{"id":1185,"date":"2021-09-18T18:14:52","date_gmt":"2021-09-18T18:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/CBMiWGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmxpbWFvaGlvLmNvbS9uZXdzLzQ3NzA3OC9sZWdhbGl6aW5nLXJlY3JlYXRpb25hbC1tYXJpanVhbmEtd2lsbC1vaGlvLWJlLW5leHTSAQA"},"modified":"2021-09-18T18:14:52","modified_gmt":"2021-09-18T18:14:52","slug":"legalizing-recreational-marijuana-will-ohio-be-next-limaohio-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/?p=1185","title":{"rendered":"Legalizing recreational marijuana: Will Ohio be next? – LimaOhio.com"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Products are hung at the 20 Past 4 store in Jackson County, Michigan. <\/p>\n

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The retail area at 20 Past 4 Provisioning Center, 3590 Ann Arbor Road in Leoni Township, on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020. <\/p>\n

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Recreational marijuana flower is arranged at 20 Past 4 in Jackson County, Michigan. <\/p>\n

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LIMA \u2014 Ohio could become the next state to join the growing list that has legalized recreational marijuana.<\/p>\n

The last decade has brought sweeping reform of marijuana laws across the country. Nineteenstates<\/a>, as well as Guam and Washington, D.C., have made recreational marijuana legal, or are in the process of doing so, in some form for anyone older than 21. Each state has its own different stipulations, but the movement has been gaining momentum, especially as of late. New York, Virginia, New Mexico and Connecticut all approved legalization measures in 2021 alone.<\/p>\n

The charge into Oho is being led by The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, which will need to amass 130,000 petition signatures to bring the legislation to Columbus. Should they get those signatures, the legislature will have four months to decide to pass or reject the bill.<\/p>\n

If the Ohio legislature chooses not to pass anything, the coalition will need to generate an additional 130,000 signatures to keep hopes alive for marijuana reform in Ohio. If they do, the issue would be taken up by Ohioans in the 2022 general election.<\/p>\n

Coalition spokesman Tom Haren said that his group has high hopes for getting a bill passed in the Ohio General Assembly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re actually confident that we\u2019re going to get it passed through the General Assembly. We\u2019re laser focused on doing that,\u201d he said. \u201cWe think that when the legislators look at our proposal, when they talk to their voters and once we\u2019re able to sit down and explain to them that this is something that\u2019s coming one way or another. The question is really \u2018are bureaucrats in D.C. going to make this decision, or are Ohioans going to make this decision?\u2019 We expect that they\u2019ll support our proposal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposal was crafted through a combination of factors. Haren said that the coalition took a look at the best practices of other states that have legalized recreational marijuana, as well as using Ohio\u2019s current medical marijuana laws as a foundation to build on.<\/p>\n

Ohio would also look to follow suit with other states by allowing marijuana users to grow their own cannabis plants at home. Of all of the states that have addressed marijuana legalization, Washington state is the only one that does not allow home growing practices. The Ohio proposal would allow individuals to grow up to six plants<\/a> per person, with a maximum of 12 per home. That section of the bill is comparable to the current cannabis growing rules in Michigan.<\/p>\n

Under the proposal, recreational marijuana in Ohio would be met with a 10 percent tax rate. The tax is in line with other states like Nevada and Massachusetts, which currently tax at around 10 percent, and is significantly lower than states such as Oregon and Washington, which impose marijuana excise taxes of 17 and 37 percent, respectively.<\/p>\n

With a tax rate of 10 percent, Haren said that recreational marijuana has the potential to generate around $400 million in tax revenue for the state at its full potential. California generated more than $1 billion in marijuana tax revenue in 2020. In the early days, Ohio could be more comparable to a state like Michigan, which generated $81 million in tax revenue in 2020, but has only had legalized recreational marijuana since 2018.<\/p>\n

Should the legislation make it to Columbus, the coalition wants to ensure that the money that would be generated isn\u2019t wasted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have robust social provisions that provide funding to social equity efforts and funding to local municipalities, funding to fight substance abuse and drug addiction,\u201d Haren said. \u201cWe framed the proposal so that we can provide a quick, meaningful alternative to the unregulated market. So we think we\u2019ve hit all of the right boxes when it comes to enacting an adult use framework.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several cities in Ohio have already decriminalized marijuana<\/a> in recent years, imposing minimal or no fines for marijuana possession up to 100 or 200 grams in some cities. Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton have all decriminalized marijuana within the last two years.<\/p>\n

It could be a few years before recreational marijuana reaches its full potential in Ohio, but the first step of that journey is starting now for Ohioans. Whether legislation passes in the General Assembly or voters take to the polls next November, Ohio seems destined to join the fast-growing list of states across the country that have gotten on board. Only time will tell how long the process will take.<\/p>\n

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Products are hung at the 20 Past 4 store in Jackson County, Michigan. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The retail area at 20 Past 4 Provisioning Center, 3590 Ann Arbor Road in Leoni Township, on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Recreational marijuana flower is arranged at 20 Past 4 in Jackson County, Michigan. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Reach Trevor Hubert at 567-242-0398<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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Products are hung at the 20 Past 4 store in Jackson County, Michigan. The retail area at 20 Past 4 Provisioning Center, 3590 Ann Arbor Road in Leoni Township, on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020. Recreational marijuana flower is arranged at 20 Past 4 in Jackson County, Michigan. ins{background:none;} LIMA \u2014 Ohio could become the next state to join the growing list that has legalized recreational marijuana. The last decade has brought sweeping reform of marijuana laws across the country. Nineteenstates, as well as Guam and Washington, D.C., have made recreational marijuana legal, or are in the process of doing so,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/legalizing-recreational-marijuana-will-ohio-be-next-limaohio-com.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}