The Ohio Senate passed along party lines a proposal to overhaul the state’s relatively young recreational marijuana program, without bipartisanship this time around.
Introduced by Sen. Steve Huffman (R-Tipp City), Senate Bill 56 stems from a 2023 bill that cleared the Senate the day before cannabis became legal. It merges the state’s medical and adult-use programs, among other changes. The bill passed 21-9 with Republican support and Democratic opposition.
SB 56 strictly prohibits smoking cannabis in public, limiting Ohioans to partaking in private residences, and reduces home grow from 12 plants or less to six plants or less. It also limits how concentrated dispensaries’ THC products can be—maxing out at 35% for plant products and 70% for concentrates and extracts, although the Ohio Department of Commerce could raise or lower that.
“I don’t believe this is going against the voters at all. This bill, the intention of this bill, is to protect, in my perspective, children and families,” Senate General Government Chair Kristina Roegner (R-Hudson) said Wednesday. “I don’t think this will stifle the industry. I mean, certainly, it’s a booming industry, there’s a lot of interest in it.”
Lawmakers initially intended to hike the excise tax and change the revenue structure, but are punting that portion to the budget process.
Regulations of delta-8 THC and other similar derivatives are not among SB 56’s provisions. Also absent from it are expungement provisions that Senate Democrats pushed for in 2023.
Sen. Bill DeMora (D-Columbus) said he believes SB 56 generally flies in the face of voters, who ratified the recreational program’s details via the ballot box that same year.
“Now, we’ve had a market that’s been well regulated, well-run, is making money for the state, and all of a sudden they want to change the game and make there a dozen things, right now, what is now legal to do, be illegal,” DeMora said in an interview Wednesday.
No Democrats backed the bill on the Senate floor.
Among other items, SB 56:
Streamlines the licensing process for dispensaries and other industry facilities;Eliminates Level III cultivator licenses, also known as social equity program licenses;Puts a ceiling on how many dispensaries can be licensed statewide, set at 350;Clarifies that drug-free workplaces are not violating Ohio Civil Rights Law protections by firing someone for cannabis use;And creates packaging and advertising regulations, such as barring edibles from being like a “realistic or fictional human, animal or fruit”
The bill heads to the Ohio House. It remains to be seen whether the House will take on the bill or introduce its own version.
SB 56 strictly prohibits smoking cannabis in public, limiting Ohioans to partaking in private residences, and reduces home grow from 12 plants or less to six plants. Read More
