COLUMBUS, Ohio – A deadline for the Ohio General Assembly to pass a bill based on a proposal to legalize recreational marijuana is likely to come and go without action, and the backers expect they’ll begin gathering signatures to try to get on the November ballot as an initiated statute.
The legislature’s deadline is Thursday. On Friday, the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol coalition can begin gathering signatures from some 125,000 registered Ohio voters, said Tom Haren, a Cleveland attorney who represents several medical marijuana businesses that are behind the campaign.
There is no draft bill in either chamber. Nor has the recreational proposal been sent to any legislative committee for consideration.
“They’re not going to do anything,” Haren said.
The backers of the current proposal have been working on it since 2021. They believe recreational marijuana is a nonpartisan issue and will pass at the ballot box.
Under the proposal, people ages 21 and older could purchase marijuana at a state-regulated dispensary, or grow up to six cannabis plants at their primary residence for adult use.
The coalition is pursuing the law as an initiated statute, meaning it would become state law if voters approve it. That’s different from the process to amend the state constitution, as backers of an abortion-rights proposal are seeking to do on the November ballot. Republican state lawmakers are pushing a plan to make it harder to amend the constitution, potentially in an August…
