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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
Why can Legislature change new Ohio recreational marijuana law? – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

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Ohio voters made the Buckeye State the 24th to legalize recreational marijuana for adults.

The ballot measure, known as Issue 2, passed in the Nov. 7 election with 57% of the vote, according to unofficial results. And Ohio Republicans who oppose marijuana started talking almost immediately about how they want to change it.

Gov. Mike DeWine and legislative leaders aren’t pushing for a repeal, but they do plan to make tweaks − and could do so before the end of the year.

“I can’t believe in 2023 we’re actually talking about elected officials not respecting the will of the voters and not respecting the outcome of an election,” Tom Haren, a spokesman for the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, said on election night. “I expect, I think that every single voter in Ohio has a right to expect, that elected officials will implement and respect the will of voters.”

Why can the Ohio Legislature change the marijuana law?

Unlike the abortion rights measure that passed on Nov. 7, Issue 2 was not a constitutional amendment. It was an initiated statute.

This process allows Ohio citizens to propose laws for the Ohio Revised Code. Petitioners gather signatures to place the measure before the Legislature, which then has four months to act. If lawmakers don’t consider it, groups can collect a second round of signatures to put their proposed statute on the ballot.

The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol got Issue 2 on the November ballot after Republican leaders declined to take…

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November 30, 2023
Oakland voters poised to decide on ranked choice voting, marijuana retailers and Southfield clerk – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

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Voters across Oakland County will tackle ballot issues from ranked choice voting to recreational marijuana sales while those in Southfield will pick a new clerk to replace the one who resigned over tampering with voting procedures.

Longtime Southfield resident and Medicare agent Gabi Grossbard, 50, is facing Oakland County Commissioner Janet Jackson for the local clerk’s position.

In Royal Oak, voters are set to decide whether they support ranked choice voting, a system in which voters can rank any and all candidates for a given office on their ballot as opposed to selecting only one. Ranked choice voting is also on the ballot Tuesday in East Lansing and Kalamazoo.

Oakland County is piloting the state’s new early voting option this week, which allows residents to cast their ballots in person before Election Day in 26 jurisdictions. The pilot program has already begun and voters can cast their ballot at their designated regional site or the county’s general site through Sunday. Rochester is also participating in the state’s pilot early voting program, separate from the county.

Marijuana is an issue in Rochester, Birmingham and Keego Harbor, where voters will decide whether to permit local marijuana retailers.

In Birmingham, a proposal to lift the ban on marijuana sales and allow one medical marijuana facility and one recreational facility is on the ballot. Another measure in Keego Harbor would allow the City Council to regulate up to one marijuana retailer and prohibit all…

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November 5, 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