A new Ohio recreational marijuana amendment plan has been proposed for legalizing recreational marijuana for adults. This amendment permits adults to have six plants per household.
This includes a maximum of three flowering marijuana plants. The main theme of the amendment is to regulate marijuana like alcohol.
Ohio’s medical cannabis law was passed in the year 2016. However, the sales commenced three years later in 2019.
The first year of sales was impacted severely because of the sale of the product in neighboring states. About 30 percent of the patients registered in the dispensary program haven’t purchased anything.
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A northeast Ohio attorney, Tom Haren shared his insights on what has gone wrong with the program. He said that there were several catalysts in the program that led to new measures.
He also added that it is hard to participate in the medical marijuana program of Ohio. Haren has represented several medical cannabis licensees. He said that the state promised a program that would surely work.
“The current amendment dictates certain restrictions over home cultivation. The first thing is that cultivation cannot be done publicly or openly. Also, nothing harvested from a homegrown plant can be put up on sale. These restrictions are quite common in states where recreational cannabis has already legalized.”
The proposed amendment covers marijuana businesses operating under the medical cannabis program license. The coalition that is supporting this amendment believes that homegrown provisions are imperative.
Tom Haren who is representing the case thinks, “We think its vital component in meaningful access. That’s really the driving force: Making sure people have the access they should have had four years ago.”
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Home cultivation of cannabis is not a threat to license holders who are backing this amendment. As per Haren, they don’t consider home cultivators as a competition.
However, the associate director of the Ohio Medical Cannabis Cultivators Association, Thomas Rosenberger doesn’t share the same views as Haren. He says that other licensed marijuana businesses not a part of the recreational proposal may disagree about home cultivation.
On the other hand, he further added that he doesn’t believe that people would spend millions on opposing the amendment.
The amendment will have to face many obstacles before it can collect enough signatures for the November ballot. The government relations director, Marijuana Policy Project, Chris Lindsey believes that many states with recreational or medical programs offer permission to people to grow their own cannabis.
Recreational marijuana was legalized in Michigan in December 2018. It permitted 12 marijuana plants per household. Illinois too started a similar program. But it set restrictions of homegrown plants to 5 for medical patients.
Colorado permitted growing up to 99 marijuana plants at home previously. However, this grant resulted in a serious challenge as it was difficult to gain control over illicit operations.
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The permission was later scrapped entirely. The amendment currently faces several hurdles. Only time will tell what form this marijuana amendment bill would take in the future.
