The official voting day for Ohioans is Nov. 7, but early voting has already begun on Oct. 11. This is a significant year for cannabis because a cannabis legalization measure, which is labeled as Issue 2, is appearing on the ballot. However, some legislators are not thrilled with the idea that cannabis legalization could be approved, and announced plans to possibly repeal the law if it does get passed.

Senate President Matt Huffman spoke on the Senate floor in opposition of SR-216, stating that it will be “coming right back before this body” and will likely receive changes. “We’re going to have a mental health crisis on our hands,” Huffman said, if voters approve Issue 2. “We are going to pay for this for years and years and years, and it’s only going to get worse.” He added that he will push to review and repeal parts of the bill if it gets passed.

“If Issue 2 passes, there will be more teenagers in the state of Ohio committing suicide,” Huffman said. “And our reaction to that will not be, ‘Let’s make marijuana illegal,’ because by that time, more people will be making lots of money. It will be, ‘Maybe we should hire drug counselors, get into the schools, talk about kids not taking drugs.’ But by then it will be too late. It’ll be even more part of our culture. And no, I’m not a scientist, but I’m a person who can look at facts and listen to scientists and know that that’s true.”

Just as early voting began last week, Republican Sen. Mark Romanchuk and Rep. Terry Johnson, along with 14 other cosponsors, introduced Senate Resolution 216, claiming all of the potential harms that legalization will bring if voters choose to vote and approve Issue 2.

“…The proposed statute authored by the commercial marijuana industry does not serve the best interests of the people of Ohio, will bring unacceptable threats and risks to the health of all Ohioans, especially children, will create dangers in the workplace and unacceptable challenges and costs to employers, will make Ohio’s roads more dangerous, will impose significant new, unfunded costs to Ohio’s public social services, and serves only to advance the financial interests of the commercial marijuana industry and its investors…,” the bill text stated.

Many of the points of concern in the bill have long been used by anti-cannabis supporters, such as calling cannabis a gateway drug that leads four of our 10 people to try other drugs, and that cannabis use leads to opioid use disorder. While it claims that drug overdoses are the “leading cause of injury and death” in the state, with an estimated 33,000 Ohioans having died due to drug overdoses between 2011-2020, state records for COVID-19 deaths are recorded at over 42,000. 

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the top 10 leading causes of death in 2017 for Ohioans was heart disease, cancer, accidents, chronic lower respiratory disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, flu/pneumonia, kidney disease, and septicemia.

The resolution also included claims that regular cannabis use “can irreversibly reduce intelligence, memory, and learning ability,” along with claims that underage cannabis use causes risks of academic performance, IQ, and behavior, and that cannabis in adolescence leads to risks of “psychosis, a severe mental disorder characterized by distorted thinking and loss of touch with reality, as well as depression and suicide.”

They conclude the bill text by stating that they urge voters to reject Issue 2 to “preserve and protect our state’s high quality of life, the health and safety of our citizens, the strength and prosperity of our communities, our strong economic growth, our favorable environment for business success, and opportunity for all citizens and the future for our young people…”

The campaign group submitted nearly 130,000 signatures to get Issue 2 onto the ballot, after first coming up short of the necessary 124,046. “It looks like we came up a little short in this first phase, but now we have 10 days to find just 679 voters to sign a supplemental petition—this is going to be easy, because a majority of Ohioans support our proposal to regulate and tax adult use marijuana,” said Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CRMA) spokesperson Tom Haren.

A recent poll from the CRMA, which is the same advocates group behind the initiative, found that three out of every five Ohioans plan to support the measure come November. A similar poll conducted in September 2020 showed that voters said they were “29% “strongly approving” and 34% “somewhat approving” (63% total) compared to this year’s results with “50% strongly approving” and “17% somewhat approving” (67% total).

Recent projections from Ohio State University show that the state could generate somewhere between $275 million to $403 million in recreational tax revenue by the fifth year of legalization.

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Ohio cannabis activists have filed a lawsuit against Republican leaders in the state legislature, alleging that they are attempting to thwart a cannabis legalization ballot question from appearing before voters in the November general election. Members of the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol filed the action on Friday against House Speaker Bob Cupp and Senate President Matt Huffman, claiming the legislative leaders are improperly trying to delay the ballot question until next year.

The proposal from the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol would allow adults 21 and older in Ohio to possess and purchase up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis and up to 15 grams of cannabis concentrates. Adults would also be permitted to legally cultivate up to six cannabis plants at home, with a cap of 12 plants per household.

The measure would also levy a 10% tax on sales of cannabis products. Revenue raised by cannabis taxes would be dedicated to administering the program and to cities and towns with cannabis dispensaries. Taxes would also fund substance abuse programs and a social equity and jobs program.

More Than 135,000 Signed Petitions To Legalize Cannabis in Ohio

At the end of last year, the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alchohol submitted petitions with more than 200,000 signatures, significantly more than the 132,887 necessary to send the proposal to lawmakers for consideration. But in January, the secretary of state’s office announced that less than 120,000 of the signatures had been verified as registered voters.

Activists then submitted nearly 30,000 additional signatures to state officials for verification. Those signatures were enough to meet the minimum threshold required, according to a letter from Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose sent in late January.

“The initial part-petitions contained 119,825 valid signatures on behalf of the proposed statewide initiative of the total signatures submitted, signatures from 51 counties were submitted that met or exceeded 1.5 percent of the total number of votes cast for governor in the respective counties at the last gubernatorial election,” Larose wrote in a letter posted online by Northeast Ohio Media Group.

“The additional part-petitions contained 16,904 valid signatures on behalf of the proposed statewide initiative,” he continued. “I hereby certify that the part-petitions contained a total of 136,729 valid signatures submitted on behalf of the proposed statewide initiative petition.”

GOP Lawmakers Challenge Timeliness of Petition

Under Ohio state law, petitioners for proposed ballot measures must submit signatures at least 10 days before the legislative session. Lawmakers then have four months to act on the proposal. The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol submitted its signatures on January 28, which would translate to a May 28 deadline for lawmakers to act on the petition.

But lawyers for GOP legislators have argued that a petition must be submitted and approved 10 days before the start of the legislation. Under that interpretation, legalization activists missed the deadline, leading legislative leaders to suggest the petition will not be considered until 2023. According to emails filed with the campaign’s lawsuit filed in Franklin County on Friday, Attorney General Dave Yost’s office seemed to agree with the GOP legal counsel’s analysis.

The lawsuit by the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol contends that the submission of signatures to LaRose’s office on January 28 fulfilled the legal deadline for the legalization petition. The legal action asks the court to rule that the campaign has complied with the process and permit the cannabis legalization effort to continue this year. If the suit is successful, activists would then have until early July to collect additional signatures to qualify the proposal for the November general election.

A spokesperson for LaRose declined to comment on the legal action, according to a report from The Columbus Dispatch. Spokesmen for Huffman and Cupp did not immediately respond to a questions submitted by the newspaper.

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