Ohio 2023 Adult-Use Ballot Measure Fact Sheet

Ohio’s adult-use cannabis legalization measure will appear as Issue 2 on the Nov. 7, 2023, statewide ballot. It needs a simple 50% (plus one) majority to pass.

The statutory measure is proposed law for the Ohio Revised Code that aims to: Commercialize, Regulate, Legalize and Tax the Adult Use of Cannabis, as titled on the ballot. Ohio lawmakers would be required to write legislation to enact the new law and have final say in the bill language.

The citizen initiated measure is sponsored by the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CRMLA), which attempted to land the measure on the November 2022 ballot but settled a lawsuit in May 2022 to delay the legalization push one year after sparring with GOP leaders in the Ohio Legislature, like Senate President Matt Huffman, who vocally opposes adult-use legalization.

Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine also opposes legalization, having said in February 2022, “I do not, however, support legalizing marijuana for recreational use. I have seen the negative effects it has had in states that have legalized it and fear that it would also lead to increased use by underage kids and that small children could consume marijuana-laced foods that look like candy.”

The majority of Ohioans don’t see eye-to-eye with the governor, according to a July 2023 USA Today/Suffolk University survey: Pollsters found that 58.6% of likely Ohio voters support adult-use legalization, while 34.8% oppose it and 6.6% were undecided.

If passed, Ohio would become the 24th state in the nation to legalize adult-use cannabis.

The Ohio State University’s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center projected in August that a legalized market in Ohio would generate between $276 million and $403 million in annual tax revenue by the fifth year of commercial cannabis operations.

What the Measure Intends to Enact

• Allow adults 21 and older to purchase and possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis (or 15 grams of extract)
• Allow the home grow of up to six plants per person or 12 plants maximum per household
• Establish the cannabis social equity and jobs program and require the Department of Development to certify program applicants based on social and economic disadvantage
• Impose a 10% tax on cannabis sales (in addition to usual sales taxes), with the excise tax revenues going toward:
  • 36% toward supporting municipalities with dispensaries
  • 36% toward supporting social equity and jobs program
  • 25% toward education, substance abuse and addiction treatment programs
  • 3% toward state costs to run a legalized program
• Allow existing medical operators to transition to the adult-use market and receive first-mover advantage
• Add 40 cultivation licenses and 50 dispensary licenses to adult-use program, to be issued “with preference to applicants who are participants under the cannabis social equity and jobs program”
• Establish a Division of Cannabis Control (under the Department of Commerce) that would oversee the regulated marketplace and could issue additional adult-use licenses 24 months after the first batch of licenses are issued, depending on supply and demand needs
• Limit criminal liability for certain financial institutions that provide financial services to any lawful adult-use cannabis operator or testing laboratory licensed under the proposed law
• Prohibit local government entities from restricting or limiting adult-use cannabis home grow or other activity activities authorized by the proposed law
  

If passed, the law will become effective 30 days after the election.