DeMora Condemns Marijuana Changes That Subvert Will of the People

Today, state Senator Bill DeMora (D-Columbus) released the following statement after the passage of Senate Bill 56, which overhauls the adult-use recreational marijuana laws that the majority of Ohioans voted to approve in 2023.

“Marijuana is now dead in Ohio. My Democratic colleagues and I tried to make this a bipartisan piece of legislation that would maintain the will of the voters, but clearly the majority party is not interested,” said DeMora. “With the passage of Senate Bill 56, all Ohioans have to look forward to is higher prices, lower quality, and their tax money being funneled towards tax cuts for the wealthy and private school vouchers.”

Senate Democrats offered several amendments that would have ensured the bill respected the will of the voters who overwhelmingly approved Issue 2. Some of those amendments would have:

• Eliminated financial barriers to expungement
• Aligned public smoking rules for marijuana with public smoking rules for cigarettes
• Increased the limit on home grow plants
• Restored the THC content and milligram serving/packaging limits to current law
• Restored the dispensary license distribution to current law

Senate Bill 56 now heads to the Ohio House of Representatives for consideration.