen districts containing three or four counties each are only allowed one dispensary license among them. One such district includes Lake, Geauga and Portage counties.

Northeast Ohio could have up to 18 medical marijuana dispensaries under a draft proposal from the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy.

"Patients are not going to have real easy access," said Chris Lindsey, a legislative analyst with national group Marijuana Policy Project.

Lindsey said the distribution could be worse than the maps indicate because many local governments have temporarily or permanently banned medical marijuana businesses.

Dispensary applicants will pay a non-refundable $5,000 application fee and, if awarded a license, a $70,000 fee every two years.

The board considered Ohio's population, estimated patient population, access to major highways and the experiences of other states in determining the districts. The board is accepting public comment on the dispensary districts until Aug. 11 emailed to MMCPRules@Pharmacy.Ohio.gov.

Marijuana Policy Project and Industry analysts have estimated Ohio's program will enlist about 200,000 patients -- five times greater -- because chronic and severe pain is one of the state's 21 qualifying medical conditions.

Lindsey said the conditions list and willingness for doctors to recommend medical marijuana are two major factors in whether a state's program is large enough to adequately serve patients' needs and attract businesses to do so.

The pharmacy board estimates between .04 and .44 percent of Ohio's population -- or between 4,600 and 51,000 patients -- will sign up for the program in the first two years, said spokesman Cameron McNamee.

That's been the experience in Illinois, New York, Connecticut and Minnesota, which the board looked to while drafting its rules, along with Colorado and Nevada. But those states' programs did not initially allow chronic pain patients to enroll and have more restrictions than Ohio does.

"It has been the experience in many other programs that there is often a slow uptake in patient registrations in the first two years when programs first become operational," McNamee said in an email. "This is why the program has built in flexibility to expand and add more dispensaries as necessary to meet patient demand."

That flexibility is encouraging to Lindsey and local officials who were hoping a dispensary would choose their communities.

While cities and townships can regulate where medical marijuana businesses locate and how many are allowed within their borders, the state makes the final call whether to issue a license.

Cleveland Heights officials have been working with a group interested in operating a dispensary there. The draft district maps have caused concerns about competition with other Cuyahoga County communities, said Brian Anderson, the city's business development manager.

"We figured with only 60 dispensaries this wasn't going to be what you see in other states," Anderson said. "We thought we'd end up with one at the most and we have a good idea who that would be but now that might not be the case."

Mobile readers, click here to see the draft districts.