Despite efforts in the Ohio legislature to pass a bill to significantly change the state’s voter-approved marijuana law, last-minute disagreements between the House and Senate Republicans seemed to have derailed that plan for now—with House lawmakers signaling that a deal won’t be struck before the summer recess.

After taking public testimony and adopting certain changes to the Senate-passed legislation, SB 56, in recent weeks, the House Judiciary Committee ultimately declined to advance the proposal as scheduled at a Wednesday hearing, making it so the measure couldn’t advance to a floor vote planned for that day. Evidently, the revisions didn’t sit well with key senators, according to several legislators.

“Apparently the Senate changed their mind,” Rep. Jamie Callender (R), a pro-legalization lawmaker, told News 5 Cleveland.

Changes approved at a hearing late last month, for example, rolled back some of the strict limits included in a version of the measure passed by the Senate in February, including a criminal prohibition on sharing marijuana between adults on private property.

“They wanted to make a mandatory jail sentence for passing a joint between friends,” Callender, who has spent weeks working on additional changes to the legislation, said. He also complained about the Senate’s proposal to put all cannabis tax revenue in the state’s general fund, which would have prevented local municipalities from getting a share of those dollars as is currently the law.

“The Senate had proposed taking that tax away, and the House has fought really hard to keep that in,” the lawmaker, who was one of the first people to buy legal recreational marijuana products in Ohio when sales launched last year, said. “We finally had that negotiated so it would stay in.”

In March, a survey of 38 municipalities by the Ohio State University’s (OSU) Moritz College of Law found that local leaders were “unequivocally opposed” to earlier proposals that would have stripped the planned funding.

While some have characterized the Senate’s pulled support as a spontaneous wrinkle in an agreed-upon deal between the chambers, Senate President Rob McColley (R) said “there was a misunderstanding as to where we might have been on the bill as both chambers.”

House Speaker Matt Huffman (R), who formerly served as Senate president, said he was “pretty disappointed” the Judiciary Committee wouldn’t be taking up the legislation on Wednesday due to the other chamber’s disagreement.

“To my surprise, there was a whole new set of issues, additional issues, which were raised Monday night by the Senate regarding what we were trying to do,” he said.

Where that leaves the legislation is yet to be seen. But while McColley said he would still “like to get something done by the end of June” and believed Huffman felt the same, the House speaker tempered those expectations, saying he’s “not very optimistic” about that prospect.

“I just told my caucus: ‘We’re not going to just say OK because we’re so anxious to pass the marijuana bill,’ which I’d like to get it done, but we’re not going to give up House priorities to do that,” Huffman said.

“I thought we were on a path, this time last week, to pass it [this week]. That was the kind of clear indication we had,” Huffman said. However, despite that clear indication, he also said “There was no agreement [with the Senate] to pull out of.”

“We were hoping that there would be, anticipating there would be, sounded like we might have—but it’s not correct to say that there was an agreement that anybody pulled out of,” he said.

Sen. Steve Huffman (R), a relative of the speaker and main negotiator on the Senate side of the marijuana debate, disagreed on that point.

“We were in an agreement,” he said. “I believe that things are still being worked out, and I have the utmost confidence that we will resolve this by next Wednesday.”

Callender said he doubted that, stating that he expected that the Senate would continue to hold the line on attempts to revise the law in a way that conflicts with the will of voters who approved legalization in 2023.

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Meanwhile in Ohio, adults are now able to buy more than double the amount of marijuana than they were under previous limits, with state officials determining that the market can sustainably supply both medical cannabis patients and adult consumers.

A budget measure from Gov. Mike DeWine (R) is also a potential vehicle for changes to the state’s marijuana law. As proposed, it would remove local tax allocations of medical marijuana revenue and double the state cannabis tax rate to 20 percent—though legislative leaders have said they will be removing the tax increases.

Meanwhile, DeWine in March announced his desire to reallocate marijuana tax revenue to support police training, local jails and behavioral health services. He said funding police training was a top priority, even if that wasn’t included in what voters passed in 2023.

Ohio’s Senate president has also pushed back against criticism of the Senate bill, claiming the legislation does not disrespect the will of the electorate and would have little impact on products available in stores.

Separately, lawmakers are considering legislation to restrict intoxicating hemp products.

DeWine has repeatedly asked lawmakers to regulate or ban intoxicating hemp products such as delta-8 THC.

California Is Using $30 Million In Marijuana Revenue To Support Research On Consumer Preferences, Crop Yields And Sustainability

Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers ramped up his fight against retailers selling intoxicating hemp products through 82 more cease-and-desist letters sent June 18 to businesses in Lincoln.

The state’s top legal officer claimed the stores are selling products containing noncompliant amounts of THC or unlawful synthetic cannabinoids. This week’s letters sent to businesses in the state’s capital follow 104 letters that Hilgers’ office sent in March to similar stores operating in Omaha.

To date, the attorney general’s office has sent cease-and-desist letters to 204 stores statewide, alleging that they’re violating the Nebraska Consumer Protection Act for unfair and/or deceptive practices, and that they’re violating the state’s Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act and Nebraska Pure Food Act.

“Our office’s testing showed that nearly every one of these products were mislabeled,” Hilgers said about products his office and the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office purchased from stores owned by 39 different companies. “

“This industry has shown itself to be completely irresponsible,” he said. “It operates without regard to the health or safety of Nebraskans by selling these poisonous and mislabeled products into the capital city.”

Hilger’s office demanded that each store sign a settlement document indicating their assurance of voluntary compliance to cease all sales of THC-containing products or face litigation. The stores have 30 days to comply with the demands.

Each store that the sheriff and attorney general’s offices investigated had at least one product marketed as hemp that was over the 0.3% delta-9 THC limit, qualifying as cannabis, according to Hilger. In addition, more than 90% of the products had inaccurate labels, according to his office.

“This lack of proper labeling means that the stores are engaging in deceptive, unfair and unsafe trade practices, and also engaging in the sale of controlled substances,” according to Hilger’s office. “Many of the stores have tobacco licenses and also sell synthetically produced THC-containing products, which may put their tobacco licenses at risk.”

Selling any amount of cannabis in Nebraska is a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison with a $25,000 maximum fine.

Hilgers indicated in March that his office plans to seek maximum penalties and fines against retailers selling noncompliant products containing intoxicating hemp derivatives, including up to a $4,000 fine for each individual sale of a noncompliant product.

The attorney general’s enforcement efforts come after the Nebraska Legislature failed to pass legislation, Legislative Bill 316, that Sen. Kathleen Kauth, R-Omaha, sponsored in an attempt to redefine hemp, prohibit certain products containing the plant’s derivatives, and regulate serving sizes to 10 milligrams of total THC per package.

Kauth told Nebraska Public Media that she supports Hilgers’ actions.

“Hopefully, more stores will say, ‘Hey, listen. Oh, guess what? We shouldn’t be selling this,’ or ‘We’ve heard stores that are very much like ours are getting hit with these letters and are having to rush to get stuff off of their shelves. Let’s start winding down,’” Kauth told the news outlet.

California officials are inviting research proposals for a second round of grants under a program meant to better educate the public on the state’s marijuana law and help policymakers make informed decisions on the issue.

For the new $30 million round of the grant program, which is funded by marijuana tax revenue, the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) said it is prioritizing proposals in research areas including educational methods of improving public health and safety, crop yields, state and local marijuana policies, consumer preferences, environmental sustainability and other topics.

“At a time when the federal government is pulling back funding for cannabis-related research, California is stepping up,” DCC Director Nicole Elliott said in a press release on Thursday.

To that point, the Trump administration has promoted funding cuts to certain cannabis-related research initiatives, including those impacting California institutions.

“DCC is proud to partner with California’s world-class public universities to generate the data and insights necessary to inform thoughtful policy, protect public health, and guide the evolution of this industry responsibly,” Elliott said. “These impacts don’t stop at our borders—what the Department learns here will shape important conversations and policies across the nation.”

This latest round of $30 million in grants brings the state’s total research-focused contributions to $80 million, DCC said. One of the earlier rounds, in 2023, focused on studies investigating novel cannabinoids like delta-8 THC, the genetics of “legacy” strains from the state and monopolies and unfair competition in the market.

Meanwhile, last month, the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) announced the recipients of over $52 million in community reinvestment grants to nonprofits and local health departments, also funded by marijuana tax revenue.

That marked the seventh round of cannabis-funded California Community Reinvestment Grants (CalCRG) under the state program.

Legalization in California has created a number of new grant programs aimed at addressing the consequences of marijuana prohibition and attempting to nurture a strong, well-regulated legal industry.

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Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.

Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.
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Separately, earlier this month the California Assembly unanimously approved a bill to delay the implementation of an planned hike on marijuana taxes.

California’s Supreme Court separately delivered a victory for the state’s marijuana program last month, rescinding a lower court ruling in a case that suggested federal prohibition could be used locally to undermine the cannabis market.

The state Supreme Court ruling also came just weeks after California officials unveiled a report on the current status and future of the state’s marijuana market—with independent analysts hired by regulators concluding that the federal prohibition on cannabis that prevents interstate commerce is meaningfully bolstering the illicit market.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) did sign a bill in 2022 that would have empowered him to enter into interstate cannabis commerce agreements with other legal states, but that power was incumbent upon federal guidance or an assessment from the state attorney general that sanctioned such activity.

Meanwhile, a California Senate committee recently declined to advance a bipartisan bill that would have created a psilocybin pilot program for military veterans and former first responders.

New Hampshire Lawmakers Advance Psilocybin Penalty Reform But Reject Medical Marijuana Homegrow