Legal marijuana, tax distribution changes closer to reality

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(The Center Square) – Voters who overwhelmingly approved recreational marijuana use in Ohio could soon experience restrictions.

Despite the new constitutional amendment that spelled out marijuana regulations, lawmakers want to tighten the reins by limiting where it can be smoked, how it can be transported and the penalties for breaking the law.

Lawmakers, however, did keep a 36% cannabis tax that goes toward communities that allow a dispensary.

A plan to increase the tax on recreational marijuana from 10% to 15%, however, did not make the final compromise. However, constitutional mandates on how the tax money will be spent were changed.

Originally, voters approved allocating the money for a substance abuse fund, a social equity fund, communities with dispensaries and administrative costs. The proposed legislation eliminates the social equity fund.

Legal sales began in the state in August 2024, following the November 2023 general election that approved recreational marijuana with a 57% vote.

That constitutional amendment included none of the restrictions closer to reality, including a ban on public smoking and a reduction in legal protections for marijuana users.

“While not a perfect bill, Senate Bill 56 enshrines important legislative victories for adult use users and takes the first steps in creating a regulatory framework around intoxicating hemp,” Rep. Jamie Callender, R-Concord, said in a statement.

Lawmakers have also cut in half the number of plants that could be grown in a home from 12 to six and reduced the THC level from extracts from 90% to 70%.

Penalties for exceeding the home-grown limit would now be a felony-level trafficking offense.

Lawmakers had tried to require marijuana and paraphernalia to be transported in the back seat or trunk of a car and ban anyone fired from their job because of marijuana from being eligible for unemployment.

Those provisions also failed to make the compromise, but marijuana would have to be transported in its original, unopened packaging.

Substitute Senate Bill 56 now heads back to the Senate after passing the House.