Senate advances drug-related bill despite Marijuana advocacy group opposition

A national marijuana advocacy organization wants the Ohio Senate to reject a bill that would establish minor criminal penalties for people who improperly transport or possess marijuana in Ohio.

However, NORML may fall short of its goal, as lawmakers appear poised to approve Senate Bill 56 next week. If the Senate signs off on the measure, which the House approved on Nov. 20, it will go to Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.

The bill is unlikely to change as House and Senate lawmakers already negotiated a final version of the legislation in conference committee.

In addition to the marijuana changes, the bill would also impose a new regulatory system on intoxicating hemp, a product that’s essentially similar to legal marijuana but sold without any age restriction, taxes or quality controls, according to Signal Ohio.

Even though DeWine opposed relaxing Ohio’s marijuana laws, he previously supported the ban on intoxicating hemp, signing an executive order.

“It’s really become a problem in Ohio; it’s become a problem across the country,” DeWine said during a press conference. “They do it on purpose; they do it to attract kids.”

As a result, a pro-hemp group filed a lawsuit to oppose the executive order. A judge later paused the ban.

Morgan Fox, NORML’s political director, said that marijuana users have found themselves caught in the crosshairs of the hemp crackdown because politicians want to have some compromise on the issue.

The compromise was finalized by “Democrats who don’t want new criminal penalties for run-of-the-mill users, libertarian-minded Republicans protective of the right to grow one’s own marijuana, religious conservatives who disapprove expanding the legal use of intoxicants, local governments who want their tax money, a governor seeking a crackdown on the gas station hemp retailers and both the hemp and marijuana industries seeking market advantage,” according to Signal Ohio.

“A lot of these things are completely nonsensical,” he said. “This is recriminalizing a lot of behavior that is relatively innocuous and has been legal for some time.”

Fox referred to a 2023 law, Issue 2, that Ohio voters passed by a 57% to 43% vote, which allowed adults to use, buy, sell and possess cannabis legally. Even if DeWine signs the bill, those rights will remain broadly intact.

According to Signal Ohio, Senate Bill 56’s penalties include possessing marijuana in anything but its original container or buying legal marijuana in Michigan, where it tends to be much cheaper.