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Ohio House lawmakers on Tuesday approved an amended Senate-passed bill that would make significant changes to the state\u2019s voter-approved marijuana legalization law<\/a> while incorporating a series of regulations for hemp that are meant to align the two sectors of the cannabis industry.<\/p>\n Members of the House Judiciary Committee agreed to changes to the measure from Sen. Stephen Huffman (R) before advancing it to other panels and an expected floor vote on Wednesday. But while certain controversial provisions of the bill as passed by the Senate were scaled back, it would still make major changes to the marijuana law voters approved in 2023.<\/p>\n The measure will now go to the Rules Committee before being re-referred to the Finance Committee, after which point it\u2019s expected to receive floor action.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had years of testimony. We\u2019ve heard from marijuana advocates, hemp advocates, public health advocates and everyone in between,\u201d Rep. Brian Stewart (R)\u00a0said. \u201cWe are generally going to take the feedback from the hemp industry, which said, \u2018Treat us like marijuana,\u201d he said. \u201cThey will have the same potency limitations, the same advertising restrictions, the same restrictions on quantities, serving size and how they operate.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Jamie Callender (R), who has led the charge on marijuana policy in the House, said ahead of the vote that the revised bill would be \u201cvery thoughtful and targeted.\u201d But at the hearing, he added that the legislation is \u201cnot perfect\u201d or what he would have drafted.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a bill that can get passed that will help us implement some of the elements of Issue 2 that have been held up and give clarity to the rulemakers on some of the points that are outstanding,\u201d he said, referring to the voter-approved legalization measure. \u201cIt also clarifies and cements a few of the gains that were gained over the years: Sharing, home grow, no new prosecutions [and] the taxes going to the local governments.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got more work to do. We are not done.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Under the amended legislation, stores and breweries would be permitted to sell hemp-derived THC beverages, 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 be a new $1.20 tax per gallon on hemp beverages created by the bill, and Stewart said it will \u201ccreate a pathway for legal, regulated, licensed hemp dispensaries.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNobody has ever voted to allow functionally equivalent products to marijuana\u2014hemp products\u2014to be sold in 6,000 plus gas stations and grocery stores around the state,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so with this bill, we would say that you can buy intoxicating hemp products in licensed hemp dispensaries. We are not going to have intoxicating hemp available to any establishment that admits persons who are under the age of 21.\u201d<\/p>\n Advocates remain concerned about other marijuana-related provisions of the Senate bill that were left intact. That includes the elimination of language in the current voter-approved law providing anti-discrimination protections for people who lawfully use cannabis and the recriminalization of possessing marijuana from any source that isn\u2019t a state-licensed dispensary.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is profoundly disappointing to see the House Judiciary Committee advance legislation to roll back cannabis freedoms and protections that Ohio voters overwhelmingly approved,\u201d Karen O\u2019Keefe, director of states policies at the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), told Marijuana Moment. \u201cThe committee substitute would open the door to harassment and interrogation of cannabis consumers by criminalizing any cannabis that wasn\u2019t home grown or obtained from an Ohio retailer. It would also remove protections that prevent responsible cannabis consumers from losing their children, professions, and even their lives for cannabis use.\u201d<\/p>\n The legislation also bans smoking cannabis at outdoor public locations such as bar patios, and it allows landlords to prohibit vaping marijuana at rented homes.<\/p>\n In short, the proposal \u201ccontinues to gut the voter-enacted law,\u201d O\u2019Keefe said in a letter to Judiciary Committee members ahead of Tuesday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease reject this erosion of freedoms enacted by 57 percent of voters,\u201d she said, adding that the legislation as amended \u201cwill lead to interrogations over the source of cannabis and arrests over conduct voters legalized.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe bill also allows families to be ripped apart, professions lost, and lives destroyed for responsible cannabis use\u2014by repealing voter-enacted protections to prevent such suffering,\u201d she said. \u201cPlease remove all language amending Issue 2, or at least slow the process down. Voters and stakeholders deserve a chance to review language before their law is gutted.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike the Senate-passed version of the legislation, the House substitute will send tax revenue from cannabis sales to local governments.<\/p>\n Rep. Desiree Tims (D) said at the hearing<\/a> that she still has \u201cconcerns about the criminal justice implications\u201d of the substitute bill<\/a>, inquiring of the sponsor about expungement provisions.<\/p>\n \u201cMy number one fear is that we are in the process of legalizing something where a select few will become very, very wealthy, while people continue to suffer from past activities\u2013whether recreational or otherwise\u2014utilizing the very same products that we are allowing people to make a profit off,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Stewart said the bill does contain a pathway for people with prior cannabis possession convictions to have their records expunged if they proactively petition the courts, and that process would be \u201cexpedited,\u201d albeit not automated as is in the case in certain other legal marijuana states.<\/p>\n Members of the committee separately approved an amendment from Rep. Josh Williams (R) to revise the expungement process for eligible past cases by making it incumbent on the state to proactively defend any decision to deny a person\u2019s request to seal their record.<\/p>\n Another lawmaker raised a question about disparate penalties for the sale of hemp or marijuana to minors compared to alcohol, and Stewart replied that the Republican caucus is \u201ccomfortable with the penalty being higher for marijuana and intoxicating hemp.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019ll probably be a source of continued debate as Ohioans kind of get used to a fairly substantial new landscape here,\u201d he said. \u201cRightly or wrongly, I still think there is a view that we\u2019re a little more concerned about selling kids weed than Miller Lite.\u201d<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s hearing comes weeks after DeWine 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 Mike Latimer.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Ohio Lawmakers Advance Bill To Scale Back Voter-Approved Marijuana Law And Impose Hemp Regulations<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Ohio House lawmakers on Tuesday approved an amended Senate-passed bill that would make significant changes to the state\u2019s voter-approved marijuana legalization law while incorporating a series of regulations for hemp that are meant to align the two sectors of the cannabis industry. Members of the House Judiciary Committee agreed toContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":83925,"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\/83924"}],"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=83924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83926,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83924\/revisions\/83926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Ohio Lawmakers Advance Bill To Scale Back Voter-Approved Marijuana Law And Impose Hemp Regulations<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"