Ohio Republican lawmakers are reviving an effort to significantly alter the state’s voter-approved marijuana legalization law—in 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 to repeal the marijuana law altogether, a newly filed bill from Sen. Steve Huffman (R)—which the Senate president signaled he supports—would make major changes that substantially depart from the provisions of the initiative that voters strongly approved in 2023.
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.
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’s aligned with the bill sponsor on the idea of increasing the tax rate for cannabis.
“There’s an awful lot of societal costs that are going to have to be borne by the legalization of marijuana,” he said.
Under Huffman’s bill, 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.
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.
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.
Sen. Bill DeMora (D) said during a committee hearing on Wednesday that the proposal effectively amounts to legislators telling voters: “Screw you, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You passed it with an overwhelming majority in the state, but we know better than they did what they were voting on.”
Huffman, the bill sponsor, said the legislation is not meant to “do away with the ballot initiative.”
“It’s to work around the edges to make it better,” he said.
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’s “definitely bipartisan support for protections in marketing to keep kids safe and sensible limitations on where you can use cannabis,” but not for undermining fundamental components of what voters approved.
The bill introduction comes as Ohio’s GOP House speaker seems to have changed his tune on the state’s marijuana law, walking back his previously stated plan to undermine provisions of the voter-approved initiative such as home cultivation rights.
Conflicts between Senate and House Republican leadership near the end of the last session played a key role in stalling amendment proposals. It’s 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.
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Speaker Matt Huffman (R), who previously served as Senate president, said that while he continues to oppose the reform measure voters passed, he doesn’t believe anyone in the legislature “realistically is suggesting that we’re going to repeal the legalization of marijuana.”
“I’m not for it. I wasn’t for the casinos coming to Ohio, either. But there’s lots of stuff that’s part of the Constitution and the law that are there that I don’t like,” he said.
To that end, the speaker indicated he’s no longer interested in pursuing plans to broadly undermine the cannabis law, despite having backed legislation as a Senate leader last session that 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.
Initially, changes backed by Huffman last year would have eliminated home cultivation rights entirely for Ohio adults and criminalized all cannabis obtained anywhere other than a state-licensed retailer.
Meanwhile, as 2024 came to a close with the new marijuana legalization law in effect, Ohio officials announced the state saw adult-use cannabis sales exceed $242 million.
As the 2025 session gets underway, lawmakers are also expected to consider key changes to the state’s hemp laws. In November, legislators took testimony on a proposal that would ban intoxicating hemp products in the state. Huffman—the sponsor of the marijuana revision bill and not the House speaker—introduced that proposal after Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) called on lawmakers to regulate or ban delta-8 THC products.
Separately, despite legalization of adult-use cannabis in Ohio, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’s (VA) Cincinnati health center issued a reminder last summer that government doctors are still prohibited from recommending medical cannabis to veterans—at least as long as it remains a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law.
Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.
Ohio Republican lawmakers are reviving an effort to significantly alter the state’s voter-approved marijuana legalization law—in 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 to repeal the marijuana law altogether, Read More
