As more groups seek to change the legalization of cannabis products, lawmakers have also started to change their position on the debate. In fact, a number of different lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have pushed for new legalization bills on different levels of government. In fact, Republicans have recently passed a bill to try and change the legalization of cannabis. Members of both the House and Senate have continued working on changing the banking laws or an overall comprehensive legalization. Others have worked to make it easier for researchers to look into the potential benefits of the plants. Now, more Republicans lawmakers are filing a new marijuana legislation bill, this one focused on Ohio specifically.

New Bill

Ohio Representatives Jamie Callender and Ron Ferguson are the sponsors of the new bill. They first announced it in October and sent out a memo to build support for the bill. The bill will allow adults that are 21 years or older to both purchase and possess up to 50 grams of cannabis. The bill also allows these adults to grow up to six plants, only three of which were allowed to be mature, for personal use. It would also allow adult consumers to gift each other up to 25 grams of cannabis without cost.

Additionally, the bill would tax these products at 10 percent. After paying the administrative costs, those in charge would then distribute tax revenue in the following method. 50 percent would go to the state general fund. Then, they would use 25 percent to combat illicit drug trafficking. Finally, the final 25 percent would go to substance misuse treatment programs. The state Department of Commerce will be regulating the adult-use marijuana and existing medical cannabis program. It would also be the ones to issue business licenses. The new Division of Marijuana Control would be the ones to issue these licenses.

Limitations

With the passing of this bill, the bill will limit regulators to approving one retail cannabis dispensary license per 60,000 residents in the state until January 1, 2027. At that point, they would need to review the program on a biennial basis. This would be done to see if more of the licenses would be needed.

At the time of its writing, the legislation will not contain specific methods to promote social equity by leaving out expunging prior cannabis convictions. There also wouldn’t be provisions to prioritize licensing for communities most affected by the prohibition. That said, the bill would require regulators to conduct a study prior to issuing adult-use licenses. This would be done in order to determine whether there has been any discrimination on who received the licenses. If there is any found, they would take appropriate actions to deal with it.

Hope

With the introduction of this new marijuana legislation bill, those that continue to stand against these changes in legislation will see that more people are trying to find a way to make them happen. It is the hope of activists that this will push the detractors into allowing either this or one of the other bills to pass.

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