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Ohio lawmakers will not be amending the state\u2019s voter-approved marijuana law this year despite a Republican-led push to expedite changes. The Senate has passed a bill to make changes, and a House committee has held a series of hearings on a different proposal, but the legislature will not be sending any reform measure to the governor\u2019s desk by the time lawmakers head home for the holiday break this week.<\/p>\n
The House Finance Committee took public testimony on a cannabis legalization amendment bill<\/a> from Rep. Jamie Callender (R) on Wednesday, marking its third hearing in the panel. But members did not vote before adjourning.<\/p>\n This comes as Senate Republicans have worked to advance a separate revision package<\/a> that\u2019s sparked significant pushback from advocates and stakeholders who feel it would undermine the will of voters who approved legalization at the ballot last month. That legislation cleared the chamber, but it has not yet been considered in the House.<\/p>\n The House bill is considered more palatable to reform supporters, as it\u2019d make less sweeping changes to what voters approved on the November ballot\u2014especially compared to the Senate legislation that initially called for the elimination of home cultivation and an indefinite delay on basic legalization provisions. That latter measure was significantly altered amid criticism last week, but it\u2019s still facing sizable opposition.<\/p>\n Senate President Matt Huffman (R) originally aimed to pass the bill under an emergency prior to legalization taking effect last week, but that didn\u2019t happen according to his timeline. House Speaker Jason Stephens (R), meanwhile, has said he doesn\u2019t see the need to rush amending the initiated statute given that sales won\u2019t begin until later in 2024.<\/p>\n The GOP House and Senate leaders have disagreed on certain procedural issues related to amending the marijuana law such as the timeline for enactment, but they\u2019ve both generally expressed support for the idea of making changes such as revising the tax structure, preventing public consumption and deterring impaired driving.<\/p>\n In the House Finance Committee, meanwhile, members heard another round of testimony from advocates and stakeholders, who discussed concerns about the bill\u2019s proposed revenue allocations, the possibility of increased criminalization for activity such as sharing marijuana and the impact of the legislation on the state\u2019s existing hemp and medical cannabis markets.<\/p>\n \ufeff<\/span><\/p>\n The House speaker said the full chamber would not be voting on Callender\u2019s proposal on Wednesday, nor would it be concurring on the separate cannabis bill passed by the Senate last week. The legislature is scheduled to reconvene in mid-January.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just such a big change in Ohio\u2019s law that we need to be deliberate and we need to respect that there are concerns from the administration and the Senate, and we respect those concerns,\u201d Stephens said<\/a>. \u201cMost of the provisions of Issue 2 don\u2019t come into effect until the summer, so that\u2019s really why you don\u2019t see that sense of urgency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cThere are some provisions that some like and some don\u2019t and it\u2019s trying to work through that process,\u201d he said<\/a> of the competing marijuana proposals. \u201cGenerally speaking, we want to maintain the will of the people. It\u2019s an extremely important thing for a lot of members on both sides of the aisle.\u201d<\/p>\n The Senate proposal has a different trajectory. It was first attached to a non-controversial House-passed bill before being amended and approved in the Senate General Government Committee and then on the floor.<\/p>\n Advocates are more concerned about the Senate plan. While it was significantly revised from its original form in committee\u2014restoring home cultivation, for example\u2014reform advocates say it still undermines the will of voters who passed the legalization initiative at the ballot last month.<\/p>\n Top Republicans, including Gov. Mike DeWine (R), have insisted that voters were only supportive of the fundamental principle of legalizing marijuana\u00a0without necessarily backing specific policies around issues such as tax revenue<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that people did not vote for the situation that we\u2019re going to have if we don\u2019t change it. And that is that it\u2019s legal now to possess marijuana, legal to use it, but you can\u2019t buy it legally,\u201d DeWine\u00a0said\u00a0on Monday, expressing support for the Senate bill that would let adults purchase cannabis from existing medical dispensaries in three months, rather than wait for retailers to open later next year.<\/p>\n Stephens said the expedited sales timeline is \u201csomething to consider\u201d and \u201cnot a horrible idea,\u201d though there are still questions about how to administratively implement the change. Likewise, he said both chambers agree with the Senate\u2019s proposal to facilitate expungements for prior cannabis convictions, saying \u201cit\u2019s just a matter of how.\u201d<\/p>\n Here how the House bill from Callender,\u00a0HB 354<\/a>, would change Ohio\u2019s marijuana law:<\/strong><\/p>\n Here\u2019s what the revised Senate-passed measure,\u00a0HB 86<\/a>, would do to the state\u2019s marijuana law:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n In contrast, here\u2019s what Issue 2 would accomplish as passed by voters:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n While some Democratic lawmakers have indicated that they may be amenable to certain revisions, such as putting certain cannabis tax revenue toward K-12 education, other supporters of the voter-passed legalization initiative are firmly against letting legislators undermine the will of the majority that approved it.<\/p>\n Ohio Rep. Juanita Brent (D) recently emphasized that people who\u2019ve been criminalized over marijuana, as well as those with industry experience,\u00a0should be involved in any efforts to amend the state\u2019s voter-approved legalization law<\/a>, arguing that it shouldn\u2019t be left up to \u201canti-cannabis\u201d legislators alone to revise the statute.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Rep. Gary Click (R) filed legislation earlier this month that would\u00a0allow individual municipalities to locally ban the use and home cultivation of cannabis<\/a>\u00a0in their jurisdictions and also revise how state marijuana tax revenue would be distributed by, for example, reducing funds allocated to social equity and jobs programs and instead steering them toward law enforcement training.<\/p>\n Rep. Cindy Abrams (R) also introduced a bill last month that would revise the marijuana law by putting\u00a0$40 million in cannabis tax dollars toward law enforcement training<\/a>\u00a0annually.<\/p>\n \u2014 The Ohio Department of Commerce was quick to publish an FAQ guide\u00a0for residents to learn about the new law and timeline for implementation<\/a>, though regulators repeatedly noted that the policies may be subject to change depending on how the legislature acts.<\/p>\n Prohibitionist organizations that campaigned against Issue 2, meanwhile, are set on a fundamental undermining of the newly approved law, with some describing plans to pressure the legislature to entirely repeal legalization before it\u2019s even implemented.<\/p>\n For what it\u2019s worth, a number of Ohio lawmakers said in September that they\u00a0doubted the legislature would seek to repeal a voter-passed legalization law<\/a>. The Senate president affirmed repeal wasn\u2019t part of the agenda, at least not in the next year.<\/p>\n Voters were only able to decide on the issue after lawmakers declined to take the opportunity to pass their own reform as part of the ballot qualification process. They were given months to enact legalization that they could have molded to address their outstanding concerns, but the legislature ultimately deferred to voters by default.<\/p>\n As early voting kicked off in late October, the GOP-controlled Senate passed a resolution\u00a0urging residents to reject measure<\/a>.<\/p>\n Unlike the top state Republican lawmakers, one of the state\u2019s GOP representatives in Congress\u2014Rep. Dave Joyce, co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, said in September that\u00a0he would be voting in favor of the initiative in November<\/a>. He encouraged \u201call Ohio voters to participate and make their voices heard on this important issue.\u201d<\/p>\n Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said in late October\u00a0he voted in favor of the legalization ballot initiative<\/a>, calling it a \u201chard decision\u201d but one that was based on his belief that the reform would promote \u201csafety\u201d for consumers.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Vivek Ramaswamy, a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, said\u00a0he voted against a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana in Ohio<\/a>\u00a0because he\u2019s concerned the federal government could \u201cweaponize\u201d criminalization against people who are engaged in state-legal cannabis activities under the \u201cfake\u201d pretense that they\u2019re protected from federal prosecution.<\/p>\n Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), for his part, said recently that Ohio\u2019s vote to legalize marijuana at the ballot is\u00a0one of the latest examples of how Americans are rejecting \u201cMAGA extremism,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and he added that he\u2019s committed to continuing to work on a bipartisan basis \u201cto keep moving on bipartisan cannabis legislation as soon as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, told Marijuana Moment that\u00a0\u201cthe vote in Ohio was a great big exclamation point on the things we\u2019ve been talking about.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been saying for years how this issue has crested, how it\u2019s got broad momentum, how it is inclusive. It\u2019s sort of like the success with the [Ohio abortion rights] issue\u2014except this was more pronounced,\u201d he said. \u201cWe got more votes than the abortion issue. We get more votes than anybody on the ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n The White House has separately said that\u00a0\u201cnothing has changed\u201d with President Joe Biden\u2019s stance on marijuana<\/a>, declining to say if he supports Ohio\u2019s vote to legalize or whether he backs further reform of federal cannabis laws.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, as Ohio voters approved statewide legalization, activists also chalked up a series of little-noticed wins to\u00a0decriminalize larger amounts of cannabis in three Ohio cities<\/a>, according to preliminary county election results.<\/p>\n Connecticut Sales Of Legal Marijuana Set New Monthly Record In November<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis \/\/ Side Pocket Images.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Ohio Bills To Change Voter-Approved Marijuana Law Pushed Back To 2024 As House Committee Holds Third Hearing On GOP Proposal<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Ohio lawmakers will not be amending the state\u2019s voter-approved marijuana law this year despite a Republican-led push to expedite changes. The Senate has passed a bill to make changes, and a House committee has held a series of hearings on a different proposal, but the legislature will not be sendingContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":70915,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70916,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70914\/revisions\/70916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Ohio Bills To Change Voter-Approved Marijuana Law Pushed Back To 2024 As House Committee Holds Third Hearing On GOP Proposal<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"