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MARIJUANA MOMENT
OHIOANS ARRESTED FOR MARIJUANA MUST BE INVOLVED IN TALKS ABOUT CHANGING
LEGALIZATION LAW, NOT JUST ‘ANTI-CANNABIS’ REPUBLICANS, LAWMAKER SAYS
* Politics
* Ohioans Arrested For Marijuana Must Be Involved In Talks About Changing
Legalization Law, Not Just ‘Anti-Cannabis’ Republicans, Lawmaker Says
* Californians Have Until Monday To Comment On Revised Psychedelics Ballot
Proposal, With Final Update Expected December 1
* New York Governor Signs Bill To Ease Marijuana Banking Compliance Burdens
As Congressional Reform Drags On
* Colombia Senate Committee Approves Marijuana Legalization Bill, Sending It
To A Floor Vote Next
* Connecticut Marijuana Dispensaries Can Open On Thanksgiving, But Liquor
Stores Must Close, State Officials Say
* Science & Health
* NYC Drug Overdose Prevention Centers Are Not Driving Crime, American
Medical Association Study Finds, Contrary To Opponents’ Claims
* Teens Are Not More Likely To Use Marijuana After Legalization, Study Finds
* Marijuana And Opioids Are ‘Equally Efficacious’ In Reducing Pain, With
Cannabis Offering Additional ‘Holistic’ Benefits, Study Shows
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People’s Emotions, Study Finds
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List For College Athletes
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Marijuana Consumption
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Sport’ And Makes Athletes Unfit Role Models
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* Michigan Marijuana Tax Revenue Grew By 49% Over The Past Year, Surpassing
Alcohol Earnings
* Missouri Marijuana Retailer Settles Labor Dispute After Terminating
Employees Who Tried To Form Union
* Maryland Dispensaries Sold $90 Million In Legal Marijuana In October,
Including Record Amount Of Adult-Use Cannabis
* Video
* Colombia Senate Committee Approves Marijuana Legalization Bill, Sending It
To A Floor Vote Next
* Ohio GOP Senate President Lays Out Process To Revise Marijuana Law,
Arguing Voters Didn’t Understand Some Provisions
* Schumer Says Marijuana Banking Bill Needs More GOP Support, But Senate Is
‘Getting Close’ To Floor Vote
* New Hampshire Marijuana Commission Members Are Divided On Key Issues Ahead
Of December 1 Deadline To Propose Bill
* Maryland Republicans Want To Let Police Search Cars And People Based On
Smell Of Marijuana, Which Is A Legal Product
* Newsletter
* Cannabis sales OK on Thanksgiving—but not alcohol, CT says (Newsletter:
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* International cannabis meeting with US, Germany, etc. (Newsletter:
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* Cannabis banking needs more GOP votes, Schumer says (Newsletter: November
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POLITICS
OHIOANS ARRESTED FOR MARIJUANA MUST BE INVOLVED IN TALKS ABOUT CHANGING
LEGALIZATION LAW, NOT JUST ‘ANTI-CANNABIS’ REPUBLICANS, LAWMAKER SAYS
Published
3 hours ago
on
November 23, 2023
By
Kyle Jaeger
An Ohio Democratic lawmaker wants to see people who’ve been criminalized over
marijuana, as well as those with industry experience, involved in any efforts to
amend the state’s voter-approved legalization law, arguing that it shouldn’t be
left up to “anti-cannabis” legislators alone to revise the statute.
Ohio Senate and House GOP leaders have already previewed plans to pass a package
of changes to the law before possession and cultivation becomes legal next
month, with a focus on potential revisions affecting tax revenue distribution,
public consumption and law enforcement, for example.
But Rep. Juanita Brent (D) says it’s important that people who have been
directly impacted by prohibition and who may participate in the legal
marketplace have seats at the table as leadership moves ahead with possible
amendments.
“If you’ve been criminalized by cannabis, the best thing you can do is come back
into the field,” Brent told The Statehouse News Bureau.
“Ohioans have to remember that the people who are trying to be the loudest at
the Statehouse are people who were anti-cannabis,” she said. “We cannot have
anti-cannabis people leading on what’s going to happen with cannabis. We need
people who are involved. We need people who have been doing the work. We need
people who have been advocating.”
So far, the conversation around revising the initiated statute has been
top-level, with GOP lawmakers and Gov. Mike DeWine (R) speaking generally about
areas that they’re interested in changing. But there’s been a consistent
emphasis on revising provisions on how marijuana tax revenue will be divvied up,
which may be an issue for advocates who want to see the sizable investment in
social equity and community reinvestment that’s prescribed under the measure as
approved by voters.
Senate President Matt Huffman (R) said last week that he didn’t think most
voters considered the nuances of the cannabis reform proposal when they went to
the ballot and instead simply passed it based on the broad belief that marijuana
should be legal for adults. He argued, for example, that the majority probably
doesn’t support prioritizing cannabis business licensing for people who’ve been
disproportionately targeted by criminalization.
The governor made similar remarks after this month’s election, as he expressed
his interest in quickly changing various components of the law. However,
he’s stressed that voters shouldn’t expect any “surprises,” and the proposed
revisions that are being discussed would still honor the “spirit” of the reform.
Rather than introduce new standalone legislation through regular order, the
Senate president said the plan is to incorporate cannabis amendments into an
unrelated House-passed bill and use that as the vehicle, sending the revised
measure back to the House for a simple concurrence vote.
While Huffman and the governor have made it clear that they want to see
revisions enacted expeditiously, House Speaker Jason Stephens (R) says he
doesn’t necessarily see the urgency given that most of the changes that are
being discussed aren’t set to be implemented until later next year.
Stephens said last week that it’s “going to be a real challenge” to put together
a package of changes to the law within the next few weeks. The Senate is
currently only scheduled to meet twice before December 7, and the House has four
session days to act.
Meanwhile, one Republican House member, Rep. Cindy Abrams (R), has already
introduced a bill that would put $40 million in cannabis tax dollars toward law
enforcement training annually. Only after that point would additional revenue
trickle into the funds outlined in the statute.
Some Democrats have separately discussed potential amendments that they’d like
to see incorporated, including allocating some revenue to K-12 public education.
There also appears to be bipartisan interest in providing some funding for
mental health services to support first responders with post-traumatic stress
disorder (PSTD).
The Ohio Department of Commerce was quick to publish an FAQ guide for residents
to learn about the new law and timeline for implementation, though regulators
repeatedly noted that the policies may be subject to change depending on how the
legislature acts.
Prohibitionist organizations that campaigned against Issue 2, meanwhile, are set
on a fundamental undermining of the newly approved law, with some describing
plans to pressure the legislature to entirely repeal legalization before it’s
even implemented.
For what it’s worth, a number of Ohio lawmakers said in September that
they doubted the legislature would seek to repeal a voter-passed legalization
law. The Senate president affirmed repeal wasn’t part of the agenda, at least
not in the next year.
—
Marijuana Moment is tracking more than 1,000 cannabis, psychedelics and drug
policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters
pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and
hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.
Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to
get access.
—
Voters were only able to decide on the issue after lawmakers declined to take
the opportunity to pass their own reform as part of the ballot qualification
process. They were given months to enact legalization that they could have
molded to address their outstanding concerns, but the legislature ultimately
deferred to voters by default.
As early voting kicked off late last month, the GOP-controlled Senate passed a
resolution urging residents to reject measure.
Unlike the top state Republican lawmakers, one of the state’s GOP
representatives in Congress—Rep. Dave Joyce, co-chair of the Congressional
Cannabis Caucus, said in September that he would be voting in favor of the
initiative in November. He encouraged “all Ohio voters to participate and make
their voices heard on this important issue.”
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said late last month he
voted in favor of the legalization ballot initiative, calling it a “hard
decision” but one that was based on his belief that the reform would promote
“safety” for consumers.
Meanwhile, Vivek Ramaswamy, a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, said he
voted against a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana in Ohio because he’s
concerned the federal government could “weaponize” criminalization against
people who are engaged in state-legal cannabis activities under the “fake”
pretense that they’re protected from federal prosecution.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), for his part, said recently that
Ohio’s vote to legalize marijuana at the ballot is one of the latest examples of
how Americans are rejecting “MAGA extremism,” and he added that he’s committed
to continuing to work on a bipartisan basis “to keep moving on bipartisan
cannabis legislation as soon as we can.”
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, told
Marijuana Moment earlier this month that “the vote in Ohio was a great big
exclamation point on the things we’ve been talking about.”
“We’ve been saying for years how this issue has crested, how it’s got broad
momentum, how it is inclusive. It’s sort of like the success with the [Ohio
abortion rights] issue—except this was more pronounced,” he said. “We got more
votes than the abortion issue. We get more votes than anybody on the ballot.”
The White House has separately said that “nothing has changed” with President
Joe Biden’s stance on marijuana, declining to say if he supports Ohio’s vote to
legalize or whether he backs further reform of federal cannabis laws.
Meanwhile, as Ohio voters approved statewide legalization, activists also
chalked up a series of little-noticed wins to decriminalize larger amounts of
cannabis in three Ohio cities, according to preliminary county election results.
> Teens Are Not More Likely To Use Marijuana After Legalization, Study Finds
Marijuana Moment is made possible with support from readers. If you rely on our
cannabis advocacy journalism to stay informed, please consider a monthly Patreon
pledge.
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