Ohio Senate Panel Takes Up Bill To Amend Voter-Approved Marijuana Legalization Law, But Removes Its Tax Provisions

An Ohio Senate panel on Tuesday took testimony on a invoice that may considerably amend the state’s voter-approved marijuana legalization law—together with by halving the variety of vegetation adults might develop, creating further prison offenses and eliminating sure social fairness provisions.

Most testimony heard by the Senate General Government Committee—which is anticipated to vote on the proposal both this week or subsequent—was in sharp opposition to the measure, SB 56, from Sen. Stephen Huffman (R).

“SB 56 is not the tidying-up of a citizen-initiated statute,” ACLU of Ohio stated in written testimony. “Instead, it is a rebuke of the people and businesses that drafted the initiative, voted for it, worked tirelessly to implement it, and generated (so far) $319 million of adult-use sales.”

ACLU urged lawmakers to not rush the invoice, writing: “Your constituents deserve the chance to fully weigh [in] on an important issue they passed so resoundingly before it is demolished by politicians.”

Of 43 items of written testimony submitted forward of Tuesday’s listening to, just one was filed in assist. A separate listening to on the measure final month, nevertheless, consisted largely of testimony by proponents.

In its preliminary kind, the 147-page invoice would have raised the state’s excise tax on marijuana merchandise from 10 p.c to fifteen p.c and in addition modified how taxes are redistributed to native governments. But these tax provisions had been eliminated beneath a substitute model of the measure authorised by the committee at Tuesday’s listening to.

Another change within the substitute expands a buffer zone between marijuana retailers from half a mile to at least one full mile, which Chair Sen. Kristina Roegner (R) stated was a request from each the state’s Division of Cannabis Control and present companies.

A committee vote on SB 56 was tentatively anticipated to occur as quickly as this week, however Roegner stated Tuesday that the panel would as a substitute reconvene for additional consideration of the measure someday subsequent week.

Under different, remaining provisions of Huffman’s invoice, adults would be capable to develop solely as much as six vegetation for private use relatively than the present 12. It would additionally lower the THC content material cap from 90 p.c to 70 p.c.

Further, the proposal would restrict the variety of dispensaries to 350, whereas requiring all licensed retailers to serve each adult-use customers and medical hashish sufferers. The state Division of Cannabis Control (DCC) would additionally not be required to determine guidelines permitting for marijuana deliveries and on-line purchases.

Cannabis reform advocates have blasted the measure as a rejection of the voters’ will.

“SB 56 would create a legal minefield that re-criminalizes innocuous conduct, including sharing cannabis, smoking or vaping in one’s backyard, and having edibles in a car that were ever opened,” wrote Marijuana Policy Project’s director of state insurance policies, Karen O’Keefe, including that the invoice additionally “lowers potency caps, eliminates the cannabis social equity and jobs program, and eliminates non-discrimination protections to ensure responsible cannabis consumers are not denied child custody, medical care including life-saving organ transplants, and benefits.”

O’Keefe’s testimony referred to as particulars of the proposal “needlessly onerous” and “nonsensical,” noting {that a} passenger on a ship who vapes or smokes marijuana would face a compulsory three-day minimal jail sentence that would lengthen so long as six months. And she identified that as a consequence of its proposed restrictions on sharing, “Spouses would need to have ‘his and her[s]’ cannabis! Imagine being prohibited from sharing a bottle of wine with friends and family.”

“The people spoke when they approved Issue 2,” O’Keefe stated. “SB 56 dramatically scales back the freedoms, protections, and commitment to justice that voters approved. It replaces them with an air of suspicion, trip wires and re-criminalization.”

O’Keefe advised Marijuana Moment in a separate e-mail Tuesday that “SB 56 is a slap in the face to Ohio voters, 57% of whom approved legalization.”

“It dramatically scales back the freedoms, protections, and commitment to equity and justice that voters approved,” she stated. “It replaces adult-use legalization with trip wires of re-criminalization, prohibiting everything from passing a joint to vaping on your own porch.”

Simon Dunkle IV, the chief director of Ohio NORML, advised lawmakers that “you can’t correct what you don’t know about” and wrote that “as Elected Officials, you have a Duty to execute the Will of the People. You are Public Servants, not a Monarchy or Aristocracy.”

Testimony from some critics has already resulted in adjustments to the bill. Removing the invoice’s earlier adjustments to tax distributions, for example, seem like in response to outcry from native governments, who broadly opposed Huffman’s proposal as filed.

Kent Scarrett, government director of the Ohio Municipal League, which represents greater than 730 cities and villages, wrote in testimony for the hearing that whereas the group appreciates SB 56’s efforts to increase native authorities authority to ban or restrict the variety of hashish companies in a jurisdiction, municipalities are involved by its proposed adjustments to income distribution. He referred to as on lawmakers to reject the invoice.

“We urge the Legislature to maintain funding for communities that host marijuana facilities,” he wrote, “so these municipalities can prioritize where the need is greatest in their community and work to make the greatest impact.”

The Ohio Mayors Alliance, which didn’t take a place on the measure, equally pointed to considerations in regards to the Host Community Fund, which collects 36 p.c of state tax income from marijuana and routes it to native communities.

“To eliminate that revenue sharing fund with local communities that have acted in reliance on the existence of that fund would be fundamentally unfair,” the group stated. “It would additionally ignore the very actual wants of the in depth investments native taxpayers have made of their native police forces, notably in mild of their enhanced monitoring, coaching, and enforcement duties with the creation of Ohio’s leisure

While the elevated excise tax charge seems to have been eliminated within the newest model of SB 56, Gov. Mike DeWine (R) has separately indicated plans to double the double the current tax rate by way of the finances course of, elevating it to twenty p.c.

Sen. Bill DeMora (D) said throughout an earlier committee listening to late final month that the proposal successfully quantities to legislators telling voters: “Screw you, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You passed it with an overwhelming majority in the state, but we know better than they did what they were voting on.”

Huffman, the invoice sponsor, stated the laws will not be meant to “do away with the ballot initiative.”

“It’s to work around the edges to make it better,” he said.

Certain Democrats have to this point indicated a willingness to finesse the hashish legislation, however they’ve stated Huffman’s proposed adjustments to provisions round points comparable to dwelling cultivation are a bridge too far.

Sen. Casey Weinstein (D), for instance, has stated there’s “definitely bipartisan support for protections in marketing to keep kids safe and sensible limitations on where you can use cannabis,” however not for undermining basic parts of what voters authorised.

The invoice introduction comes as Ohio’s GOP House speaker seems to have changed his tune on the state’s marijuana law, strolling again his beforehand acknowledged plan to undermine provisions of the voter-approved initiative comparable to dwelling cultivation rights.

Conflicts between Senate and House Republican management close to the top of the final session performed a key function in stalling modification proposals. It’s unclear if the chambers will be capable to attain consensus this spherical, particularly because the market continues to evolve and customers undertake to the legislation.

Speaker Matt Huffman (R), who beforehand served as Senate president, stated that whereas he continues to oppose the reform measure voters handed, he doesn’t imagine anybody within the legislature “realistically is suggesting that we’re going to repeal the legalization of marijuana.”

“I’m not for it. I wasn’t for the casinos coming to Ohio, either. But there’s lots of stuff that’s part of the Constitution and the law that are there that I don’t like,” he stated.

To that finish, the speaker indicated he’s not all for pursuing plans to broadly undermine the hashish legislation, despite having backed legislation as a Senate leader last session that may have decreased allowable THC ranges in state-legal hashish merchandise, decreased the variety of vegetation that adults might develop at dwelling and elevated prices for customers at dispensaries.

Initially, changes backed by Matt Huffman final 12 months would have eliminated home cultivation rights entirely for Ohio adults and criminalized all hashish obtained wherever aside from a state-licensed retailer.

While some Democratic lawmakers have beforehand indicated that they could be amenable to sure revisions, comparable to placing sure hashish tax income towards Ok-12 training, different supporters of the voter-passed legalization initiative are firmly in opposition to letting legislators undermine the desire of the bulk that authorised it.

NORML just lately launched a letter-writing marketing campaign urging Ohio residents to inform their state representatives to “keep your hands off Issue 2.”

“Even before the ink on the new law is dry, some lawmakers are calling on the legislature to amend or even repeal parts of the law. Prohibitionist groups are similarly encouraging lawmakers to take legislative action to thwart the will of the people,” NORML wrote. “We must not let these groups accomplish through backroom deals what they couldn’t accomplish at the ballot box. The will of the majority of Ohio’s voters must be respected.”

Meanwhile, as 2024 got here to a detailed with the brand new marijuana legalization legislation in impact, Ohio officers introduced the state saw adult-use cannabis sales exceed $242 million.

As the 2025 session will get underway, lawmakers are additionally anticipated to contemplate key adjustments to the state’s hemp legal guidelines. In November, legislators took testimony on a proposal that may ban intoxicating hemp merchandise within the state. Stephen Huffman, the sponsor of the marijuana revision invoice, launched that proposal after Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) referred to as on lawmakers to regulate or ban delta-8 THC products.

Separately, regardless of legalization of adult-use hashish in Ohio, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’s (VA) Cincinnati well being middle issued a reminder final summer time that government doctors are still prohibited from recommending medical cannabis to veterans—at the least so long as it stays a Schedule I managed substance beneath federal legislation.

GOP Congressman Files Bill To Let Military Veterans Get Medical Marijuana Recommendations From Government Doctors

Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.