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The Ohio House of Representatives has passed a bill that would make significant changes to the state\u2019s voter-approved marijuana legalization law<\/a> by removing several protections for consumers while also adding a series of new restrictions on hemp products that are intended to align the two sectors of the cannabis industry.<\/p>\n After moving through several House committees this week, with substantive amendments, the full chamber approved the legislation from Sen. Stephen Huffman (R) in a 87-8 vote on Wednesday.<\/p>\n While the measure previously passed the Senate in earlier form it will need to return to that chamber for concurrence, or go to a bicameral conference committee, before potentially heading to the governor\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n Certain controversial provisions of the bill as passed by the Senate were scaled back by the House, but advocates are concerned that it would still make major changes to the marijuana law voters approved in 2023.<\/p>\n Rep. Brian Stewart (R), who has shepherded the legislation through the House, argued ahead of the floor vote that the legislation effectively reaches a \u201ccarefully crafted compromise\u201d between lawmakers with differing perspectives on cannabis issues.<\/p>\n \u201cThis bill has been very difficult to wrangle, but most of our substantive bills usually are. Rather than being some kind of mushy muddle of weak sauce tie-breakers, this bill does what we all claim that we wanted to come to Columbus to do,\u201d he said. \u201cIt tackles the issue head-on. It makes tough decisions. It respects and implements the feedback from residents and advocates across the affected industries. This bill wisely balances between Ohioans\u2019 individual liberties, their safety, the financial wellbeing of our local communities and the need to protect the health and safety of Ohio\u2019s children.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Jamie Callender (R), who sponsored marijuana legalization legislation ahead of voters\u2019 approval of the reform at the ballot, said the bill is \u201cnot perfect\u201d but argued that lawmakers \u201chave to act\u201d to address intoxicating hemp and other pending issues.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the revised code we\u2019re writing,\u201d he said. \u201cI anticipate there will be numerous other bills on these topics in the near- and long-term future, as there should be\u2026 I\u2019ll keep working with everyone to make it better.\u201d<\/p>\n While its supporters have described it as a less heavy-handed approach compared to the original Senate bill, the measure would make substantive changes to the existing legalization law\u2014with several provisions that advocates say directly contradict the will of voters and represent overreach on the part of lawmakers.<\/p>\n For example, the proposal would eliminate language in current statute providing anti-discrimination protections for people who lawfully use cannabis. That includes protections meant to prevent adverse actions in the context of child custody rights, the ability to qualify for organ transplants and professional licensing.<\/p>\n It would also recriminalize possessing marijuana from any source that isn\u2019t a state-licensed dispensary in Ohio or from a legal homegrow. As such, people could be charged with a crime for carrying cannabis they bought at a legal retailer in neighboring Michigan.<\/p>\n Additionally, it would ban smoking cannabis at outdoor public locations such as bar patios\u2014and it would allow landlords to prohibit vaping marijuana at rented homes. Violating that latter policy, even if it involves vaping in a person\u2019s own backyard at a rental home, would constitute a misdemeanor offense.<\/p>\n Karen O\u2019Keefe, director of states policies at the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), said in a letter to House lawmakers on Wednesday that SB 56 as currently drafted \u201celiminates essential protections from the voter-enacted law and recriminalizes innocuous conduct that voters legalized.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPlease reject this erosion of freedoms enacted by voters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Unlike the Senate-passed version of the bill, the House substitute will send tax revenue from cannabis sales to local governments.<\/p>\n The legislation as amended by the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday also adds new restrictions on the hemp market. With the exception of beverages, intoxicating hemp products would only be allowed to be sold in licensed hemp dispensaries.<\/p>\n Stores and breweries would be permitted to sell hemp-derived THC drinks, with new advertising restrictions meant to prevent appealing to youth. Products for on-site consumption would be limited to 5 mg of THC, but adults could buy take-home drinks containing up to 10 mg. More potent drinks could also be manufactured in Ohio, but only for sales to people outside the state.<\/p>\n There would also be a new $1.20 tax per gallon on hemp beverages created by the bill.<\/p>\n The measure<\/a> was further amended earlier on Wednesday by the Finance Committee to clarify that people seeking to expunge prior misdemeanor marijuana possession offenses would not have to prove the specific amount of cannabis that they had. The change would also allow for the expungement of marijuana charges that were dismissed, and not just convictions.<\/p>\n The amendment additionally harmonizes cannabinoid beverage policy with existing laws relating to drinks and clarifies that penalties for selling marijuana, hemp drinks or cannabinoid products to an underage person would be the same regardless of the type of product.<\/p>\n The House vote on Wednesday comes weeks after the governor issued emergency rules prohibiting the sale of intoxicating hemp products for 90 days<\/a>, with instructions to the legislature to consider permanent regulations. Last week, however, a county judge\u00a0enjoined the state from enforcing that policy in response to a legal challenge<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cFrankly, the legislature had not taken action,\u201d Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said in an interview published this week. \u201cI\u2019m still hopeful that the legislature will come in and actually take action.\u201d<\/p>\n House Speaker Matt Huffman (R) commented recently on the relative lack of progress in advancing marijuana and hemp legislation since voters approved legalization at the ballot in 2023, noting substantive divides within the Republican caucus.<\/p>\n There are \u201cfolks who believe that marijuana should be legalized and regulated,\u201d others \u201cwho believe that the hemp products should be on equal standing with everything that happened in the initiated statute and then \u201cfolks, like me, who are prohibitionists, who don\u2019t think it should be legalized at all and it should be rare,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say the prohibitionists have largely lost this discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u2014 Meanwhile, last month, the Ohio Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) filed new proposed rules to build upon the state\u2019s marijuana legalization law,\u00a0laying out plans to update regulations on labeling and packaging requirements<\/a>.<\/p>\n The proposal came weeks after\u00a0Ohio medical and adult-use marijuana sales officially crossed $3 billion<\/a>, data from the state Department of Commerce (DOC) shows.<\/p>\n The state\u00a0sold about $703 million in recreational cannabis in the law\u2019s first year of implementation<\/a>, according to DCC data.<\/p>\n In March, a survey of 38 municipalities by the Ohio State University\u2019s (OSU) Moritz College of Law found that\u00a0local leaders were \u201cunequivocally opposed\u201d to earlier proposals that would have stripped the planned funding<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile in Ohio,\u00a0adults as of June are able to buy more than double the amount of marijuana<\/a>\u00a0than they were under previous limits, with state officials determining that the market can sustainably supply both medical cannabis patients and adult consumers.<\/p>\n The governor in March separately announced his desire to\u00a0reallocate marijuana tax revenue to support police training, local jails and behavioral health services<\/a>. He said funding police training was a top priority, even if that wasn\u2019t included in what voters passed in 2023.<\/p>\n Ohio\u2019s Senate president has also pushed back against criticism of the Senate bill,\u00a0claiming the legislation does not disrespect the will of the electorate<\/a>\u00a0and would have little impact on products available in stores.<\/p>\n Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Ohio House Passes Bill To Remove Voter-Approved Marijuana Legalization Protections And Restrict Hemp Market<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Ohio House of Representatives has passed a bill that would make significant changes to the state\u2019s voter-approved marijuana legalization law by removing several protections for consumers while also adding a series of new restrictions on hemp products that are intended to align the two sectors of the cannabis industry.Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":83899,"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\/83898"}],"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=83898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83900,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83898\/revisions\/83900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Ohio House Passes Bill To Remove Voter-Approved Marijuana Legalization Protections And Restrict Hemp Market<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"