Marijuana Moment: Republican Ohio Lawmaker Announces Marijuana Legalization Bill, Reflecting Recent Bipartisan Shift On Issue

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For years, Democratic lawmakers have mostly led the charge in pushing for marijuana legalization—but that seems to be changing of late. The latest example is an Ohio Republican lawmaker who is announcing a new bill to legalize cannabis on Tuesday, a move that comes as activists are collecting signatures to put a cannabis initiative on the state’s ballot next year.

While polling has shown that marijuana reform is increasingly a bipartisan issue, that attitude hasn’t been largely reflected in state legislatures across the U.S., or in Congress. But this month alone, new legalization legislation is being championed by GOP lawmakers in Pennsylvania and now Ohio.

There have also been a handful of Republican-led pushes to enact cannabis policy changes earlier in 2021 sessions, everywhere from New Hampshire to Missouri, with GOP members either sponsoring their own legislation or joining Democrats on bipartisan reform bills.

On Tuesday, Ohio Rep. Jamie Callender (R) will hold a press conference to unveil his new proposal, which would allow adults 21 and older to purchase and possess marijuana, according to a news advisory distributed by his office. It would provide regulations for the licensing of cannabis growers, distributors and retailers.

Another bill proposed to legalize marijuana in Ohio – this one from Republican @JamieCallender. There’s already a bill to legalize from Democrats @tupchurch216 and @RepWeinstein: https://t.co/xVcKZerBwt pic.twitter.com/Fw8AiUanBK

— Karen Kasler (@karenkasler) October 11, 2021

“As a society, we’ve reached a point where it’s not the taboo thing it used to be,” Callender told The Cincinnati Enquirer.

Limited home cultivation would be allowed, the outlet reported, and half of revenue resulting from marijuana sales taxes under the bill would go to the state’s general revenue fund with the remainder being divided between law enforcement and mental health and addiction treatment efforts.

Callender said “three or four” fellow Republican lawmakers currently support his proposal. But legislative leaders and Gov. Mike DeWine (R) remain opposed to adult-use legalization, representing key barriers to its advancement.

In any case, advocates are encouraged to see GOP legislators finally embrace marijuana legalization, as building bipartisan buy-in could be key to getting a policy change enacted in historically conservative states where reform has stalled.

Pennsylvania is a good example of that. A Republican state senator and former federal law enforcement agent announced last week that he will be filing a bill to legalize marijuana in the state—and he’s asking his colleagues to join him in the effort. He’s the second GOP senator in the state to announce support for legalizing cannabis this year.

Separately, a GOP member of the Pennsylvania House filed a bill last week that’s meant to promote research into the therapeutic potential of psilocybin mushrooms for mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder

In both Ohio and Pennsylvania, marijuana reform has been a hard sell in Republican-controlled legislatures. But both Republicans and Democrats in those and other states seem to be recognizing not just the bipartisan popularity of legalization among their constituents but the economic potential a regulated cannabis market could represent.

In July, Democratic lawmakers in Ohio formally introduced a bill to legalize marijuana possession, production and sales—the first effort of its kind in the state legislature.

Activists have also recently been cleared to begin signature gathering for a 2022 ballot initiative to legalize cannabis. If supporters collect 132,887 valid signatures from registered voters, the legislature will then have four months to adopt the measure, reject it or adopt and amended version. If lawmakers do not pass the proposal, organizers will then need to collect an additional 132,887 signatures to place the proposal before voters on the ballot during next year’s midterm election.

Voters in more than a dozen Ohio municipalities will separately decide on ballot measures to decriminalize marijuana next month. At least one city police department seems less than enthused about the reform, posting and then deleting a press release that warned of a societal “downhill tumble” that could result from the modest reform.

Again, what makes these latest legislative pushes in Ohio, Pennsylvania and elsewhere notable is the fact that they show a narrowing of the marijuana policy divide between Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

Medical cannabis legalization is at this point fairly uncontroversial in state legislatures, but GOP members have frequently expressed opposition to going further than providing patients access with the plant by legalizing it for recreational use.

Whether the growing bipartisan sentiment around the issue will reach Congress this session is yet to be seen. Democrats are leading bills to end federal cannabis prohibition in both chambers, and they will need to garner at least some Republican voters to get either of the bills to President Joe Biden’s desk.

Biden, however, remains opposed to adult-use legalization while state GOP lawmakers are increasingly pursuing the reform. But he has voiced support for letting states set their own marijuana policies.

A slim majority of Republicans said in a 2020 poll that they back an earlier version of a legalization bill that passed the House.

This story will be updated with details about the new Ohio marijuana legalization bill when they are available.

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