Ohio House Committee ScalesBack Changes ToVoter-Approved Marijuana LawIn Senate-Passed Bill

Published on May 28, 2025

By Ben Adlin

OG Article

An Ohio House committee has adopted a number of major changes to a

Senate bill that would make sweeping adjustments to the state’s adult-use

marijuana legalization law.

The action by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday comes as

state lawmakers weigh a handful of separate proposals that would revise

the voter-approved system. The panel’s move is aimed at working toward a

single piece of consensus legislation.

“Obviously we’re still in committee,” Rep. Brian Stewart (R) said at the

hearing, “and we understand there may be other amendments sought, but I

think this is getting us to a single vehicle.”

The newly amended bill, SB 56, will remain before the House Judiciary

Committee as members continue to hammer out issues around criminal

penalties, tax revenue allocation, allowable products and other issues

addressed in the legislation.

Changes approved at Wednesday’s hearing roll back some of the strict

limits in SB 56 as passed by the Senate in February, taking language from

separate cannabis measures in the House and Senate, Stewart told

colleagues.

“What we’re doing is essentially taking House Bill 160 and putting that into

Senate Bill 56,” he said. “We’ve also largely taken Senate Bill 86 and put

that into Senate Bill 56 as well.”

Drug reform advocates have criticized both SB 56 and its House

counterpart, HB 160, as restrictive measures that would undermine the will

of voters who passed the state’s legalization law in 2023.

SB 86, meanwhile, is a separate bill that would set regulations on

intoxicating hemp products.

Stewart said Wednesday’s committee changes were meant to reflect

feedback from interested parties and public comment.

“We believe this is a step in the direction of listening to a lot of the

committee testimony that we’ve heard [and] a lot of the interested party

meetings that we’ve had,” he said.

The new changes, as explained by Stewart, would remove the bill’s earlier

criminal penalty for sharing marijuana or intoxicating hemp products among

adults, provided that the sharing takes place on private property.

“If you’re able to use on a property,” the lawmaker explained, “you would be

able to share with other folks as well.”

Certain outdoor concert venues would also be exempt from laws against

open consumption provided they have separate smoking and vaping areas.

The amendment also removed a provision that would have created a

mandatory minimum sentence for someone caught consuming marijuana in

the passenger seat of a vehicle.

Notably, THC-infused beverages containing up to five milligrams of THC

could be carried in stores statewide rather than just in dispensaries. A

$3.50 per gallon tax would be levied on THC beverages.

A 10 percent tax on marijuana products in the bill would also apply to

intoxicating hemp products.

While especially high-potency marijuana products would still be forbidden

under the amended bill, regulators at the Division of Marijuana Control

could by rule increase the allowable potency above the initial 70-percent

THC cap.

Licensed dispensaries would also be able to sell and transfer marijuana to

other license holders.

Other changes would increase the amount of tax revenue going to

municipalities that host cannabis businesses, upping it to 25 percent of

state cannabis revenue for a period of seven years.

That’s a higher amount than was contemplated in any other proposed

legislation, Stewart emphasized.

“The Senate’s version of the bill was zero percent. The governor’s

introduced version of the bill was zero percent,” he said, adding that HB

160 itself initially set a 20-percent allocation for five years. “We have

increased that to 25 percent over seven years.”

In March, a survey of 38 municipalities by the Ohio State University’s

(OSU) Moritz College of Law found that local leaders were “unequivocally

opposed” to earlier proposals that would have stripped the planned funding.

Other changes in the amendment increase the allowable number of

marijuana retailers statewide to 400 and revise the required distance

between stores from half a mile to one mile.

Stewart said he hoped the Senate would either concur with the changes or

that lawmakers could “maybe have a short conference committee” to

hammer out any remaining details.

Panel member Rep. Jamie Callender (R), a supporter of cannabis reform

who’d previously pushed back on SB 56 as too restrictive, said he

welcomed the committee amendment but said he hoped to see further

changes made.

“I’m not going to object to it,” Callender said. “I’m going to ask that we

accept that today with the very clear understanding that there will be some

amendments drafted and considered [at] the next meeting.”

“A number of the things that Rep. Stewart outlined are things that we’ve

discussed over the last few weeks, and I’m greatly heartened to see that

they were were seriously considered,” he continued, though he also

pointed out that he and others have had little time to review Stewart’s

proposed changes prior to discussing it at the hearing.

“We’ve had an hour and eight minutes to review 400 pages,” Callender

said. “It looks like a lot of those issues were addressed in this, but that’s a

concern.”

During public testimony before the committee earlier this month, members

heard comments from advocacy groups, local governments, businesses

and individuals who spoke out against the proposal.

Meanwhile in Ohio, adults will soon be able to buy more than double the

amount of marijuana that they are currently allowed to purchase per day,

with state officials determining that the market can sustainably supply both

medical cannabis patients and adult consumers.

In a notice released last week, the Ohio Division of Cannabis Control

(DCC) said that its priority “continues to be ensuring medical marijuana

patients have adequate supply and maintain their medical marijuana card,

and the Division knows that licensees share that priority.”

“Since non-medical cannabis sales began in August 2024, the market has

demonstrated the ability to support both medical marijuana patients and

non-medical consumers alike,” it said.

Accordingly, DCC said that, effective June 4, adults will be able to buy up to

2.5 ounces of flower cannabis per day, a significant increase compared to

the current daily transaction limit of one ounce. This will make it so

consumers could buy marijuana in an amount that matches the 2.5 ounce

possession limit under state statute.

A budget measure from Gov. Mike DeWine (R) is also a potential vehicle

for changes to the state’s marijuana law. As proposed, it would remove

local tax allocations of medical marijuana revenue and double the state

cannabis tax rate to 20 percent—though legislative leaders have said they

will be removing the tax increases.

Meanwhile, DeWine in March announced his desire to reallocate marijuana

tax revenue to support police training, local jails and behavioral health

services. He said funding police training was a top priority, even if that

wasn’t included in what voters passed in 2023.

Ohio’s Senate president has also pushed back against criticism of the

Senate bill, claiming the legislation does not disrespect the will of the

electorate and would have little impact on products available in stores.

Separately in the legislature this month, Sens. Steve Huffman (R) and

Shane Wilkin (R) introduced legislation that would impose a 15 percent tax

on intoxicating hemp products and limit their sales to adult-use

dispensaries—not convenience stores, smoke shops or gas stations

DeWine has repeatedly asked lawmakers to regulate or ban intoxicating

hemp products such as delta-8 THC.