Ohio
Ohio Lawmakers Target Voter-Approved Cannabis Legalization
Two bills introduced by Ohio lawmakers would roll back provisions of Issue 2, a recreational … [+]
Republican state lawmakers in Ohio have set their sights on the state’s voter-approved cannabis legalization initiative with two bills designed to roll back the initiative. The bills target Issue 2, a recreational marijuana legalization ballot measure that passed in November 2023 with 57% of the vote.
Late last month, the Ohio Senate approved a bill that would make significant changes to Issue 2. If signed into law, Senate Bill 56 would cut the limit of cannabis plants home pot cultivators are allowed to grow from 12 to six. The bill would also add new criminal penalties for some cannabis-related activities and roll back Issue 2’s social equity provisions, among other changes to the successful ballot measure.
Issue 2 legalized marijuana use and possession in Ohio by adults aged 21 and older, who are also allowed to grow up to 12 cannabis plants per household. The first licenses for recreational marijuana retailers were issued in June 2024, with regulated sales of adult-use cannabis beginning approximately six weeks later.
Senate Bill 56 would also reduce the THC limit for cannabis concentrates to 70%, down from the current limit of 90%. The legislation would also ban the public consumption of cannabis, which would include a ban on smoking outdoors on private property, News 5 Cleveland reported last week.
Before the bill was passed by the Senate, Republican state Sen. Steve Huffman, the sponsor of the bill, defended his efforts to change legislation approved by the voters of Ohio, according to a report from cannabis news outlet Marijuana Moment.
“Senate Bill 56 is a great bill because it’s reasonable, appropriate, it cuts down on the illicit marijuana market and it’s truly about protection and safety of children,” Huffman said on the floor, adding that “we have never known exactly why the voters voted for the initiated statute.”
“We’ll never know—but we do know that they should have known at least that they were voting to put it into the revised code—not in the Constitution, but in the Ohio Revised Code,” he said, defending efforts to change Issue 2. “Voters were clear in their desire to access safe, accessible adult-use marijuana. Senate Bill 56 respects those pleas.”
But Democratic Sen. Bill DeMora told his colleagues he opposed the bill, saying that the legislation “goes against the will of the voters and will kill the adult industry in Ohio.”
“In my eyes at least, a top priority of any legislation dealing with marijuana should be to preserve the will of the people. The people made their will known,” he said. “The sponsor doesn’t think that we know what people were voting for, but I have a good idea after all the testimony we’ve had in the last several years about marijuana.”
“They wanted higher THC limits. They wanted the ability to grow 12 plants at their home. They wanted level three craft growers. They wanted common sense public smoking restrictions. And they wanted taxes to help the municipalities addiction and substance abuse efforts and those that were affected by criminalization,” DeMora continued. “This bill does none of those things. In fact, it makes all those provisions worse.”
The Ohio Senate approved Senate Bill 56 by a vote of 23-9 on February 26. The measure has been referred to the Ohio House of Representatives, where it will be considered by the House Judiciary Committee.
Separate House Bill Also Seeks Changes To Issue 2
On March 6, GOP Rep. Brian Stewart, the chair of the House Finance Committee, introduced House Bill 160, a separate measure that would make changes to Issue 2. Like Senate Bill 56, the bill also reduces the THC cap on cannabis concentrates at 70%. Unlike the Senate bill, however, Stewart’s bill does not cut the limit on the number of cannabis plants that can be grown by home cultivators.
“That bill respects the will of the voters, while also acknowledging that by passing initiated statute, backers and supporters of Issues 2 understood and accepted that marijuana law would remain subject to certain reasonable reforms by the Ohio Legislature,” Stewart said about the legislation.
House Bill 160 is awaiting committee assignment in the Ohio House of Representatives.
Senate Bill 56 was passed by the Ohio Senate last month, while House Bill 160 is pending in the … [+]
Cannabis Policy Reform Advocates Oppose Efforts To Amend Issue 2
Last week, representatives of drug policy reform and civil liberties organizations held a virtual meeting to oppose efforts by Ohio Republicans to change the state’s legalization of cannabis through Issue 2. The webinar, which was attended by leaders from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) and the Ohio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, was held online on March 13. During the online meeting, speakers said the legislation to amend Issue 2 are efforts to deny the will of the people.
“Lawmakers in Ohio had years to craft legislation to legalize the adult-use marijuana market,” said Paul Armentano, NORML’s deputy director. “They refused to do so, and they left that decision ultimately in the hands of the electorate. And it is a slap in the face to those voters—the 57 percent of Ohioans that voted for Issue 2—for lawmakers to come back and now play Monday morning quarterback.”
“This issue in Ohio has been one of NORML’s lead priorities this session,” Armentano added, “and trying to make sure that the will of the voters in Ohio—and in several other states—is in fact respected.”
Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies for MPP, noted that the bills would enact new criminal penalties, characterizing the proposals as “basically a minefield of recriminalization.”
“If you were to pass a joint or share your homegrown cannabis or share your cannabis with your spouse or your roommate, you’d be a criminal again,” she said. “If you got your cannabis from anywhere other than an Ohio dispensary or your own personally grown cannabis by yourself—not even your roommate or your spouse—you’d be a criminal again.”
Ohio resident Cat Packer, the DPA’s director of drug markets and legal regulation, said that the new restrictions proposed by lawmakers are “not normal.”
Ohio voters “created this bundle of rights for individuals 21 and older to ensure that activities like possession, like transfer, aren’t criminalized,” she argued, according to a report from Marijuana Moment. “And what we’re seeing here, being introduced through these various pieces of legislation, would put Ohio as an outlier amongst many or all of the jurisdictions that have passed adult-use legalization thus far.”
How the SEC’s softball dominance could carry it through to the Women’s College World Series
he Oklahoman’s Jenni Carlson shares the top storylines she’s following through the NCAA softball tournament, starting with the SEC’s biggest strengths.
The No. 2 seeded Ohio State Buckeyes softball team (44-12-1) beat No. 3 North Carolina May 17th by a final score of 9-6 in the Knoxville Regional of the NCAA tournament.
The Buckeyes, making their 13th NCAA appearance, scored in five of their six turns at bat.
Reagan Milliken got OSU going with a solo home run in the second inning. Hadley Parisien and Jasmyn Burns hit back-to-back homers in the sixth.
Burns had two bombs on the afternoon. Morgan Frye hit a three-run home run over the center field fence with two out in the fifth. Taylor Cruse belted a solo shot. Ohio State’s other run came off a Kaitlyn Farley RBI single.
The offensive explosion was little surprise. The Buckeyes entered the postseason leading the nation in runs scored (473), home runs (137), slugging percentage (.707) and runs per game (8.44).
Ohio State will battle the region’s top seed, Tennessee, in Knoxville on May 18. The game starts at noon.
The Volunteers are coming off a 17-0 over the MAC champion Miami Redhawks.
The winner of the Knoxville Regional will face the winner of the Baton Rouge Regional next weekend in a Super Regional.
NOBLE COUNTY, Ohio (WKRC) – Fracking operations at a site in Ohio were halted in connection to recent earthquakes.
According to WFMJ, hydraulic fracturing operations at a well pad in Noble County, Ohio were halted due to recent seismic activity in the region.
Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) spokesperson Karina Cheung confirmed to WFMJ Wednesday that the earthquakes were directly connected to gas and oil operations, namely hydraulic fracturing operations by Energy Acquisition Partners (EAP).
“There has been some recent earthquake activity in Noble County due to oil and gas operations, specifically hydraulic fracturing operations by Energy Acquisition Partners (EAP) operating as Encino Energy. Hydraulic fracturing operations have been halted on the well pad,” Cheung told reporters with WFMJ.
Cheung told the station that some of the quakes in Noble County were strong enough to be felt.
The Ohio Seismic Network is responsible for monitoring earthquake activity across the state. The organization has recorded multiple small quakes in Noble County near Pleasant City, Ohio in the past few weeks, including the following:
- April 29: 2.8 magnitude earthquake detected approximately 2 miles southeast of Pleasant City at 10:09:14 p.m. EDT. (33 felt reports recorded)
- May 2: 2.4 magnitude earthquake detected around 2 miles southeast of Pleasant City at 6:43:30 a.m. EDT. (12 felt reports recorded)
- May 6: 2.3 magnitude earthquake detected approximately 2 miles southeast of Pleasant City at 4:00:45 p.m. EDT. (One felt report recorded)
- May 8: 3.2 magnitude earthquake detected about 2.5 miles southeast of Pleasant City at 11:13:43 p.m. EDT. (33 felt reports recorded)
According to WFMJ, ODNR officials did not say how long the suspension of operations would last.
The station noted that there have been several instances where seismic activity has been linked to oil and gas operations in Ohio, including the following:
- A 2011 quake that was centered on Division Street in Youngstown, Ohio was linked to a brine injection well. The Northstar fluid injection well in Youngstown was closed after multiple earthquakes occurred.
- The State of Ohio shut down an injection well in Wethersfield Township in 2014 due to earthquake activity.
- A temporary moratorium on drill and fracturing was issued after multiple earthquakes occurred in Poland Township.
According to WFMJ, fracking was linked to seismic activity, including earthquakes, in a 2023 study examining data from Eastern Ohio.
Professor Michael Brudzinski, a professor of geology and environmental earth science at Miami University, concluded that earthquakes can be induced by both the injection of fluids during hydraulic fracturing and the subsequent extraction of oil and gas, per the station.
In recent years, Ohio State football fans have become increasingly frustrated with the high volume of noon kickoffs their beloved Buckeyes have been forced to play.
One Ohio legislator is hoping to remedy that.
Ohio Representative Tex Fischer has authored a bill that would prohibit Ohio State from playing marquee games before 3:30 p.m. ET. A notable exception would be for the Buckeyes’ annual rivalry game against Michigan, which traditionally kicks off at noon.
Since Fox, one of the Big Ten’s television partners, introduced its “Big Noon Saturday” window ahead of the 2019 season, Ohio State has become a fixture of the earliest broadcast time of the day. The Buckeyes have played 35 noon games since the start of the 2019 season, including seven last year on their way to their first national championship in a decade. Each of Ohio State’s final six regular-season games began at noon, three of which came at home.
The bill, as written, would prevent any game from being played in the state of Ohio if it meets both of the following criteria:
- One of the competing teams is a football team from a state university
- Both teams are ranked in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll of the FBS
Of note, only one of the Buckeyes’ 2024 games would have fallen under that criteria: The Nov. 23 meeting with Indiana, a game in which the Buckeyes and Hoosiers were ranked No. 2 and No. 5 in the AP Top 25, respectively. Ohio State played only one other top-10 team in the noon slot against No. 3 Penn State, though that was on the road.
If the bill becomes law, the ramifications for skirting it would be steep. The legislation states that if a game starts before 3:30 p.m., the Ohio attorney general will impose a fine of $10 million against either the host team’s conference (the Big Ten) or the television network, whichever one scheduled the earlier kickoff.
While noon kickoffs offer fans, particularly those watching from home, time to take in other college football games from across the country later in the day, they’re generally an annoyance for fans attending the game in person, forcing them to wake up earlier in the morning and giving them less time to tailgate.
When Fox debuted “Big Noon Saturday,” it was a way for the network to air a marquee matchup during what’s typically a barer early slate rather than having to compete against the SEC’s longstanding 3:30 p.m. game on CBS or ESPN’s primetime game (CBS now primarily airs a Big Ten game during the 3:30 p.m. slot as part of a new media rights deal with the conference). Fox adds some pageantry to its noon kickoff by bringing the network’s pregame show, “Big Noon Kickoff,” to the site of the game, much in the same way ESPN does with “College GameDay.”
Unfortunately for Ohio State, the Big Ten’s most consistently successful program since “Big Noon Saturday” launched six years ago, that interest in putting the Buckeyes in marquee time slots for Fox often means receiving a disproportionate share of early start times.
The bill hasn’t yet appeared on the Ohio legislature database, but text of it was published Thursday by journalist D.J. Byrnes of The Rooster.
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