Ohio’s secretary of state announced last week that cannabis activists had collected enough signatures to force lawmakers to consider a proposal to legalize recreational cannabis. The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol collected more than 136,000 verified signatures from registered voters, according to the office of Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose. The total is almost 4,000 more signatures than the number needed to send the legalization proposal for action by the state legislature.

The proposal now heads to Ohio lawmakers. They will have four months to adopt the measure as state law or pass an amended version. If the state Senate and House of Representatives fail to do so, the campaign would have the chance to collect another 132,887 signatures to place the measure on the ballot for this year’s general election.

“We are ready and eager to work with Ohio legislators over the next four months to legalize the adult use of marijuana in Ohio,” Campaign Spokesman Tom Haren said in a statement. “We are also fully prepared to collect additional signatures and take this issue directly to voters on November 8, 2022, if legislators fail to act.”

Ohio Secretary of State Validates Signatures

In December, the campaign submitted petitions with more than 200,000 signatures. This was significantly more than the 132,887 necessary to send the proposal to lawmakers. But after the secretary of state’s office announced earlier this month that only 119,985 of the signatures had been verified as registered voters, activists submitted nearly 30,000 additional signatures to state officials.

In a letter sent by LaRose’s office on Friday, the secretary of state wrote that with the additional submissions activists had collected a sufficient number of signatures in enough counties to send the petition to the legislature.

“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.”

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

The measure would also set a 10 percent tax on cannabis products. Revenue raised by cannabis taxes would be dedicated to administering the program and to municipalities with marijuana dispensaries. Taxes would also fund substance abuse programs and a social equity and jobs program.

Cannabis Legalization a Long Shot in GOP-led Legislature

However, the legalization proposal is unlikely to gain approval from Ohio’s GOP-controlled state legislature. And even if lawmakers pass the measure, it would likely be vetoed when it reached the desk of Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who voiced opposition to legalizing recreational cannabis in Ohio earlier this month.

“No, I think that’s a mistake,” DeWine said. “I think you change the culture and you send a signal to kids… If it’s legal, every kid, the message is it’s okay.”

But the campaign believes that lawmakers may eventually approve the measure.

“We are expecting a vigorous debate but we expect this to pass because it is popular among Democrats, Independents and Republicans,” Haren told local media.

Last month, two Republican lawmakers introduced a bill to legalize recreational cannabis in Ohio. Separately, the legislature is considering a bill that would expand the state’s medical cannabis program.

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Lawmakers in Ohio on Wednesday passed a bill that would result in the first significant change to the state’s medical cannabis program since it launched in 2016, effectively empowering doctors to recommend cannabis for just about any condition. 

Senate Bill 261 passed out of the chamber, and will now be considered by the state House of Representatives. Sponsored by Republican state Sen. Steve Huffman, the legislation would bring a host of major changes to the five-year-old law. Perhaps most significant of all, the bill calls for a big expansion of the number of medical conditions that would qualify a patient for medical cannabis treatment in the Buckeye State of Ohio.

Under Huffman’s proposed bill, physicians would be permitted to “recommend marijuana for treatment for any condition if the physician, in the physician’s sole discretion and medical opinion, finds either of the following”: “that the patient’s symptoms may reasonably be expected to be relieved from medical marijuana” and “that the patient may otherwise reasonably be expected to benefit from medical marijuana.”

Currently, patients in Ohio with the following conditions may qualify for medical cannabis treatment: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; Alzheimer’s disease; Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Cancer; Chronic traumatic encephalopathy; Crohn’s disease; Epilepsy or another seizure disorder; Fibromyalgia; Glaucoma; Hepatitis C; Inflammatory bowel disease; Multiple sclerosis; Pain that is either chronic and severe or intractable; Parkinson’s disease; Positive status for HIV; Post-traumatic stress disorder; Sickle cell anemia; Spinal cord disease or injury; Tourette’s syndrome; Traumatic brain injury and Ulcerative colitis. 

Ohio Moves to Help More Patients

Huffman’s bill would add arthritis, migraines, autism spectrum disorder, spasticity or chronic muscle spasms, hospice care or terminal illness and opioid use disorder to the list of qualifying conditions. 

The legislation would also create “a new Division of Marijuana Control (DMC) within the Department of Commerce,” which would “oversee and administer Ohio’s Medical Marijuana Control Program.”

“As such, the majority of responsibilities the State Board of Pharmacy has with regard to the medical cannabis program are transferred to DMC,” read a legislative analysis of the bill, which Huffman first proposed last month. “These transferred responsibilities include: patient and caregiver registration, approval and oversight of retail dispensary licensees, oversight of licensee taxation, criminal records checks for license applicants and employees, investigations of violations of the Medical Marijuana Law, entering into reciprocity agreements with other states, and maintenance of a toll-free telephone line for responding to inquiries related to the Medical Marijuana Program. It also changes references in the Revised Code as necessary to accommodate these changes.”

Moreover, the bill would bring about a major expansion of the number of cannabis dispensaries in the state.

The bill’s analysis said that the proposal would require the Division of Marijuana Control “to endeavor to achieve a ratio of at least one licensed retail dispensary per 1,000 registered patients up to the first 300,000 registered patients and then adding additional retail dispensaries on an as-needed basis.”

It would also allow “licensed dispensaries to advertise, on social media or otherwise, without receiving prior approval from DMC,” and allow them to “display products on advertisements and within the dispensary.”

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, the bill passed the state Senate by a  26-5 vote, and that Huffman “plans to push additional changes that didn’t get through in time for Wednesday’s floor vote.”

“Among the proposed amendments: Adding lupus to the list of qualifying conditions and clarifying that standalone processors would only be eligible for small-scale, level II cultivation licenses,” the Enquirer reported.

According to the newspaper, “Ohio’s large-scale, level I cultivators can grow up to 25,000 square feet of marijuana, and level II cultivators are limited to 3,000 square feet,” while state rules permit “licensees to expand to 75,000 square feet and 9,000 square feet, respectively.” 

Huffman’s proposal, the Enquirer reported, “would increase expansion for level II growers to 20,000 square feet while leaving level I cultivators at the same limit.”

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