By Gongwer Staff
Posted: February 13, 2023 10:12 AM

The clocking is ticking for the General Assembly to act on a proposal to legalize the recreational use of marijuana for adults.

If lawmakers fail to act by May 3, the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol intends to collect a second round of signatures to place the initiated statute before voters in November.

"Right now, we are in this interim period where the legislature has four months to pass our proposal and if they don't, we'll collect additional signatures to get it on the ballot," spokesman Tom Haren said in an interview.

Asked if he expects lawmakers to act, Mr. Haren answered: "We'll see."

Nonetheless, that is the preference of the group.

"We've said all along we'd like to work with them," Mr. Haren said. "We intend to do what we can to work with them in good faith to legalize marijuana for adults. We think it's something that's popular with Ohioans. We think it represents the will of Ohio voters. If they continue to ignore the will of Ohioans, we'll take it to Ohio voters directly."

In its recently filed annual campaign finance report, the group had just over $14,000 on hand with nearly $42,000 in outstanding debt. (See Gongwer Ohio Report, January 31, 2023)

Money, however, will not be an issue, according to Mr. Haren.

"I have no concerns about our ability to fundraise," he said. "We've collected this amount of signatures before. We're confident we'll be able to do it again."

The group in late 2021 submitted its first round of nearly 133,000 valid signatures to place the measure before the General Assembly.

However, a local board of election review threw out some of those signatures, forcing the group to collect more during an extension period. The next round of signatures pushed the total past the required amount, but was not submitted until Jan. 13, several days after the start of the 2022 session.

That threw into question whether the legal deadline was met to submit an initiated statute to the General Assembly, leading the coalition to file a lawsuit that eventually led to a settlement. (See Gongwer Ohio Report, May 13, 2022)

The settlement allowed the group to keep its initial batch of signatures and required Secretary of State Frank LaRose to resubmit the proposal to the General Assembly on Jan. 3.

The proposal would legalize the use of marijuana for those age 21 and older.

Individuals would be permitted to grow up to six plants and possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana, although landlords would be able to prohibit growing activities.

It would establish a 10% adult use tax, on top of existing sales taxes.

Thirty-six percent of the revenue from the adult use tax would go to local governments with operating dispensaries. They would also be able to prohibit or limit the number of dispensaries within their jurisdictions.

Another 36% would go to a social equity and cannabis jobs fund, which, according to the coalition, could generate as much as $150 million annually for social equity and jobs programs.

Twenty-five percent would be set aside for substance abuse programming and another 3% for a newly created Division of Cannabis Control located inside the Department of Commerce.