COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio lawmakers on Tuesday sent sweeping legislation to change the state’s recreational marijuana and intoxicating hemp regulations to Gov. Mike DeWine.
Senate Bill 56, which passed the Ohio Senate by a party-line, 22-7 vote, would prohibit sales of all hemp-based items with more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC — short for tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive drug in cannabis – per container, as well as those containing synthetic cannabinoids, outside of a licensed marijuana dispensary.
The legislation would allow for five-milligram hemp-derived THC drinks – a common concentration amount – to temporarily remain legal in Ohio through the end of next year. Those beverages would be permitted to be manufactured, distributed, and sold until Dec. 31, 2026.
The bill largely mirrors changes passed by Congress last month that essentially banned intoxicating hemp products with more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC. However, SB56 states that if the federal government reverses itself and legalizes hemp beverages with higher THC limits, the Ohio General Assembly would consider making changes in the state’s law.
In addition to the hemp measures, SB 56 would make some significant changes to Ohio’s recreational marijuana law, passed by voters in 2023.
Those changes include:
- Prohibiting people from bringing marijuana into Ohio from other states – including Michigan, where many Ohioans still go to purchase cannabis because prices are often cheaper.
- Allowing landlords to ban marijuana smoking, vaping, or growing on their property.
- Erasing protections in current state law prohibiting marijuana use as grounds for being rejected for housing, being disciplined by a state licensing board, having a court rule that a child is being abused or neglected, disqualifying someone for medical care or an organ transplant.
- Requiring people to store all marijuana products, not just edibles, in their original containers.
- Forbidding people in Ohio from growing, cultivating or possession homegrown marijuana on behalf of another person.
- Prohibiting people who are fired for marijuana use from obtaining state unemployment benefits.
- Creating a new criminal penalty for drivers caught smoking or vaping cannabis, punishable by up to 60 days in jail, a $500 fine, and five years of probation.
- Punishing people caught transferring marijuana to someone younger than 21 (Ohio’s age limit for legal marijuana use) by up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
- Removing Ohio’s current criminal penalties for parents or guardians who knowingly allow underage people to use marijuana at their home or on their property.
Hemp comes from the same plant species as marijuana, but they’re legally different based on the amount of THC. Hemp is cannabis with a THC concentration of no more than 0.3%, while marijuana is cannabis with THC levels above 0.3%.
If Gov. Mike DeWine signs the bill, it could take effect as soon as March.
In 2023, Ohio voters approved Issue 2, which legalized the cultivation and use of marijuana for people age 21 or older.
While marijuana has been illegal on the federal level for decades, hemp was inadvertently legalized when Congress passed a bill in 2018 designed to promote industrial hemp for products like textiles and rope.
That loophole has allowed a vast market of intoxicating hemp products to emerge, mimicking the effects of marijuana without facing any of the same regulatory oversight. Hemp-derived THC products — including candy, gummies, chocolate, vapes and drinks — have popped up at a wide assortment of retailers around the state.
Within days of the passage of Issue 2 in 2023, DeWine began calling for lawmakers to approve new restrictions on THC products. In particular, the governor has expressed concern over hemp-derived THC products such as gummies that mimic candy marketed to children.
However, until now, the legislature has been unable to pass any such legislation — even regarding regulations that they all generally agree on, such as restricting sales to children – amid disagreements over issues like whether sales of THC drinks should be restricted to marijuana dispensaries.
In response to lawmakers’ inaction, DeWine issued an executive order on Oct. 8 to ban sales of intoxicating hemp products for 90 days. However, that order has been put on hold by a Franklin County judge through at least January.
Before Tuesday’s Senate vote on SB 56, Republican lawmakers praised the law as putting in place much-needed regulations for both recreational marijuana and intoxicating hemp products
“This bill leaves the crux of Issue 2 and marijuana access intact, while providing for several important public-safety concerns and also regulations that protect Ohio children,” said state Sen. Steve Huffman, a Tipp City Republican.
Senate President Rob McColley, a Napoleon Republican, told reporters after the vote that SB 56’s proposed ban on bringing in out-of-state marijuana is needed because Michigan has different cannabis testing standards than Ohio. As for the bill’s prohibition on keeping edibles outside their original packaging, McColley said that’s simply an extension of existing state rules for medical marijuana.
McColley said he didn’t expect that Ohioans would be “heavily penalized” for violating either of those two rules.
Senate Democrats praised SB 56’s measures to protect children, but their caucus ended up voting against the bill.
Democrats’ criticisms included that it would gut Issue 2 by recriminalizing marijuana use in many instances, open the door to discrimination even for people who legally use it, and make expungement of marijuana-related charges and convictions more difficult.
“Why are we ignoring our constituents to vote for something that spits in their face?” asked state Sen. Bill DeMora, a Columbus Democrat.
DeMora also predicted that marijuana companies would challenge SB 56’s advertising ban, should it become law.
