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.

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.”

Ohio has the tenth best highways in the nation in terms of cost-effectiveness and condition, according to a new report from The Reason Foundation.

The Buckeye State’s new rank is an improvement from Reason’s last annual report, which ranked Ohio as 17th.

Every year, The Reason Foundation —a libertarian think tank— ranks the nation’s state highway systems on cost effectiveness, condition and a slew of other metrics. The data for this year’s report, titled the 28th Annual Highway Report, is from 2022.

Where did Ohio do well?

Ohio received top ten rankings on three metrics: rural arterial pavement condition, rural fatality rate and capital and bridge disbursement rate.

• The state’s rural arterial highways —two to four-lane highways connecting cities or regions— have the ninth-best pavement condition, with just 0.36% of these roadways in poor condition.
• Ohio’s fatality rate on the state’s rural highways is the ninth lowest at a rate of 0.86 deaths per 100 million rural vehicle miles.
• Ohio’s capital and bridge disbursement rate is the sixth lowest at 0.55. The ratio comes from the expected cost of bridge and highway construction divided by the amount Ohio actually spends. A lower ratio means the state manages to complete construction for less money than expected.

Where did Ohio’s highways do poorly?

Ohio received bottom-twenty rankings in three categories: urban interstate pavement condition, urban arterial pavement condition and other fatalities rate.

• The condition of Ohio’s urban interstates came in at rank 32 with 4.15% of these roadways in poor condition.
• The condition of Ohio’s urban arterial roadways —four to eight lane highways that connect different parts of an urban region— came in at rank 36 with 12.88% of these roadways in poor condition.
• Ohio’s fatality rate on “other” roadways —defined by The Reason Foundation as minor arterial, collector and local roads— was ranked 31st at 1.56 deaths per 100 million vehicle road miles on these roadways.

How does Ohio stack up against other states?

Ohio’s overall highway performance is better than Kentucky’s, Indiana’s, Michigan’s, West Virginia’s and Pennsylvania’s, according to The Reason Foundation.

When compared to other states with similar population sizes, its highways are worse than Illinois’ but better than Georgia’s.

NHart@dispatch.com

@NathanRHart

It may not draw in tons of fans or result in huge television contracts, but the Ohio State pistol team is the best program going after winning its fifth straight national title on Saturday. The Buckeyes did it by multiple shooters finishing among the top of both the sport and air pistol events. That combination gave OSU the title in both disciplines on the way to a first-place finish again.

Ohio State’s Marcus Klemp led the way. He had a first place aggregate final score of 1140. He finished second in the air pistol competition (572) and the sport pistol competition (568). His teammate, Balane Simpson, was third overall thanks to a seventh-place showing in the air pistol and first-place performance in the sport pistol (569).

Abbie Leverett (fourth – 1115), Riya Salian (fifth – 1108), and Jonathan Dorsten (sixth – 1104) also finished high in the standings and resulted in Ohio State having six of the top 10 overall finishers. Due to weather, the the standard pistol competition was canceled.

Here’s a look at the standings of the top competitors and teams:

Team Standings1. Ohio State – 44762. Navy – 43503. Army – 43254. Utah – 42855. The Citadel – 4213

Individual Aggregate1. Marcus Klemp – 11402. Blane Simpson – 11214. Abbie Leverett – 11155. Riya Salian – 11086. Jonathan Doresten – 11048. Evan Langerak – 1097

Sport Pistol1. Blaine Simpson – 5692. Marcus Klemp – 5684. Abbie Leverett – 5655. Johnathan Dorsten – 5596. Riya Salian – 556

Air Pistol2. Marcus Klemp – 5727. Blaine Simpson – 5528. Riya Salian – 5529. Maya Gantsooj – 55

1. Ohio State – 44762. Navy – 43503. Army – 43254. Utah – 42855. The Citadel – 4213

Individual Aggregate1. Marcus Klemp – 11402. Blane Simpson – 11214. Abbie Leverett – 11155. Riya Salian – 11086. Jonathan Doresten – 11048. Evan Langerak – 1097

Sport Pistol1. Blaine Simpson – 5692. Marcus Klemp – 5684. Abbie Leverett – 5655. Johnathan Dorsten – 5596. Riya Salian – 556

Air Pistol2. Marcus Klemp – 5727. Blaine Simpson – 5528. Riya Salian – 5529. Maya Gantsooj – 551