Ohio House GOP proposes marijuana legislation that's less restrictive than Senate's version

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio House has introduced a rival bill to the Senate's restrictive marijuana reform. This one, however, is more mild. It keeps the amount of plants you are allowed to grow, but limits THC content.

Voters passed Issue 2 overwhelmingly in 2023. Lawmakers are now trying to change it.

RELATED: You voted to legalize marijuana, but it's being restricted. Here's what that means.

During a press conference Thursday afternoon, Finance Chair Brian Stewart introduced a bill meant to regulate marijuana access.

"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.

First, let's break down the current law. If you are 21 years old or older, you can smoke, vape, and ingest marijuana. Individually, you can grow six plants, but you can grow up to 12 plants per household if you live with others.

You can have up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana in all forms except for concentrates, for which you can only have up to 15 grams.

The law gives the 10% tax revenue from each marijuana sale to four different venues: 36% to the social equity fund, to help people disproportionately impacted by marijuana-related laws; 36% to host cities — ones that have dispensaries; 25% to the state’s mental health and addiction services department; and 3% to the state’s cannabis control department.

The Ohio Senate has faced immense backlash for their passage of S.B. 56, which, most notably, decreases the THC content in products and limits home growing to six plants.

House

The House version of the legislation is a milder, but still restrictive, type of bill compared to the Senate's.

This legislation is 120 pages long, but these are the most notable aspects.

It doesn't limit home growing, keeping the number of plants at 12 per household. It keeps the level of possession the same, too.

But like the Senate, it reduces the THC, the psychoactive cannabinoid in marijuana, content in products. It primarily reduces the allowable THC levels in adult-use extracts from a max of 90% to 70%.

Unlike the other chamber, the House would not make a limit on how many milligrams could be in a package, meaning a closed container that you would pick up at a dispensary. The Senate caps it at 100 milligrams per package and 10mg per individual serving, meaning one edible inside a container of edibles.

The House version seems to allow for more opportunities of places to smoke, including outside, like a porch, of someone's private residence. Legal experts said the Senate version would ban all public smoking, which would include outside on a private property.

Like the Senate, it limits the number of dispensaries allowed. Both versions limit them to 350.

The House version touches on delta 8, often referred to by Gov. Mike DeWine as "intoxicating hemp." Right now, it's legal for anyone to buy this low-level marijuana at convenience stores. It also has a different process to getting on the shelves. Learn more about hemp here.

It can be sold as long as it has a THC concentration level of .03%, but later says that it is capped at two milligrams of total THC per package. It can't be more than .05% per serving.

It keeps the excise tax at 10%, but completely changes where the revenue goes. It would go directly into the marijuana receipts fund, which is created in the state treasurer's office. It will be able to earn investment, and the state will be able to manage tax refunds as needed.

Local governments that have dispensaries will receive 20% of sales for a period of five years, Stewart said.

Eventually, the money goes over to the state's general revenue fund, putting all the money into one pot.

The House bill, like the Senate, places limits on advertising and also prevents packages from appealing to kids.

Will of the voters

"What do you say to the voters who say this isn't what they chose and they spoke, they don't want it reduced to 70%, they don't want the taxes going to the general revenue fund," I asked Stewart.

"I think that there is a core of what voters make clear that they wanted that showed up in virtually all debate and public testimony on this, which is, 'We want to legalize marijuana, we want it to be taxed at 10%, we want to be able to grow it at home,'" the lawmaker responded. "I think that beyond that, I think there's some fine print that was less important to folks in making that determination how they voted.

He continued, adding that the voters put this forward as an initiated statute.

"Any idea that we're going to pass a law and it's just the law for the end of time and it's never subject to the democratic process and revision is not realistic, right?" he said. "Putting something into initiated statute leaves it within the realm of the democratic process. So I think we are making very, very few changes here, and I think the folks who have contacted my office and said, 'Hey, we don't want certain restrictions on Issue 2' — nothing in our bill here contradicts that."

"Are you insinuating that voters didn't read the entirety of Issue 2 and didn't know what they were voting on?" I asked.

I have no idea what every single voter did or didn't do," he replied. "I said, I think when this is marketed as 'regulate marijuana like alcohol,' — we're doing that here. You have a 10% tax rate. It's legal. You can do it at home. We're not touching any of the core parts of Issue 2."

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