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Can Ohioans buy recreational weed at medical dispensaries? – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

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Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com

The circus – doing business as the Ohio General Assembly – left the Statehouse last week, aiming to stay home until sometime in 2024. Given that Ohio’s primary election will he held March 19 – two-and-a-half months into the New Year – don’t expect Capitol Square boat-rocking before then.

Many if not most contests for (gerrymandered) state Senate and Ohio House of Representatives seats are filled in the primary. The last things any incumbent General Assembly member wants just before a primary election are tough Statehouse votes on controversial statewide issues.

Will Ohio’s marijuana law change before 2024?

For those Ohioans who keep an eye on the Statehouse, many are interested in how and when the legislature will mess with Issue 2, the November ballot measure in which 57% of the Ohioans voting voted to legalize adult-use recreational marijuana.

The law took effect earlier this month – with some ifs and buts. (Ohio had already legalized medical marijuana in 2016 in a bill whose prime sponsor was then-Rep. Steve Huffman, a suburban Dayton Republican, now a senator, who is a physician.)

Voter-passed Issue 2 allows Ohioans to possess up to six marijuana plants per person (and no more than 12 per household). Initially, the Senate’s GOP buzz-killers had the politically suicidal impulse to forbid home-grown plants altogether. The…

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December 17, 2023
Will marijuana remain legal in Ohio? Thomas Suddes – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

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Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com

[Thursday 3:42 PM] Robinson, Amelia

Almost 2.2 million Ohio voters passed a law last month legalizing marijuana in their state — or what’s supposed to be their state. But some of the 26 Republicans in Ohio’s Senate actually considered telling those millions of Ohioans to go pound salt by crimping marijuana legalization.

Still, the underlying theme was that the people can’t be trusted to govern themselves, can they? Better that a mostly white, mostly male, and often small-town clique of Senate Republicans, think for voters, yes?

Ohio votes to legalize recreational marijuana

Ohio voters vote to join 23 other states as the latest to legalize recreational marijuana.

More:Ohio senators want to make major changes to marijuana law OK’d by voters, ax home grow

Were there ever a more brazen example of Statehouse arrogance, it’s hard to recall what was, because public opinion is crystal-clear on the subject of marijuana legalization.

Now, in fairness, had the 2.2 million Ohioans who voted for legalization instead sent plump checks to the Statehouse’s caucus campaign committees, and hired properly connected wire-pullers (lobbyists), legalization might not be such a … challenge … for certain legislators.

On Capitol Square, for example, if you spend $60 million to pass House Bill 6, the sweetheart deal for FirstEnergy Corp., you’re talking…

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December 10, 2023
What will happen if pot become legal in Ohio? Thomas Suddes on Issue 1 – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

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Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com

The biggest question about Issue 2 — the marijuana legalization measure on November’s statewide ballot — isn’t whether voters will pass it.

They will.

Instead, the question is what the GOP-run General Assembly will do to complicate, obstruct, or stymie what voters want.

Your first thought is probably that the legislature would think twice about defying the will of the state’ voters.

Suddes:Some Republicans support abortion and other lessons from failed ‘power grab’

But Ohio’s General Assembly, as gerrymandered by the GOP, doesn’t represent voters. Instead, it represents party-line Republicans, some of whom call to mind H.L. Mencken’s definition of Puritanism: “The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”

And the marijuana ballot issue proposes a state law, not a state constitutional amendment.

Will lawmaker go against the will of Ohioans on marijuana?

Changing a constitutional amendment would require another statewide vote. But the General Assembly, as with any other state law, can change a petition-proposed law — and that’s what the marijuana legislation issue, if OK’d by voters, would be: a law, not a constitutional amendment.

The instinctive response is that it would be politically mad for the GOP-run General Assembly to mess with voters over the marijuana initiative by weakening any pro-user features.

But this…

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October 22, 2023