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Ohio Republican lawmakers are reviving an effort to significantly alter the state\u2019s voter-approved marijuana legalization law\u2014in part by raising the tax on cannabis products, halving the number of plants adults could grow and eliminating certain social equity provisions.<\/p>\n
While GOP leadership has generally pledged that they will not seek to repeal the marijuana law altogether, a newly filed bill from Sen. Steve Huffman (R)\u2014which the Senate president signaled he supports\u2014would make major changes that substantially depart from the provisions of the initiative that voters strongly approved in 2023.<\/p>\n
Among the proposed revisions, the bill would increase the excise tax on marijuana from 10 percent to 15 percent. And rather than have revenue allocated to specific areas supporting social equity and jobs programs, local governments that permit marijuana businesses, education and substance misuse initiatives and more, all revenue would instead go to the state general fund.<\/p>\n
Senate President Rob McColley (R) told The Columbus Dispatch that legislators intend to discuss possible disbursements of that revenue this session, but he said he\u2019s aligned with the bill sponsor on the idea of increasing the tax rate for cannabis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s an awful lot of societal costs that are going to have to be borne by the legalization of marijuana,\u201d he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n Under Huffman\u2019s bill<\/a>, adults would only be able to grow up to six plants, rather than 12, for personal use. It would also decrease the THC content cap from 90 percent to 70 percent.<\/p>\n Further, the proposal would limit the number of dispensaries to 350, while requiring all licensed retailers to serve both adult-use consumers and medical cannabis patients. The state Division of Cannabis Control (DCC) would also no longer be required to establish rules allowing for marijuana deliveries and online purchases.<\/p>\n GOP lawmakers considered a variety of potential amendments to the marijuana law in the weeks after voters passed the ballot initiative, and this latest attempt is likely to see similar pushback.<\/p>\n Sen. Bill DeMora (D) said<\/a> during a committee hearing on Wednesday that the proposal effectively amounts to legislators telling voters: \u201cScrew you, you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about. You passed it with an overwhelming majority in the state, but we know better than they did what they were voting on.\u201d<\/p>\n Huffman, the bill sponsor, said the legislation is not meant to \u201cdo away with the ballot initiative.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s to work around the edges to make it better,\u201d he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n Certain Democrats have indicated a willingness to finesse the cannabis law, but they say the proposed changes to provisions related to issues such as home cultivation are a bridge too far. Sen. Casey Weinstein (D) said there\u2019s \u201cdefinitely bipartisan support for protections in marketing to keep kids safe and sensible limitations on where you can use cannabis,\u201d but not for undermining fundamental components of what voters approved.<\/p>\n The bill introduction comes as Ohio\u2019s GOP House speaker seems to have changed his tune on the state\u2019s marijuana law<\/a>, walking back his previously stated plan to undermine provisions of the voter-approved initiative such as home cultivation rights.<\/p>\n Conflicts between Senate and House Republican leadership near the end of the last session played a key role in stalling amendment proposals. It\u2019s unclear if the chambers will be able to reach consensus this round, especially as the market continues to evolve and consumers adopt to the law.<\/p>\n \u2014 Speaker Matt Huffman (R), who previously served as Senate president, said that while he continues to oppose the reform measure voters passed, he doesn\u2019t believe anyone in the legislature \u201crealistically is suggesting that we\u2019re going to repeal the legalization of marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not for it. I wasn\u2019t for the casinos coming to Ohio, either. But there\u2019s lots of stuff that\u2019s part of the Constitution and the law that are there that I don\u2019t like,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n To that end, the speaker indicated he\u2019s no longer interested in pursuing plans to broadly undermine the cannabis law, despite having backed legislation as a Senate leader last session<\/a>\u00a0that would have decreased allowable THC levels in state-legal cannabis products, reduced the number of plants that adults could grow at home and increased costs for consumers at dispensaries.<\/p>\n Initially,\u00a0changes backed by Huffman<\/a>\u00a0last year would have\u00a0eliminated home cultivation rights entirely<\/a>\u00a0for Ohio adults and criminalized all cannabis obtained anywhere other than a state-licensed retailer.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, as 2024 came to a close with the new marijuana legalization law in effect, Ohio officials announced\u00a0the state saw adult-use cannabis sales exceed $242 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n As the 2025 session gets underway, lawmakers are also expected to consider key changes to the state\u2019s hemp laws. In November, legislators took testimony on a proposal that would ban intoxicating hemp products in the state. Huffman\u2014the sponsor of the marijuana revision bill and not the House speaker\u2014introduced that proposal after Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) called on lawmakers to regulate or ban delta-8 THC products<\/a>.<\/p>\n Separately, despite legalization of adult-use cannabis in Ohio, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs\u2019s (VA) Cincinnati health center issued a reminder last summer that\u00a0government doctors are still prohibited from recommending medical cannabis to veterans<\/a>\u2014at least as long as it remains a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law.<\/p>\n Hawaii House Committee Unanimously Votes To Protect Medical Marijuana Patients From Employment Discrimination<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Ohio GOP Lawmakers Introduce Bill To Raise Marijuana Tax, Restrict Home Grow And Eliminate Social Equity Funding<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Ohio Republican lawmakers are reviving an effort to significantly alter the state\u2019s voter-approved marijuana legalization law\u2014in part by raising the tax on cannabis products, halving the number of plants adults could grow and eliminating certain social equity provisions. While GOP leadership has generally pledged that they will not seek toContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":79936,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79935"}],"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=79935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79937,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79935\/revisions\/79937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Ohio GOP Lawmakers Introduce Bill To Raise Marijuana Tax, Restrict Home Grow And Eliminate Social Equity Funding<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"