ReportWire

Tag: Ohio Weed

  • Organizers Launch Bid to Overturn Ohio’s Latest Marijuana Law Changes – Cleveland Scene

    Ohioans for Cannabis Choice is mounting a referendum effort against a new law cracking down on intoxicating hemp and making several changes to Ohio’s voter-passed recreational marijuana law. If its signature gathering effort proves successful, Ohio voters will be asked whether to reject provisions of Ohio Senate Bill 56 next November. They’ll need to collect almost 250,000 signatures to put that question on the ballot.

    Ohio voters approved adult-use marijuana at the ballot box in November 2023. State lawmakers have been wrestling with changes to that law ever since.

    Wesley Bryant, the owner of 420 Craft Beverages in Cleveland and one of the petitioners leading the referendum campaign, called lawmakers’ recent changes “a slap in the face to voters who overwhelmingly voted to legalize cannabis in 2023.”

    What’s in the bill

    Among S.B. 56’s changes, lawmakers capped marijuana potency, prohibited smoking in most public places, and imposed penalties on smoking in vehicles — as a driver or a passenger. Bringing legally purchased marijuana into Ohio from another stat would become illegal and Ohioans would face criminal penalties if they exceeded limits on homegrown cannabis. The new law also eliminates anti-discrimination provisions related to housing, employment, and organ donation.

    But perhaps the biggest change for Ohio’s marijuana industry is language banning intoxicating hemp outside of a licensed cannabis dispensary. Those products start from cannabis plants with very little naturally occurring THC and then alter other compounds in a laboratory setting to create more of the chemical that makes users feel high. The prohibition brings Ohio in line with recent changes to federal law.

    Gov. Mike DeWine has been complaining for almost two years about the proliferation of intoxicating hemp products like gummies made to look like popular candy brands or other snacks. By signing S.B. 56 those products become illegal in March.

    Notably, state lawmakers had thrown a lifeline to the state’s booming THC beverage industry. The bill that arrived on DeWine’s desk would’ve allowed beverages with up to 5 milligrams of THC to be produced and sold in Ohio until the end of 2026, when federal law kicks in and they become illegal. Instead, DeWine issued a line-item veto effectively prohibiting them in March along with other intoxicating hemp products.

    The referendum

    Ohioans for Cannabis Choice quickly announced plans for the referendum and filed its initial batch of signatures a little more than a week after DeWine signed the legislation.

    “In filing our petitions today,” Bryant said in a statement, “We are taking a stand for Ohioans against politicians in Columbus and saying no to the government overreach of S.B. 56.”

    With petitions delivered, state officials are on the clock. The Secretary of State has 10 business days to verify the signatures, and the Attorney General has the same amount of time to certify the petition summary is fair and truthful.

    If the petition clears those bars, organizers can begin canvassing to collect signatures. They’ll need 6% of the total number of votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial election (248,092). The group will also need 3% of an individual county’s gubernatorial turnout in 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties.

    Organizers will have 90 days from the date the governor filed the law with the secretary to collect the require signatures.

    Another petitioner, Tuscarawas County hemp farmer Joseph Ellwood, said ordinary Ohioans weren’t asking for changes lawmakers made.

    “Ohioans oppose re-criminalizing cannabis,” he said. “For example, making it a crime to grow more than six plants, a crime to have unauthorized paraphernalia, and a crime to buy marijuana in Michigan and bring it home.”

    “And this is just the start,” Ellwood added. “Politicians in Columbus won’t stop until marijuana and hemp are completely illegal in Ohio again.”

    Andrew Greene, the group’s third petitioner and an employee at a Dayton distribution center, said numerous jobs are at stake if S.B. 56 takes effect.

    “There are thousands of workers like me who are going to lose their jobs because S.B. 56 will close more than 6,000 small businesses across Ohio,” Greene said.

    “It’s sad because the cannabis industry, both hemp and marijuana, support legislation that will protect consumers and strengthen Ohio farmers and small businesses,” he went on, “But these out-of-touch politicians are hell bent on re-criminalizing marijuana and hemp products.”

    Reactions

    The measure’s sponsor, state Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, expressed some sympathy for those frustrated with the bill, but portrayed several provisions as clarifications rather than wholesale changes. He pointed to the number of plants allowed for home growers as an example.

    “We clarified the number of plants — six for one person, six for the other — that didn’t change,” he said of the 12-plant household limit. “But the way the ballot initiative was, you weren’t allowed to be prosecuted till 23 (plants) which really didn’t make sense, and 12 seemed to be what was intended, and we went with that.”

    Lawmakers improved the expungement process, he added, and did work behind the scenes to hopefully streamline licensing and regulation for business owners.

    And Huffman questioned the motives of those behind the referendum. Although Ohio voters approved adult-use marijuana, he said, much of the pushback against his bill seems to be coming from the hemp industry.

    “The (2023) ballot initiative had absolutely zero effect on anything in the hemp industry,” Huffman said. “But it sounds like that’s the vast majority of what people want to overturn.”

    “There’s some contradiction there,” he added.

    DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney made a similar point. While he stressed it’s the right of any Ohio citizen to pursue a referendum, the organizers’ claim that S.B. 56 goes against the will of the voters is “inconsistent.”

    The 2023 ballot measure could’ve allowed marijuana sales anywhere, Tierney said, but it didn’t. And so seeking a referendum to protect the sale of THC infused beverages in bars or convenience stores doesn’t protect the will of the voters.

    Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.

    Nick Evans, Ohio Capital Journal

    Source link

  • Ohio House Passes Bill Regulating Intoxicating Hemp Products, Changes State’s Marijuana Laws – Cleveland Scene

    The Ohio House passed a bill Wednesday that will make changes to the state’s marijuana laws and add regulations to intoxicating hemp products. 

    Ohio Senate Bill 56, which is in its 18th version, passed with a vote of 86-8. The bill heads back to the Senate for concurrence. 

    Four Republicans — state Reps. Tim Barhorst, Levi Dean, Jennifer Gross, and D.J. Swearingen — voted against the bill. Three Democrats also voted against the bill — state Reps. Christine Cockley, Ismail Mohamed, and Desiree Tims.

    The Senate passed the bill in February, but the House has made significant changes, most notably by adding intoxicating hemp regulations. State Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, introduced the bill in January. 

    “I’ve heard throughout this process now for a very long time from folks in the hemp industry, ‘regulate us like marijuana, regulate us like marijuana.’ And that was the theme of this bill,” said state Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville. 

    The 2018 Farm Bill says hemp can be grown legally if it contains less than 0.3% THC. 

    “I think we all had agreement that that was not the intent of the hemp legislation at the federal level or here in Ohio, but we did need to do something to protect kids from these products,” said State Rep. Tex Fischer, R-Boardman. “This legislation closes those loopholes to ensure that only 21-plus individuals are able to access these products and purchase them.”

    Only a licensed hemp dispensary would be able to sell intoxicating hemp products to adults 21 and older. The dispensaries would be required to meet standards for testing, advertising and packaging. A 10% tax would be added to intoxicating hemp sales.

    “This bill creates a legal pathway for the sale of regulated, licensed, tested, safely grown, intoxicating hemp products and a limited number of hemp dispensaries,” Stewart said.

    The bill would limit the number of active hemp dispensaries to 400. The bill would allow certain hemp dispensaries to be grandfathered in if they sold intoxicating hemp products on or before Aug. 30 and hemp products sales surpassed 80% of their total sales for 2024 or the 12 months before the bill takes effect.

    However, if more than 400 dispensaries are licensed due to the grandfather provision, the Division of Marijuana Control would not be able to issue any more licensees until the number of grandfathered dispensaries dropped below 400.

    Gross, who voted against the bill, said the measure is at odds with federal law. She also said she heard from five businesses in her district that this bill “effectively kills large swaths of Ohio’s hemp industry.”

    “It is right to remove packaging which dangerously attracts children, to enforce age restrictions as well as set limits on advertising to the younger generations,” Gross said. “But this bill is not ready. … This bill takes a hatchet to these small businesses.”

    The bill defines an intoxicating hemp product as containing more than 0.5 milligrams of delta-9 THC per serving, 2 milligrams of delta-9 THC per package or 0.5 milligrams of total non-delta-9 THC per package.

    THC-infused beverages are also included in the bill. A bar or restaurant would be able to sell 5 milligram THC-infused beverages for patrons to drink on site, while a store would be able to sell 10 milligram THC-infused beverages for carry-out.

    “I think this strikes the appropriate tone of a reasonable, fair and pro-business regulatory regime, while still maintaining that these products and consumers should be safe and should only be accessible to 21-plus adults,” Fischer said.

    Under this bill, the Division of Marijuana Control in the Ohio Department of Commerce would be responsible for regulating intoxicating hemp products and the Division of Liquor Control in the Department of Commerce would be in charge of regulating THC-infused drinks.

    Jim Higdon, co-founder of Cornbread Hemp in Kentucky, which sells its products in more than 300 Ohio retail stores, called this bill “by far the strangest … in all the states that have passed hemp legislation this year.”

    “This bill appears to ban the sale of hemp edibles with more than 2mg THC per package in all groceries and convenience stores while also legalizing 10mg THC beverages in those same stores,” Higdon said in a statement. “It’s difficult to understand how that makes sense, when all these products should be simply age-gated and taxed appropriately.”

    The bill “is substantially different” from when it came over from the Senate earlier this year, House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima said.

    “My number one priority is getting this issue resolved,” he said. “My priorities within the bill are, certainly public safety, limiting access certainly to minors, and making sure that there’s some regulating process.”

    Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine recently announced a 90-day executive order that bans the sale of intoxicating hemp products that started on Oct.14. Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge Carl Aveni granted a 14-day temporary restraining order on DeWine’s executive order. The next hearing in this case is scheduled for Oct. 28.

    Marijuana changes
    S.B. 56 would reduce the THC levels in adult-use marijuana extracts from a maximum of 90% down to a maximum of 70%, cap THC levels in adult-use flower to 35%, limit the number of active marijuana dispensaries and prohibit smoking in most public places.

    It would keep Ohio’s home grow the same at a limit of six plants per person and 12 plants per residence.

    Ohioans passed a citizen-initiated law to legalize recreational marijuana in 2023 with 57% of the vote, and sales started in August 2024. Ohio recreational marijuana sales topped $702.5 million in the first year. Ohio lawmakers can change the law since it passed as a citizen initiative not a constitutional amendment.

    “Virtually everything that Ohioans can do today under the initiated statute will be just as legal after the passage of this bill,” Stewart said.

    One change, however, is the banning of smoking in most public places.

    “Our constituents … have also made clear that we don’t want every downtown in Ohio to smell like a Grateful Dead concert,” Stewart said.

    The bill would give 36% of adult-use marijuana sale revenue to municipalities and townships that have recreational marijuana dispensaries, which was originally included in the citizen-initiated law voters passed in 2023.

    People would also be able to apply for expungement of low-level marijuana convictions instead of getting rid of them automatically.

    “If you smoked a joint when you were 18 in 2002, in your 40s you should not have barriers to housing or employment or public services because you got in trouble when you were 18 for doing something that is now completely legal,” said Ohio House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn, D-Cincinnati.

    Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.

    Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal

    Source link

  • Businesses Sue DeWine Over Intoxicating Hemp Ban, Say Executive Order Will Harm Sales – Cleveland Scene

    Gov. Mike DeWine’s emergency order last week to put a 90-day pause on the sale of intoxicating hemp products outside of licensed dispensaries starting Oct. 18 means no more sales of edibles, candies, gummies, prerolls, seltzers, sodas, liquors and flower.

    Consumers have responded with criticism of the order, and so have smoke shops, beverage stores and CBD warehouses that have been selling Delta-8 and Delta-10 THC products.

    “It just sucks,” Bill Barak, owner of Rozi’s Wine House in Lakewood, which sells THC drinks.

    Hemp drinks “had become a part of the business, so it’s gonna hurt,” he said. “Maybe that means people go back to beer and wine? We’ll see.”

    Last Wednesday, shortly after DeWine’s order was announced, three hemp-selling members of the Ohio Healthy Alternatives Association—including the Cleveland-based Titan Logistics Group—sued DeWine and the state under the belief that the governor infringed upon weed-related laws when he suddenly decided to put the kibosh on edibles.

    The suit, which was filed in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, cites the 2018 Farm Bill, the act that led to Delta-8 and Delta-9 hitting shelves, as the legal basis for why a Ohio governor alone can’t and shouldn’t have the final say in taking those products away. 

    As does Issue 2, the law Ohioans voted into law in 2023, which okayed the sale of recreational marijuana.

    “Legislative deliberations on potential hemp reforms have been carefully considered and debated for nearly two years, but the lack of passing legislation does not vest Governor DeWine with the authority to stand in the shoes of lawmakers and enact his preferred public policy,” court documents read. 

    “To allow otherwise,” it read, “would violate longstanding principles of the separation of powers.”

    And it would just about decimate or put a dent in businesses that have sprung up in the past decade or so due to those new laws, about 4,000 across Ohio. Those like Titan, which, owner Wesley Bryant told The Cannabis Times, rake in $2.4 million alone on intoxicating hemp product.

    And with the upcoming ban in effect? “Titan will be forced to permanently cease business operations,” Bryant said.

    DeWine’s ban, which goes into effect Oct. 14, won’t impact sales at dispensaries across Ohio. Credit: Mark Oprea

    As DeWine explained in his forty-minute press conference, his decision lied in both fact and perception. For one, that THC drinks or Delta-8 prerolls aren’t actually regulated like beer or spirits are. And two, that means there’s no agreed-upon age limit for consumers.

    It’s a ban-now-and-regulate-later mentality that Cleveland seemed to hold when, back in April, City Council okayed new laws meant to regulate the 500 to 800 shops around town selling tobacco products. Namely by forcing them to either register and pay for new occupancy permits (by December), or, as Health Director Dave Margolius said, “change your business or close down” completely.

    Margolius, who helped convince City Council putting closer watch on new and existing smoke shops was a dire need, told Scene he agreed with DeWine’s belief that the colorful, imitative hemp gummies—those mimicking Nerds or Gushers—should not be within reach of any child or teenager’s hands.

    “It’s time we get a more nuanced set of regulations for this stuff,” said in a phone call. “In the meantime, it’s out of control—any kid can walk in any one of these stores and buy this stuff. I mean, it’s not the law you have to be a certain age.”

    And Margolius is right. Though the Farm Bill allowed hemp to be cultivated and gummies to be sold, it put the responsibility of who actually could buy such products in the hands of the stores themselves.

    “Here? We treat it like alcohol,” Barak said about Rozi’s cooler-full of THC seltzers and sodas. “And me, I’m all for more regulation—it is kind of like the Wild Wild West out there.”

    But Barak sighed when personalizing the issue. The penchant for Gen Z to choose adaptogenic mushrooms or hemp-derived inebriations has certainly hit his store: about five percent of his sales comes from products like THC seltzers.

    The same for non-alcoholic beer, the Best Days and Ale Smiths, that Barak believes the hemp folk will choose while the Statehouse figures out regulation.

    “Honestly, it was just nice to have another option for people who didn’t want to have alcohol,” he said.

    Out of the five smoke shops Scene interviewed, none said they would for sure go out of business due to DeWine’s ban, though it meant some rethinking.

    Rebecca Saplak, a manager at High Society Boutique off Detroit Ave., said although Cleveland’s quantity of smoke shops definitely need a taking look at, any idea that children are legally buying products like the prerolls they sell, to her, is just ludicrous.

    Just as is, Saplak told Scene in a call, that businesses like hers have to say goodbye to a reliable source of revenue, thanks to an order she believes is meant to covertly shut smoke shops down for good.

    “Think of the Ohio problems we have—poverty, school shootings. But yeah, let’s focus on some weed,” Saplak said. “That’s just about the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard.”

    But what about the concerns over children purchasing the items?

    “Oh come on, this is just to hurt small businesses,” she said, and direct sales to the hundreds of taxed dispensaries around Ohio. “They’re mad they just can’t make money off of it.”

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

    Mark Oprea

    Source link

  • Pre-Rolls, Finally Available at Ohio Dispensaries, Can Be a Star Performer in State’s Cannabis Scene – Cleveland Scene

    Pre-rolls have been a sought-after product from the moment Ohio launched its recreational cannabis program in Aug. 2024, even as it took almost a year for them to land on shelves. Andrew Rayburn, owner of Eastlake cultivator and processor Buckeye Relief, said customers have been asking about them since passage of Issue 2, the initiative that legalized cannabis for adult use in the Buckeye State.

    “People have been going to smoke shops and gas stations to buy contaminated product,” said Rayburn, also owner of three Amplify dispensaries in state. “It’s a delight to give them a pure, tested, top-quality product.”

    Now that pre-rolls are officially in Ohio dispensaries, they’re expected to be a top seller for years to come. From June 2023 to June 2024, pre-rolls saw the largest revenue increase of all cannabis categories, growing by 11.89%, according to a study from pre-roll manufacturing company Custom Cones USA and cannabis analytics firm Headset.

    Rayburn estimates the product will take up between 10%-20% of market share within the next six months. Consumer reception at Amplify has been so enthusiastic that Rayburn will have to quadruple his production to meet demand, he said. 

    Rayburn has been preparing to introduce pre-rolls since last year, purchasing grinders, rollers and other equipment to transform flower into smokable joints. Today, Amplify dispensaries are selling pre-rolls in gram and half-gram units – a single one-gram joint goes for $12-$15, with customers paying $50 for a pack of five half-gram pre-rolls enhanced with a cannabis concentrate. 

    “Customers have been asking about this since last August, but it’s been getting louder over the last few months,” Rayburn said. “What we’re producing now is a fraction of what we’ll be making after we get the kinks out of the process.”

    Any licensed cannabis processor must receive approval from the Ohio Division of Cannabis Control before stocking pre-rolls on dispensary shelves, according to guidance released by the agency. DCC regulations limit single servings to one gram of plant material and cap the THC content of infused pre-rolls at 500 mg.

    Pure Ohio chief operating officer Tracey McMillin sees these restrictions as a manageable framework for state dispensaries as they move forward with sales. With locations in Dayton and London, Oh. — and another opening in Tallmadge within the next month —  the cannabis company has already added a second shift to its pre-roll production team.

    High demand is driven by  price and convenience, making pre-rolls appealing to both curious newcomers and anyone with less-than-nimble fingers, McMillin said.

    “Maybe people hadn’t used in years, or don’t know how to roll (a joint) because it’s too much trouble,” she said. “Pre-rolls aren’t going to replace anything (in the market), they’re going to add to it. It’s not a huge investment – you get it and it’s ready to use.”

    McMillin said pre-rolls may keep Ohio imbibers from Michigan, an oversupplied market that offers some of the cheapest legal marijuana in the nation. The challenge for Ohio is getting the word out amid a tangle of state advertising regulations. 

    For instance, dispensaries must use generic, state-approved packaging until they can get brand-specific packaging approved. Established rules about promoting medical marijuana apply to the rec market as well, including prohibition of billboards or signage. Dispensaries can currently advertise pre-rolls on their storefronts and apply to sell accessories such as rolling papers and matches. 

    “But you can only give information to people in the store, so it’s hard to get the word out to people who are not customers,” said McMillin. “I don’t know if anyone has figured out how to access customers who aren’t already here.”

    For now, Buckeye Relief owner Rayburn is just glad that gas station pre-rolls will have a smaller market.

    “Let’s continue to educate legislature about this unregulated product coming in from China and the West Coast,” said Rayburn. 

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

    Doug Guth

    Source link