COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Legislation to change Ohio’s recreational marijuana laws and regulate Delta-8 are likely to move forward in the Ohio Statehouse this week.
Right now, there are two bills being heard in the same Ohio House committee to regulate recreational marijuana and change what voters approved a year and a half ago.
“As a cannabis industry as a whole, we are continuing to fight this stigma,” said Emilie Ramach, vice president of business and government affairs for BeneLeaves.
“It’s going to improve the marijuana industry,” Sen. Steve Huffman (R-Tipp City) said.
Huffman is sponsoring Senate Bill 56. His bill passed the Senate and now awaits action in the House. House Bill 160 is a similar bill that is also being worked on in the House. They both, for example, decrease legal THC extract levels from 90% to 70%. That change would impact products like gummies or brownies.
“When you do that, you have to have a filler,” said Tim Johnson, president and founder of Cannabis Safety First. “You have to have an additive in there. So instead of having 90% of a purity, now you have 70%.”
The bills each make dozens of changes to recreational marijuana laws, like capping the number of dispensaries at 350. But Huffman said that is not a main priority in the bill.
“The public consumption — not smoking and in a moving vehicle — are really important things in the advertising towards children,” Huffman said.
While the bills are similar, there are differences.
Senate Bill 56 cuts the number of plants that can be grown in a house with two adults from 12 to six. House Bill 160 keeps it at 12. But Huffman said he is willing to compromise.
“If we get to 12, that’s OK,” he said.
While each bill makes dozens of changes, Johnson said he thinks each one misses the mark.
“What we continually leave out is the criminal justice reform factor,” Johnson said. “We need to have housing rights, we need to have employment rights, child custody.”
“We can always look at things going further,” Huffman said.
Right now, in both bills, the application for records expungement costs $50, then there must be at least one court hearing.
Huffman said that process is “better than what it is now.”
“It certainly gives the path for people to expunge things that are not criminal now,” Huffman said.
Meanwhile, there are related bills to regulate what is sometimes known as “diet weed,” or Delta-8, also moving forward.
“I think hemp is probably more important than marijuana,” Huffman said.
Right now, the product is fully available for anyone to buy at convenient stores, with no age restriction and gives a similar high as marijuana does. Last year, the bill stalled when the House and Senate couldn’t decide whether to ban it completely, or just regulate those products. Now, lawmakers seek to require those products be sold in a dispensary.
Huffman said he is confident both marijuana and Delta-8 regulations will pass the statehouse by July 1.
