Ohio House lawmakers, by an 87-8 vote, advanced long-stalled legislation Wednesday afternoon revising cannabis laws and more strictly regulating other THC products, like those with delta-8 THC.
Among dozens of changes, the latest version of Senate Bill 56 establishes a regulatory structure for what the state calls “intoxicating” hemp. Under it, retailers who want to sell intoxicating hemp would need one of several licenses. It carves out CBD and THC drinks, which could be served at bars and restaurants and sold at grocery stores and corner stores.
Rep. Brian Stewart (R-Ashville) has led the House negotiations on the legislation.
“A lot of what the Senate wanted to see was kind of the bones of this of this deal anyway,” Stewart said Wednesday morning.
SB 56 puts limits on how potent THC products can be but permits Ohioans to share with each other. It also would distribute more than $80 million in tax revenue over the next two fiscal years through what’s known as the Host Community Cannabis Fund, which would go to cities and towns with dispensaries.
Five GOP and three Democratic legislators voted against SB 56 on the floor. “I think that sends a really strong signal,” Stewart said.
Lawmakers have gone back and forth over modifying recreational marijuana laws since it became legal for Ohioans 21 and older in December 2023. Efforts to regulate largely unregulated hemp have been folded into that debate—though earlier versions of SB 56 put intoxicating products behind dispensaries’ counters and banned sales otherwise.
Stewart said the legislature became bogged down in “intramural industry turf fights.”
Adrienne Robbins, deputy executive director for industry trade association the Ohio Cannabis Coalition, said OHCANN takes issue with the hemp measures added to SB 56 on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“On one hand, you have a state-regulated, state-legal (industry),” Robbins said. “And on the other hand, you have an industry that has made its business ... marketing to children.”
The Senate still has to sign off on the changes, and is unlikely to okay them outright, Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) said Wednesday.
“Admittedly, we got their version of changes relatively recently,” McColley said. “The initial briefing I got, there are going to be some things that ... some members of our caucus will have issues with.”
