Competing bills seek to change Ohio marijuana law ...0

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- There are competing proposals in the Ohio Statehouse to reshape the state’s recreational marijuana program.    

How are the bills different?    

House Bill 160, sponsored by Rep. Brian Stewart (R-Ashville) makes several changes to the state’s recreational marijuana law, But it does not increase the tax, as has been considered, or decrease home grow limits.  

“When this is marketed as regulate marijuana like alcohol, we're doing that here,” Stewart said. 

Meanwhile, Senate Bill 56 halves the number of marijuana plants that can be grown in a home from 12 to six. The bill passed the Ohio Senate along party lines last week. 

“We will see, I think it will be an interesting debate,” Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) said. “And I think you've got Republicans and Democrats who have very strong feelings opposed to overruling the will of the voters.” 

The House bill also takes a crack at regulating Delta-8 products. Delta 8 is a low-level THC that can give the user a high similar to marijuana and Gov. Mike DeWine has been calling for its regulation for a year. Efforts to do that stalled during the last general assembly.  

Delta 8 can be sold anywhere, and with no age restriction. 

“Which is, in many ways, indistinguishable from legal marijuana,” Stewart said. “Yet it is being sold in gas stations and often to minors as a result of unaccepted loopholes in our current law.” 

While many parts of House Bill 160 may not garner bi-partisan support, requiring that Delta-8 be sold in dispensaries likely has support from both sides of the aisle. 

“Without a doubt, it is too accessible, especially for minors,” Russo said. “The packaging, if you've ever taken a look at that, is, you know, it's frankly shocking that it's allowed to exist and has existed for as long as it has without regulations.”  

How are the bills similar?  

Both bills decrease the legal THC level, cap the number of active dispensaries allowed in the state to 350, and crack down on where someone can smoke, limiting it to a private residence.    

Both bills also have a criminal record expungement provision but does not pay for it; instead, it charges $50, unless someone cannot afford it; the fee would be split between the state treasury and the county where the paperwork was filed. 

The bills also change the distribution of the tax revenue, by eliminating some programs that are funded under current law. This is the current distribution:    

For example, the Cannabis Social Equity and Jobs Program would not exist under either of the proposals. Stewart said he wants to ensure local governments still get revenue, when and if needed, under his proposal. Additionally, 20% of revenue for the first four years will go to local governments that permit adult use dispensaries to operate within their jurisdiction. 

Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) agreed that local governments need some money. 

“I think it's difficult to change the rules in the middle of the game and the local governments in this instance,” Huffman said. “There are other distributions of that tax revenue that I think are a little bit more, that are egregious and need to change.” 

“I don't think we should pull the rug out from under those local officials and go to zero,” Stewart said. “I think there's a compromise that would say ‘we're going to have a set aside amount of money, but it's going to have a finite shelf life.’”  

Stewart said the funding can go down for local governments because concerns like redoing roads to account for new traffic, hiring new cops, extra poison control “have not materialized.” 

“I don't think we have seen, you know, traffic interrupted,” he said. “I don't think we've seen a need for a huge police presence at our, at our dispensaries. I think a lot of those concerns have just not materialized.” 

Huffman argued that local governments are “going to use the revenue to deal with problems caused by more marijuana being available.” He said recreational marijuana will cause more crime. When pushed on what he is basing that claim off, he drew an equivalent to alcohol.  

“This is all true for marijuana,” Huffman said. “The more alcohol is available, the more people drink and the more bad behavior results. We're not going to ban alcohol. We're not going to ban marijuana. But there are things we can do to make sure that the worst situations happen less.”    

Which one, if either, is going to pass the Ohio Statehouse? 

Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) said the Senate is already much more familiar with the debate than House members are, but did not say whether he would push for the Senate bill to get through. 

“We have to see what they're wanting to do, what their appetite is, and then we'll probably figure out what the final product looks like after that,” McColley said. 

Meanwhile, Stewart said the House is not ruling anything out but wanted to start with something new to have a productive debate in the House. 

“Obviously, there are some similarities to what the Senate did, but there's some substantial differences,” he said. “And I think this is a bill that can pass the House and then we'll have those discussions with our friends in the Senate.” 

Either way, both Huffman and Stewart said they are motivated to get something done by the time they break for summer, which is typically at the end of June. 

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