Marijuana supporters bring weed to Ohio Statehouse to protest against GOP restrictions

Marijuana enthusiasts brought their own weed to the Ohio Statehouse for a rally against Republican lawmakers looking to pass proposed restrictions on recreational policy.

On a stressful day, Ashton Price knows she can have some relief.

“I realized that I no longer wanted to be on medication for my mental health, so I started looking into alternative resources,” Price said.

And she found cannabis, saying it changed her life for the better and wants more people to experience it.

“I felt called to do more, so now I do advocacy,” she added.

That’s why she joined the dozens of marijuana fans and industry experts at the Statehouse Wednesday to rally and educate about the state’s law.

If you are 21 years old or older, you can smoke, vape, and ingest marijuana. Individually, you can grow six plants, but you can grow up to 12 plants per household if you live with others.

You can have up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana in all forms except for concentrates, which you can only have up to 15 grams.

The law gives the 10% tax revenue from each marijuana sale to four different venues: 36% to the social equity fund to help people disproportionately impacted by marijuana-related laws; 36% to host cities — ones that have dispensaries; 25% to the state’s mental health and addiction services department; and 3% to the state’s cannabis control department.

However, plants like the ones brought to the Capitol may be restricted under a Republican proposal.

“We need some common-sense safety protections for people in the state of Ohio, primarily for children,” Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, said.

Believing that the voters didn’t actually know everything that they were voting for, McColley said that Senate Bill 56 should be signed into law.

The Senate has already passed the legislation, which makes dozens of restrictions to cannabis access, but it most notably limits THC content and reduces home growing to six plants.

THC, the psychoactive cannabinoid, would be capped at 100 milligrams per package. It also primarily reduces the allowable THC levels in adult-use extracts from a max of 90% to 70%.

Any other type of marijuana product (like edibles) would be limited to 10mg per serving and 100mg per package.

The Senate has eliminated the social equity fund in their proposal.

“The access that they voted for, their ability to go to licensed dispensaries and to purchase these products, is not changing at all in this legislation,” the president said.

But there is also House Bill 160, which is very similar but keeps home growing the same. House Finance Chair Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, disagrees with McColley on home grow — saying it’s already been legal for two years, so it doesn’t make sense to change it.

“In the real world, folks who are growing 12 plants today are not likely to grow less than 12 plants just because we passed a law at the Statehouse,” Stewart said.

But like the Senate, it reduces the THC, the psychoactive cannabinoid in marijuana, content in products. It primarily reduces the allowable THC levels in adult-use extracts from a max of 90% to 70%.

Unlike the other chamber, the House would not limit the number of milligrams in a package, a closed container you would pick up at a dispensary. The Senate caps it at 100 milligrams per package and 10mg per individual serving, which is one edible inside a container of edibles.

It keeps the excise tax at 10% but completely changes where the revenue goes. It would go directly into the marijuana receipts fund, which is created in the state treasurer’s office. It will be able to earn investment, and the state will be able to manage tax refunds as needed.

Ohioans across the political spectrum told me they are angry and disappointed with Republican legislators trying to change the law.

We asked Price, “Do you think the changes that the lawmakers are proposing go against the will of the voters?”

“Absolutely,” she said. “It’s not a joke anymore — Reefer Madness is gone,”

We’ve gone back and forth with GOP leaders on why they think Ohioans didn’t know what they were voting for. Click here to see their responses.

In short, they don’t think everyone read the ballot language. They also argue that because Issue 2 was voted on as an initiated statute, not a constitutional amendment, it allows them to make any changes they want.

We have a running series of answering questions and concerns about weed. Earlier installments have focused on learning the basics of the law and then how to buy it back before open legal sales started in August 2024. Then, we answered questions on where to partake and then employment concerns. We have recently done stories about the Senate’s restrictive proposal and another about how to contact your lawmakers.

This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.

Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on Twitter and Facebook.