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Top Ohio Republican lawmakers say plans are still in the works to amend the state\u2019s marijuana legalization law, with the Senate president setting a June target as regulators work to develop rules and launch an adult-use market.<\/p>\n
It remains unclear what that future cannabis legislation will look like, but leadership has discussed addressing issues such as tax revenue distribution, scaling back home cultivation rules and restricting public smoking.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am\u2014I would not say optimistic\u2014but I am reasonably hopeful, if you need words, that we can get something done by June,\u201d Senate President Matt Huffman (R), whose chamber has already passed legislation to amend the voter-approved legalization policy, told WCMH-TV.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith greater access to marijuana, there will be more visits to poison control centers,\u201d he said, adding that it\u2019s \u201creally important\u201d that lawmakers allocate tax dollars to those centers as part of any amendment package.<\/p>\n
The senator additionally said he thinks \u201cwhat\u2019s most pressing is people smoking marijuana when they\u2019re walking down the street.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gov. Mike DeWine (R) has previously pressed the legislature to enact changes to expedite recreational marijuana sales, despite his personal opposition to the ballot initiative that voters passed in November. But he\u2019s indicated that his more immediate concern is regulating the sale of intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoids such as delta-8 THC.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is time for the legislature to move,\u201d the governor, who also raised the issue during his State of the State address earlier this month<\/a>, said. \u201cWe can\u2019t do it ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n He also said he\u2019s \u201cnot going to get into that\u201d when asked about disagreements within Republican leadership with respect to revising the state\u2019s marijuana law.<\/p>\n House Speaker Jason Stephens (R), who has been reluctant to join the Senate\u2019s push to change the cannabis law that voters approved, said the prospect of passing such legislation \u201cdepends on what it looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of members have certain things that they think are important, others don\u2019t think they are as important,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about building a consensus.\u201d<\/p>\n The speaker added that while he believes it\u2019s critical for the legislature to determine how to most effectively distribute marijuana tax revenue, they need to first get a clearer sense of how much the state stands to generate when the legal market opens.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s estimates,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we\u2019ve seen estimates before whether it\u2019s gambling or other revenue services that were going to be X and turned out they would be Y.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is the exact amount of taxes? What does that add up to? How does that compare? How much flexibility do local communities have,\u201d Stephens said. \u201cAs we go into the future there will continually be changes and tweaks to recreational marijuana in Ohio.\u201d<\/p>\n Huffman, the Senate president, said<\/a> that \u201cmost reasonable people, including people in the industry, believe that it would be better to have it clarified in law.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 The Senate\u00a0did pass an amendment package just prior to legalization taking effect<\/a> in December, but the House has not taken it up, nor has it moved to advance a different proposal that originate in the House.<\/p>\n While regulators have until September to start issuing cannabis business licenses, a GOP lawmaker who chairs a rulemaking committee said this month that sales could launch as soon as June under a regulatory plan that his panel set to approve<\/a>.<\/p>\n Regulators already implemented a change last month that allows medical marijuana patients and caregivers to\u00a0obtain or renew their registrations for only one penny<\/a>.<\/p>\n The fee elimination is\u00a0part of an initial package of rules that DCC released in February<\/a>\u00a0to implement adult-use legalization.<\/p>\n Following voter approval of legalization at the ballot, the Department of Commerce was quick to publish an FAQ guide\u00a0for residents to learn about the new law and timeline for implementation<\/a>.<\/p>\n DEA, FDA And Other Agencies To Discuss Marijuana\u2019s Potential To Treat Pain At Upcoming Federal Research Meeting<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Top Ohio GOP Lawmakers Struggle To Reach Consensus On Bill To Amend Marijuana Legalization Law<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Top Ohio Republican lawmakers say plans are still in the works to amend the state\u2019s marijuana legalization law, with the Senate president setting a June target as regulators work to develop rules and launch an adult-use market. It remains unclear what that future cannabis legislation will look like, but leadershipContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":74858,"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\/74857"}],"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=74857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74859,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74857\/revisions\/74859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Top Ohio GOP Lawmakers Struggle To Reach Consensus On Bill To Amend Marijuana Legalization Law<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"