By: Megan Henry – February 26, 2025
Ohio Senate Republicans passed a bill Wednesday that would would make significant changes to the marijuana law passed by Ohio voters in 2023, including reducing allowable levels of THC, limiting home grow, and making it illegal to buy and bring back across state lines.
Senate Bill 56 passed by a 23-9 party line vote and will now go to the Ohio House for consideration.
“Senate Bill 56 is a great bill because it’s reasonably appropriate,” said the bill’s author state Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City. “It cuts down on the illicit marijuana market and it’s truly about protection and safety of children.”
The bill would limit Ohio’s home grow from 12 plants down to six, reduce the THC levels in adult-use marijuana extracts from a maximum of 90% down to a maximum of 70%, and mandates that marijuana can only be used in a private residence.
“You can get 600 joints a year out of the plant,” Huffman said. “That seems like an excessive amount.”
S.B. 56 allows someone to apply to the sentencing court to have their record expunged if they were convicted or plead guilty to possessing 2.5 ounces of marijuana before the state law went into effect. Under the bill, the applicant must pay a $50 filing fee.
“We are moving forward with a lackluster method that forces individuals to pay for their own expungement,” said State Sen. Willis E. Blackshear Jr., D-Dayton. “Many of these individuals are disenfranchised from our legal system and may lack the knowledge of how to go about expunging their records.”
The bill would combine the state’s medical and recreational marijuana programs under the Division of Cannabis Control, require marijuana be transported in the trunk of a car when traveling, and would limit the number of active dispensaries to 350.
It would also ban Ohioans from using marijuana that is not either from a licensed Ohio dispensary or cultivated at a consumer’s home. This would make it illegal for Ohioans to drive up to Michigan to purchase marijuana and bring it back over state lines.
“A no vote on Senate Bill 56 is a vote that will endanger Ohio’s children,” State Sen. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson said.
Huffman introduced the bill last month and the Ohio Senate General Government Committee passed the bill Wednesday morning by a 5-2 party line. Blackshear and state Sen. Bill DeMora, the two Democrats on the committee, offered several bill amendments during the committee meeting, but they were all rejected.
“It is unfortunate that this committee would pass a bill so out-of-line with what the voters intended when they approved adult-use marijuana by a margin of over 14 points,” Blackshear said.
Ohio voters passed a citizen-initiated law to legalize recreational marijuana in 2023 with 57% of the vote, and sales started in August 2024. Since it was passed as a citizen initiative, Ohio lawmakers have the ability to change the law. The state’s total recreational marijuana sales were $$346,923,461 as of Saturday, according to the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Cannabis Control
“This bill goes against the will of the voters,” DeMora said. “We’re not trying to take away the rights of people by making lots of things that are legal today illegal should this bill become law.”
When asked about this bill going against the will of the Ohio voters, Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, said the changes in the bill are “very reasonable in nature.”
“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,” he said.
State Sen. Bill Blessing, R-Colerain Township, said S.B. 56 is a fair bill.
“Do we really want to be getting worked up and bothered by things that are ultimately unenforceable and silly when you look at it, particularly when there’s really good provisions in here that are protecting children and consumers,” he said.
Forty people submitted opponent testimony against S.B. 56 while only five people submitted proponent testimony.
All nine Senate Democrats voted against the bill.
“The Democrats at this point are standing up with the voters, the people that passed the issue,” said Minority Senate Leader Nickie J. Antonio, D-Lakewood. “This bill is very restrictive, too restrictive, and certainly not what the voters want.”
Marijuana has been legal in Ohio since December 2023 and Ohioans have been legally purchasing marijuana for nearly seven months.
“Now that marijuana has been legalized, people have been functioning in a certain way, and so it’s a lot harder to create some of these restrictions,” Antonio said.
She disagrees with the bill’s attempt to restrict marijuana use to only in a private residence.
“To lock people in their homes and say that’s the only place (they can smoke), I don’t think that’s what the voters intended,” Antonio said.
S.B. 56 originally would have raised the tax on adult-use marijuana from 10% to 15% and funneled all revenue from the adult-use tax to the state general fund, but those provisions were removed in committee.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposed budget, which is currently being heard in the Ohio House, increases the tax on marijuana from 10% to 20%. The budget is due July 1.
