Key Cannabis Legislation Fails in Marathon Statehouse Session

Ohio lawmakers concluded their last session before the summer break on Wednesday, having spent 12 hours advancing various pieces of legislation. However, one significant policy – adult-use marijuana legalization – did not move forward, marking the latest in a series of failed attempts to address this issue.

Disappointment Among Lawmakers

Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) expressed his disappointment over the stalled progress. “Well, I’m disappointed,” Huffman said. “We did have three of our senators working in earnest and we were pretty close to a deal and without, I guess, blowing anybody up, we were informed [on Tuesday] it wasn’t going to move.”

Speaker of the Ohio House Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) highlighted the complexity of the issue. “There was just a lot of different opinions,” he said. “And it’s one of those bills or types of issues you can put something in that changes something that gains support from a certain group of folks and then all of a sudden it loses support from another group of folks.”

Ongoing Efforts to Address Issue 2

Lawmakers are still working to create guardrails and clarify the law that voters passed in November when they approved Issue 2. One of the House’s final actions on Wednesday night was an attempt to pass marijuana policy as an amendment to another bill, but the attempt was voted down. “I still think there is opportunity to fill in the gaps on some of the things that Issue 2 did not address,” Stephens noted.

Legislative Challenges

The Senate adjourned before the House could consider their adult-use amendment, further complicating the process. Huffman commented, “We sent the bill over in December, we thought that was, if nothing else, certainly a good document to work with. This is a very complex issue; it involves a lot of money. I don’t think you can wait until the day before the last session when everybody’s going and say, ‘let’s try to solve this problem.’”

Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) echoed the need for additional regulations. “We believe there needs to be some guardrails, yes we support the people’s voice with the ballot initiative, but they couldn’t think of everything, not everything was in that ballot initiative,” she said. “Starting with expungement for folks and a number of other things, talking about outdoor use, there’s all kinds of things.”

Legalization and Public Opinion

Despite the setbacks, adult-use marijuana has been legal in Ohio for more than six months, with legal sales expected soon. Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) stressed the difficulty of changing voter-approved measures. “It’s really difficult, I think, to go back and change something that the voters have passed, and many legislators seem to not have an appetite for that,” she said. “As this goes further along and the implementation starts and the licensure application starts, this gets harder and harder to roll back pieces of this.”

Stephens emphasized the importance of honoring voter decisions. “Honoring the will of the voters is very important and that part has been done. This was passed in November and it’s still the law of land,” he said.

Political Dynamics and Delta 8 Regulation

The inaction on adult-use marijuana legislation may be partly due to internal disagreements among lawmakers. Antonio suggested that Republican lawmakers are hesitant to advance a policy they do not support. “I think they’re having a hard time coming to an agreement on how to allow something to go forward that they really don’t want to see go forward to begin with,” she said.

However, there is consensus on regulating Delta 8, a low-level THC product. Gov. Mike DeWine has urged lawmakers to place regulations and an age restriction on Delta 8 products. “Those discussions hopefully will continue through the summer and making sure that we do that correctly,” Stephens said. “I think it’s probably best to try to handle that issue in separate bills instead of one mega bill to try and get that.”

Despite the urgency and ongoing discussions, Ohio lawmakers have yet to resolve the complexities surrounding adult-use marijuana legislation. “We’ve been saying since the day after the election, ‘there’s a lot of things that need to get taken care of,’ so, we’ll see,” Huffman remarked. The debate is set to continue as lawmakers reconvene after the summer break.