CINCINNATI (WXIX) – The Ohio Senate just made some big changes to the state’s law for adult-use recreational marijuana that the majority of Ohio voters approved in 2023.
Republican lawmakers approved Senate Bill 56 on Wednesday, slashing the number of cannabis plants that can be grown per household in half, from 12 to 6.
Ohioans voted to grow up to six marijuana plants per adult and a dozen per household but many Republican lawmakers have said from the start they thought that was too high.
Democrats in the Senate all opposed S.B. 56 but Republicans have a supermajority in both chambers of the Ohio General Assembly.
S.B. 56 now heads to the state’s House of Representatives for consideration.
The Ohio Senate just made some big changes to the state’s marijuana law.
If it passes the House and Gov. Mike DeWine signs off on it, the legislation also will ban sharing home-grown pot, smoking it outdoors and for anyone to use it in a vehicle now.
Previously, just the driver was prohibited.
Additionally, S.B. 56 allows landlords to prevent tenants from growing or smoking marijuana in their rental properties.
Marijuana taxes remain intact.
Republican lawmakers removed a 5% cannabis sales tax hike in the original bill, leaving it at the current rate of 10%.
Several Democrat senators sent out news releases or social media posts Wednesday criticizing their colleagues for passing the measure.
Sen. Catherine Ingram (D-Cincinnati) says passing S.B. 56 subverts the will of the people.
“I voted no the first time, and I will continue to vote no on these changes that go directly against what the voters wanted,” she said in the prepared statement.
“The people of Ohio have entrusted us to make thoughtful and reasonable adjustments, as needed, to the approved State Issue 2, such as aligning the statute with current law and protecting our children. The provisions in S.B. 56 simply go far beyond reason and ultimately undermine the integrity of our democracy. The reality is the voters know what they voted for, and for my colleagues to assume that they did not is astounding.”
Sen. Willie E. Blackshear Jr. (D-Dayton) said in another news release he and Bill DeMora (D-Columbus) tried to amend the bill to reinstate many of the provisions in what voters passed in Issue 2, but those amendments were tabled by the majority in the Senate General Government Committee.
“It is unfortunate that this committee would pass a bill so out of line with what voters intended when they approved adult-use marijuana by a margin of over 14 points in 2023.”
“It is outrageous,” DeMora said, “that none of our amendments that would have restored the will of the voters were accepted or even thoroughly considered. “This was the last of many attempts to try and bring this bill closer in line with common sense and the will of the people.”
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S.B. 56 slashes the number of cannabis plans that can be grown per household in half, from 12 to 6. Read More
