A group backed by the intoxicating hemp industry can begin trying to force a statewide vote to repeal a new Ohio law cracking down on THC products, after state Attorney General Dave Yost approved its petition paperwork Tuesday.
Ohioans for Cannabis Choice now has until late March to gather nearly 250,000 valid voter signatures — a steep task that typically requires millions of dollars and paid circulators.
Nearly three weeks ago, Yost rejected a previous version of the group’s petition, citing what he said were inaccuracies. In a letter to the group on Tuesday, he deemed the revised petition to be a “fair and truthful” summary of what Senate Bill 56 would do.
The summary is required under state law, as is Yost’s approval, with the reasoning that voters need to understand what they are signing.
Joseph (Joey) Ellwood, a petitioner and hemp farmer in Tuscarawas County, issued a statement in response to Yost’s approval.
“We are ready to hit the streets and begin collecting 250,000 valid signatures because we know voters will say no to SB 56 because it is government overreach. The people spoke in 2023 when they overwhelmingly voted to legalize cannabis, and we are going to allow them to speak once again this November by voting no on SB 56,” Ellwood said.
Approval triggers race to collect nearly 250,000 signatures
Separately, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, on Tuesday verified that the group submitted 1,000 valid voter signatures with its petition, as required by state law.
The approval from Yost and LaRose does not put the measure on the ballot; it simply allows the group to begin collecting the far larger number of signatures required to force a statewide vote in November.
In total, Ohioans for Cannabis Choice must collect 248,092 valid voter signatures before a deadline in late March. That’s equal to 6% of the people who voted in the November 2022 election for governor.
As part of that requirement, the group must also meet a county-level threshold in at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, collecting signatures equal to 6% of the vote cast in each county in that same election.
Gathering those signatures is a tall task, especially in the winter months, and typically requires a repeal campaign to spend millions hiring paid petition circulators. The last attempt by a citizens’ group to repeal a state law failed. In that case, a group trying to repeal new restrictions on colleges and universities collected only 200,000 signatures after weeks of trying.
And the campaign to repeal SB 56 is starting from behind — it lost about three weeks after Yost rejected its first petition.
If the group trying to repeal the THC law does manage to collect the signatures, they must be reviewed by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and local county boards of election to ensure the information voters provide on the petition matches what’s in the voter file. It’s not uncommon for many signatures to be rejected, which is why campaigns often submit as much as twice as many signatures as needed.
If the repeal campaign clears that final review, SB 56 would be put on hold until November, when voters would decide the law’s fate.
If the repeal campaign fails, SB 56 will go into effect in late March.
More about Senate Bill 56
Republicans passed Senate Bill 56 mostly along party lines. The new law requires “intoxicating hemp” products to be sold in state dispensaries, like recreational marijuana. The bill marks the first time the industry, which emerged under a loophole in a 2018 federal law that legalized industrial hemp production, has faced state regulation.
In addition, it creates new criminal penalties around the possession of legally-purchased marijuana.
It also creates a path to expungement for low-level state marijuana convictions and releases to cities $96.5 million in tax revenue generated from Ohio’s first years of recreational sales. State officials have previously said they lacked legal ability to distribute those funds.
Before signing the bill, Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed a section that would have created an exemption for THC beverages to be sold in bars and restaurants until the end of next year, when a federal intoxicating hemp ban takes effect.