Ohioans hoping to keep their lawmakers in check over legislative changes to voter-approved cannabis legalization laws took a step forward in their ballot campaign on Feb. 3.
State Attorney General Dave Yost certified the resubmitted title and summary language for a citizen-proposed referendum that aims to repeal sections 1, 2 and 3 of Senate Bill 56, which Gov. DeWine signed into law in December.
Once effective, the legislation will make significant changes to the state’s adult-use cannabis laws that voters approved with a 57.2% majority in the 2023 election, from prohibiting public consumption at places like music concerts and bar patios to criminalizing the possession of cannabis purchased out of state, lowering the THC cap on concentrates, capping home grower possession limits, and removing excise tax revenue from funding certain programs – to name a few.
The citizen-proposed referendum would repeal these legislative changes, as well as other provisions of S.B. 56 that deal with the state’s medical cannabis program and intoxicating hemp products. The first three sections cover 120 pages of the 130-page bill.
Yost certified the four-page title and summary language that Ohioans for Cannabis Choice resubmitted for its proposal on Jan. 20, after the attorney general denied certification to the group’s original language, finding it not “fair and truthful” on Jan. 13.
“My certification of the title and summary under Section 3519.01(B) should not be construed as an affirmation of the enforceability and constitutionality of the referendum petition,” Yost wrote in his certification letter on Feb. 3. “My role, as executed here, is limited to determining whether the wording of the title and summary properly advises potential petition signers of a measure’s material components.”
With the certification, Ohioans for Cannabis Choice can now begin collecting the 248,092 valid signatures (6% of votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial race) required to land their proposal on the November 2026 statewide ballot. Ohio is among 23 states in the nation that provide for citizen veto referendums, allowing voters to override legislation enacted by their lawmakers.
Under Ohio’s referendum process, petitioners must file signatures with the secretary of state’s office within 90 days of the governor filing the law they’re seeking to repeal. DeWine filed S.B. 56 on Dec. 20, meaning Ohioans for Cannabis Choice has until March 20 to submit the required signatures.
“We’re going to be hitting the streets, collecting signatures all across Ohio because people are angry and want to sign on the line to vote no on S.B. 56 to stop government overreach, no to closing 6,000 small businesses and killing thousands of jobs, and no to denying consumers the right to purchase products they want,” campaign spokesperson Dennis Willard said, WKYC reported.
When lawmakers passed S.B. 56 in December, Sen. Stephen Huffman, R-Tipp City, who sponsored the legislation, said the bill “clears up a lot of vague language” from what voters passed in 2023, arguing that 36% of the revenue collected from the state’s 10% excise tax on adult-use dispensary sales couldn’t be distributed back to the municipalities that host dispensaries – as intended by voters – without a legislative fix.
However, S.B. 56 strips other voter-approved allocations from that tax revenue, including 36% intended for a social equity and jobs program and 25% for education, substance-abuse and addiction treatment programs. Instead, lawmakers behind the legislation chose to deposit those portions of the excise tax revenue back into Ohio’s general revenue fund.
While many Republican lawmakers in Ohio’s GOP-controlled Legislature lauded S.B. 56 for addressing the state’s unregulated market for intoxicating hemp products, their Democratic counterparts argued that implementing public health and safety guardrails for hemp-derived cannabinoid products could have been done separately.
Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus, called the legislation’s changes to adult-use cannabis laws a “spit in the face” to voters.
“2,226,399 Ohioans voted yes on a measure titled ‘To Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Initiative,’” DeMora said in December. “They know that marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol, that the thousands of Ohioans that were arrested for smoking a joint should never have been arrested. … In those two years, this body has done everything in its power to give Ohio voters the finger.”
Under the hemp-related provisions of S.B. 56, hemp-derived cannabinoid products that exceed 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container (including THCA), or any cannabinoids that aren’t capable of being naturally produced (HHC) or are synthesized/manufactured outside the plant (delta-8 THC), will be prohibited.
Ohio’s approach mirrors a forthcoming federal ban on intoxicating hemp products that was tucked into December’s government funding deal that ended a 40-day shutdown. The federal ban is set to take effect in November, but Ohio’s law is set to take effect in March.
Until S.B. 56 goes into effect, Ohio’s gas stations, vape shops and convenience stores can sell intoxicating hemp products that aren’t age-gated, accurately labeled or tested for harmful contaminants. These products are sometimes packaged in ways that are attractive to children.
Many farmers and businesses operating under the 2018 Farm Bill, which federally legalized the commercial cultivation of hemp, have pleaded for more time to prepare and/or for regulation over prohibition.
Organizers with Ohioans for Cannabis Choice are working on a much tighter deadline.
