House Passes Bill Updating Ohio's Marijuana Laws

Speaker of the Ohio House Matt Huffman (R-Lima) today announced that legislation updating Ohio's marijuana laws and addressing the issue of intoxicating hemp passed with bipartisan support through the Ohio House of Representatives. Senate Bill 56 preserves the legal, adult-use marijuana provisions approved by voters in Issue 2 in 2023, while also adding needed protections for Ohio's children.

"This bill has undergone a robust, thorough and collaborative legislative process, and I believe we have landed on a good faith compromise between interested parties while reinforcing guardrails for the protection of Ohio's children," said Speaker Huffman. "I commend Chairman Stewart, Representative Fischer and Representative Callender for their committed work on this."

"Substitute Senate Bill 56 respects and preserves all the core aspects of the Issue 2 initiated statute that Ohioans passed in 2023," said State Rep. Brian Stewart (R-Ashville). "At the same time, we're focusing on public safety by banning, in statute, the manufacture of products that look like fruits or gummy bears that would be attractive to children. And we're prohibiting advertising that would be targeted to children. We're making it very clear that selling these products to persons under 21 is illegal. I commend the Speaker, Rep. Fischer, and Rep. Callender for their work on this bill."

"After many long months of revisions and negotiations, I voted in support of Substitute Senate Bill 56," said State Rep. Tex Fischer (R-Boardman). "I was proud to have worked on several important provisions in this bill regarding hemp regulation. This legislation is a reasonable compromise that protects kids from illicit intoxicating products but still provides an avenue for existing hemp businesses to remain open under regulatory oversight. The broad bipartisan support for this bill shows that we respected the will of the voters regarding Issue 2 and guaranteed that local communities can finally begin to receive the tax revenue they deserve."

Clarifying Ohio's Marijuana Law

Senate Bill 56 includes various provisions that clarify the law as it relates to adult use of marijuana including:

• Eliminating the cannabis social equity and jobs fund and program.
• Permitting a person who was convicted of - or pled guilty to - a marijuana possession offense involving amounts now legal to possess under the law to have their conviction or guilty plea expunged.
• Combining the marijuana adult use and medicinal use provisions in the same section of the Ohio Revised Code.
• Maintaining the current tax rate of 10% on adult use marijuana.
• Clarifying the adult personal use of marijuana on residential parcels, rather than just inside a residence.
• Maintaining home-grow allowances in current law but prohibits the cultivation of home-grown marijuana in halfway homes and recovery houses.
• Providing the Division of Cannabis Control (DCC) necessary authority to regulate marijuana from cultivation to sale without allowing undue burdens on these Ohio businesses.
• The bill also allocates 36% of revenue from the marijuana excise tax to the Host Community Cannabis Fund, in perpetuity, to be distributed to local communities that are home to dispensaries.

Promoting Public Safety

Senate Bill 56 includes multiple provisions that will protect children and promote public safety, including:

• Prohibiting public smoking and intoxication.
• Prohibiting hemp and marijuana products from using packaging or advertising that is attractive to children, or which mimics other legal products that are consumed by children.
• Requiring ads to be at least 500 feet from schools and churches.
• Limiting the sale of intoxicating hemp products to occur only in licensed dispensaries.
• Expressly clarifying marijuana OVI prohibitions, including passengers smoking in the vehicle, without enhancing criminal penalties.
  Reducing THC potency levels for marijuana to 70% for extracts as other legalization states have done, while maintaining the 35% threshold for plant material.
• Continuing to permit an employer to prohibit use of marijuana and make appropriate employment actions based on an employee's use, possession, or distribution of marijuana.

Intoxicating Hemp
Senate Bill 56 opens the door for a pathway to selling safe, Ohio-grown hemp in limited locations.

• Prohibits the sale of intoxicating hemp products (not including beverages) except through a licensed, regulated hemp dispensary, which will operate in the same general manner as a marijuana dispensary operates currently and be subject to DCC oversight.
• Ensures a hemp dispensary shall not sell tobacco or nicotine products.
• Ensures intoxicating hemp products are subject to appropriate safety testing and product standards, as well as the same potency, advertising, and packaging restrictions that apply to adult-use marijuana.
• Effectively outlaws the current loophole that makes hemp products available to children at smoke shops, gas stations, etc. by ensuring no establishment that permits entry to persons under 21 shall be permitted to sell an intoxicating hemp product.
• Grandfathers in existing hemp dispensaries operating as of August 30, 2025 if they are eligible to receive an operating license and they meet all other criteria for licensure. Future dispensaries shall be subject to the same number/location restrictions that exist today for marijuana dispensaries.
• Clarifies that non-intoxicating, non-edible hemp products remain legal for sale.
• Subjects intoxicating hemp products to a tax rate commensurate to the 10% sales tax on marijuana.
  THC beverages (hemp or marijuana)

Senate Bill 56 aims to clarify the law as it relates to hemp-infused beverages, or drinkable cannabinoid products.

• Allows the manufacture, distribution, and sale of drinkable cannabinoid products (DCPs), including manufacturer-to-retailer direct sales.
• Authorizes the sale of DCPs at grocers, retailers, bars, and restaurants licensed under Ohio's liquor permitting laws.
• Low dose beverages with 5mg of THC or less will be legal for sale in bars and restaurants and can be consumed on premises, like other alcoholic beverages.
• Higher dose beverages with up to 10mg of THC or less will be legal for sale by groceries, gas stations, etc. for off-premises consumption only.
• Higher dose hemp beverages exceeding Ohio's consumption/sale limits will be legal to manufacture in Ohio for sale outside the state only.
• Regulates DCPs in the same manner as current alcoholic beverages through the Division of Liquor Control.
• Imposes a tax on DCPs of $1.20/gallon tax, equivalent to other high alcohol content beers/wines.
• Requires disclosure of important information on the container, including THC amounts, ingredients, and appropriate labels clearly showing the item is a DCP, which may have different effects than an alcoholic beverage.
  Senate Bill 56 now returns to the Ohio Senate for a concurrence vote.

Senate Bill 56 now returns to the Ohio Senate for a concurrence vote.