Tag: ohio

Bill On Ohio Governor’s Desk Will Put Hemp Companies Out Of Business, Owners Say

Ohioans in the intoxicating hemp industry fear a bill heading to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s (R) desk will put them out of business.

Ohio Senate Bill 56 is on its way to DeWine after Ohio Senate Republicans passed the bill Tuesday. The Ohio House passed the bill last month after it went to conference committee.

Ohio’s bill complies with recent federal changes by banning intoxicating hemp products from being sold outside of a licensed marijuana dispensary. If DeWine signs the bill into law before the new year, the ban could take effect as soon as March.

“This bill is going to put businesses like me and families like me out of business,” said Ahmad Khalil, one of the owners of Hippie Hut Smoke Shop, with locations in Ohio and Washington.

“Overnight, we’re going to see tens of thousands of people directly impacted, which will ripple effect into 50,000 of families that are also dependent on this person.”

Khalil has been in the hemp industry for nine years.

“This was my American dream, so to see it get taken away from you, kind of hurts,” he said.

Jason Friedman, owner of Ohio CBD Guy in Cincinnati, said this is extremely frustrating.

“My tentative plan will involve eventually closing my East Walnut Hills location resulting in less hours and likely loss of jobs for some of my employees,” he said.

Instead of a ban, Friedman wants regulations for the hemp industry such as age-gating, packaging restrictions, and testing requirements.

“For the state to say that they are changing their stance to banning from regulating because of what the federal government has done in banning intoxicating hemp in the recent spending bill, makes no sense because marijuana has been illegal federally the whole time,” he said.

Mark Fashian, president of hemp product wholesaler Midwest Analytical Solutions in Delaware, Ohio, said this will put him, and hundreds of others out of business, if this becomes law.

He works with more than 500 stores around Ohio that sell intoxicating hemp products.

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Whistleblower Sounds Alarm on Somali Scam in Another State

A whistleblower is sounding the alarm on alleged fraud perpetrated by some in Ohio’s Somali community.

During an appearance on Fox News, attorney Mehek Cooke suggested that there is “massive fraud” in Ohio’s Medicaid home care system tied to a small group of scammers in the Somali community in Columbus. 

Cooke explained, “the problem today is not the community…it’s actually the criminals within the Somalian community that have exploited Ohio’s Medicaid program because we have a system rigth now.”

She pointed out how the perpetrators target elderly people, coaching them to claim they have serious health or memory problems. They collaborate with medical professionals to get them approved for in-home care services — funded by taxpayers. Some doctors are allegedly “getting kickbacks, which means that if they rubber-stamp this, once that individual or that provider starts getting funding throught hes tate of Ohio, they get a kickback.”

Cooke detailed an entire organized operation built around the scheme. The group uses “door knockers” who canvas neighborhoods to recruit seniors and families into the program. Once these individuals are signed up, the perpetrators bill the state for unnecessary services, or services that are never providded at all. This is a practice known as “ghost billing.”

Even further, many of those involved in the scam are not going along with it willingly, according to Cooke. She said those who refuse “have been excommunicated from a lot of these activities and a lot of even patient care.” However, these individuals feel a duty “to expose this” because the scammers are stealing money meant for those who genuinely need it. 

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Ohio Governor Says He’ll Sign Bill To Roll Back Marijuana Legalization And Restrict ‘Juiced-Up Hemp’ Products

Ohio’s Republican governor says he will sign a controversial bill to scale back the state’s voter-approved marijuana law and ban the sale of what he described as “juiced-up hemp” products that fall outside of a recently revised federal definition for the crop unless they’re sold at licensed cannabis dispensaries.

Just days after the legislature gave final approval to the marijuana legislation, Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said on Thursday that he intends to enact it into law.

“To me, it’s a major, major victory, and it’s a long time coming. But it’s a major victory, I think, for kids in the state,” he said, according to The Columbus Dispatch. “There’s going to be some regulation. They won’t be able to have juiced-up hemp gummies. They won’t be able to walk into a gas station and an 11-year-old buy this stuff.”

The governor did not respond to a question about whether the marijuana components of the legislation undermined the will of voters who approved adult-use legalization in 2023.

The bill on DeWine’s desk would recriminalize certain marijuana activity that was legalized under that ballot initiative, and it’d also remove anti-discrimination protections for cannabis consumers that were enacted under that law.

After the House revised the initial Senate-passed legislation, removing certain controversial provisions, the Senate quickly rejected those changes in October. That led to the appointment of a bicameral conference committee to resolve outstanding differences between the chambers. That panel then approved a negotiated form of the bill, which passed the House last month and has since cleared the Senate.

To advocates’ disappointment, the final version of the measure now heading to the governor’s desk would eliminate language in current statute providing anti-discrimination protections for people who lawfully use cannabis. That includes protections meant to prevent adverse actions in the context of child custody rights, the ability to qualify for organ transplants and professional licensing.

It would also recriminalize possessing marijuana from any source that isn’t a state-licensed dispensary in Ohio or from a legal homegrow. As such, people could be charged with a crime for carrying cannabis they bought at a legal retailer in neighboring Michigan.

Additionally, it would ban smoking cannabis at outdoor public locations such as bar patios—and it would allow landlords to prohibit vaping marijuana at rented homes. Violating that latter policy, even if it involves vaping in a person’s own backyard at a rental home, would constitute a misdemeanor offense.

The legislation would also replace what had been a proposed regulatory framework for intoxicating hemp that the House had approved with a broad prohibition on sales outside marijuana dispensaries following a recent federal move to recriminalize such products.

Last month, Sen. Stephen Huffman (R), the primary sponsor, defended the upheaval of the state’s marijuana law, saying voters approved an initiative that amended the state’s revised code, not its Constitution, so they “knew that the General Assembly could come at any time” and “pass a bill to get rid of the entire thing.”

“But we’re not,” he said. “I think overall, for the average person that does recreational or medical marijuana, this bill will make it better… It’s going to be reasonable for most Ohioans.”

Under the bill, hemp items with more than 0.4 mg of total THC per container, or those containing synthetic cannabinoids, could no longer be sold outside of a licensed marijuana dispensary setting. That would align with a newly enacted federal hemp law included in an appropriations package signed by President Donald Trump last month.

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SHOCK: Ohio Democrat Sworn into City Council Seat Hours After Arrest on Sex Abuse Charges Involving Children

Ohio Democrat Gerald Dixon was sworn into office for a second term on the Whitehall City Council on Tuesday, just hours after he was released from custody on his own recognizance following his arrest on child sex abuse charges. Dixon denies the charges.

The 64-year-old Dixon, who said this year he has been a Democrat since 1980, overwhelmingly won a second term to the nonpartisan Whitehall City Council Ward 1 seat in November with nearly 70 percent of the vote. Whitehall is a suburb of Columbus.

WBNS-TV showed dueling video images of Dixon at his bond hearing Tuesday and being sworn in just hours after his release:

Excerpt from the Columbus Dispatch report on Dixon:

A Whitehall City Council member charged with sexually abusing several boys since the 1990s is denying the charges and has taken his oath of office for another term in council chambers.

Gerald Dixon was arrested and charged Dec. 8 by Whitehall police, accused of sexually abusing at least eight boys since 1996. On Dec. 9, a Franklin County Municipal Court judge released Dixon from the Franklin County jail on his own recognizance as he was deemed not a threat to flee.

Hours later, Dixon appeared in Whitehall City Council chambers as scheduled to take his oath of office, having been reelected to another four-year term in the Nov. 4 election to represent the city’s 1st Ward.

Dixon has been charged with felony counts of gross sexual imposition and compelling prostitution. Whitehall police said Dixon’s arrest was part of a larger investigation and that he had been under investigation since 2020, before he was elected to City Council. Whitehall police were assisted by the FBI, police said Dec. 9 during a press conference the day after Dixon’s arrest.

WCMH-TV reported the case could go back decades (excerpt):

Police say they have evidence that a Whitehall city councilman spent years and perhaps decades grooming underage victims, leading to his arrest Monday night on felony charges.

Allegations that Gerald Dixon was grooming boys were brought to police’s attention in late 2020, with an investigation beginning in mid 2023, Chief Mike Crispen said Tuesday morning.

“The evidence is pretty overwhelming. And this started long before he was on council,” Crispen said. “I’m not sure if he was aware that we were looking at him, but certainly we were before he ever became a councilmember.”

At least eight victims have come forward, and police said they often exhibited signs of sexual victimization, both mentally and physically, which halted some to share their full experiences with Dixon. Dixon, 64, who has served since 2021, is facing felony charges of gross sexual imposition and compelling prostitution.

…Dixon is being accused of requesting victims to perform sexually explicit acts and of paying an underage, cognitively impaired individual to perform sexual acts. The investigation into Dixon stretched past Ohio into New York and Michigan, prompting Whitehall police to reach out to the FBI.

Dixon was arrested Monday about 6 p.m. without incident. During a search, electronic devices were found with explicit material and writings as well as drawings of young boys. Detectives described it as a “hoarder house,” Crispen said.

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Ohio Lawmakers Pass Bill To Roll Back Voter-Approved Marijuana Law And Impose Hemp Restrictions, Sending It To Governor

The Ohio Senate has voted to concur with a House-amended bill to scale back the state’s voter-approved marijuana law and ban the sale of hemp products that fall outside of a recently revised federal definition for the crop unless they’re sold at licensed cannabis dispensaries.

The measure from Sen. Stephen Huffman (R) was substantively revised in the House last month, but the originating chamber voted 22-7 on Tuesday to accept those changes and send the legislation to Gov. Mike DeWine’s (R) desk.

The legislation now pending the governor’s signature would recriminalize certain marijuana activity that was legalized under a ballot initiative that passed in 2023  as well as remove anti-discrimination protections for cannabis consumers that were enacted under that law.

After the House revised the initial Senate-passed legislation, removing certain controversial provisions, the Senate quickly rejected those changes in October. That led to the appointment of a bicameral conference committee to resolve outstanding differences between the chambers. That panel then approved a negotiated form of the bill, which passed the House last month and has now cleared the Senate.

To advocates’ disappointment, the final version of the measure now heading to the governor’s desk would eliminate language in current statute providing anti-discrimination protections for people who lawfully use cannabis. That includes protections meant to prevent adverse actions in the context of child custody rights, the ability to qualify for organ transplants and professional licensing.

It would also recriminalize possessing marijuana from any source that isn’t a state-licensed dispensary in Ohio or from a legal homegrow. As such, people could be charged with a crime for carrying cannabis they bought at a legal retailer in neighboring Michigan.

Additionally, it would ban smoking cannabis at outdoor public locations such as bar patios—and it would allow landlords to prohibit vaping marijuana at rented homes. Violating that latter policy, even if it involves vaping in a person’s own backyard at a rental home, would constitute a misdemeanor offense.

The legislation would also replace what had been a proposed regulatory framework for intoxicating hemp that the House had approved with a broad prohibition on sales outside marijuana dispensaries following a recent federal move to recriminalize such products.

“In short, this bill leaves the crux of Issue 2 and marijuana access intact, while providing for several important public safety concerns and also regulations that protect Ohio children,” Huffman argued on the Senate floor ahead of Tuesday’s vote.

Sen. Bill DeMora (D), however, said the legislation undermines the will of voters.

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Ohio Senate Expected To Vote On Bill Recriminalizing Some Marijuana Activity That Voters Legalized

A new law that’s likely to pass at the Statehouse next week would establish a series of minor criminal penalties for people who improperly transport or possess marijuana in Ohio, while rolling back legal protections for users in venues like child custody or professional licensing disputes.

For that reason, NORML, the oldest marijuana advocacy organization in the U.S., is leading a quixotic effort to ask the Ohio Senate to reject Senate Bill 56 before a final vote next week.

With the Senate’s approval, the bill would go to Gov. Mike DeWine (R) for a signature or veto.

The marijuana changes come within a larger package that also imposes a comprehensive, new regulatory system on intoxicating hemp, a product that’s functionally similar to legal marijuana but sold without the age restrictions, taxes or quality controls. DeWine, a Republican who opposed relaxing Ohio’s marijuana laws, has made a public cause of the intoxicating hemp issue for more than a year now.

But perhaps out of a political compromise, marijuana users have found themselves caught in the crosshairs within the hemp crackdown, according to Morgan Fox, NORML’s political director.

“A lot of these things are completely nonsensical,” he said in an interview. “This is recriminalizing a lot of behavior that is relatively innocuous and has been legal for some time.”

House and Senate lawmakers negotiated a final version of the legislation in a conference committee, which means the bill can no longer be changed. The House passed it last month, with a late-night 52-34 vote, where a handful of Republicans joined Democrats in opposition.

Committee members described the final version as a compromise between a list of scrambled voting blocs: Democrats who don’t want new criminal penalties for run-of-the-mill users, libertarian-minded Republicans protective of the right to grow one’s own marijuana, religious conservatives who disapprove expanding the legal use of intoxicants, local governments who want their tax money, a governor seeking a crackdown on the gas station hemp retailers, and both the hemp and marijuana industries seeking market advantage. (All told, 153 lobbyists registered to work on the bill as of August, state records show.)

In 2023, Ohio voters passed Issue 2 by a 57 percent to 43 percent vote, allowing for adults to lawfully use, buy, sell and possess cannabis. Those rights remain broadly intact under the bill.

However, SB 56 imposes legal penalties for things like possessing marijuana in anything but its original container or buying legal marijuana in Michigan where it tends to be much cheaper.

What follows is a closer look at some of those rules.

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Ohio Lawmakers Approve Marijuana Bill That Creates A Process To Expunge Past Convictions

Some of the tens of thousands of Ohioans dogged by dated marijuana possession offenses could clear their names under new legislation passed by the State House on Wednesday.

The bill would allow expungement, a legal process that erases prior convictions from one’s record, which can impair housing and job applications even years later. It only applies for crimes of possessing less than 2.5 ounces of marijuana, which voters legalized in 2023.

The expungement provision passed within larger legislation on a bipartisan 87-8 vote that sets new rules on the sale of recreational marijuana and so-called “intoxicating hemp” marijuana knockoffs.

More than 16,000 possession arrests per year in Ohio

For most of the 21st century, an average of 16,000 Ohioans would be arrested each year (not necessarily convicted), according to FBI data. The numbers began to fall in 2019, when Ohio first allowed for the medicinal use of marijuana, followed by recreational use in 2023.

While President Joe Biden in 2022 issued a blanket pardon for federal marijuana offenses, state level convictions have festered since then. The House-passed bill paves the way to expungement for many of those with convictions lingering on their records.

“If you smoked a joint when you were 18, in 2002, in your 40s, you should not have barriers to housing, or employment, or public services, because you got in trouble when you were 18 for something that is completely legal,” said Rep. Dani Isaacsohn, the ranking House Democrat, in a floor speech Wednesday.

How to apply for expungement under the bill

Expungements didn’t go as far as some Democratic lawmakers and the ACLU wanted. Rep. Desiree Tims, a Dayton Democrat, said in committee the bill should have an automatic expungement mechanism, or at least a system to notify affected people that the new option is available. Plus, the application comes with a $50 fee that some can’t afford, she said.

Rep. Josh Williams, a Toledo Republican and attorney who regularly champions expungement policy, said a recent Ohio Supreme Court decision effectively tied lawmakers hands on the issue and requires them to leave judges some discretion. However, he said SB56 gives defendants every advantage possible while still likely passing court muster.

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Ohio judge could face further consequences over Charlie Kirk comments

Judge Ted Berry, a municipal judge for Hamilton County, is closer to being removed from the bench for social media posts celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk, thanks to a resolution filed by state representatives.

Among his other comments, Berry declared, with a clown emoji, “Rest in Hatred & Division!” He also claimed that Kirk “spewed hate & division.” Another post asked, “How’s he feel about gun violence and gun control in Hell, now?”

State Rep. Adam Mathews, one of the Republicans who introduced the resolution to remove Berry, has shared screenshots of the judge’s remarks from his own Facebook page.

Mathews spoke with The Daily Signal about his resolution, which he initiated with state Rep. D.J. Swearingen, a fellow Republican. “We have given the judge more than a month,” Mathews reminded, having called for Berry to resign Sept. 12. “And now to defend the courts and the trust that the people must have in them with an unbiased judiciary, we are moving forward with the process to remove the judge as outlined by the Ohio constitution.”

The removal process is laid out in Article IV, Section 17 of the state constitution. “Judges may be removed from office, by concurrent resolution of both houses of the general assembly, if two-thirds of the members, elected to each house, concur therein; but, no such removal shall be made, except upon complaint, the substance of which shall be entered on the journal, nor, until the party charged shall have had notice thereof, and an opportunity to be heard,” the section reads.

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Ohio House Passes Bill To Remove Voter-Approved Marijuana Legalization Protections And Restrict Hemp Market

The Ohio House of Representatives has passed a bill that would make significant changes to the state’s voter-approved marijuana legalization law by removing several protections for consumers while also adding a series of new restrictions on hemp products that are intended to align the two sectors of the cannabis industry.

After moving through several House committees this week, with substantive amendments, the full chamber approved the legislation from Sen. Stephen Huffman (R) in a 87-8 vote on Wednesday.

While the measure previously passed the Senate in earlier form it will need to return to that chamber for concurrence, or go to a bicameral conference committee, before potentially heading to the governor’s desk.

Certain controversial provisions of the bill as passed by the Senate were scaled back by the House, but advocates are concerned that it would still make major changes to the marijuana law voters approved in 2023.

Rep. Brian Stewart (R), who has shepherded the legislation through the House, argued ahead of the floor vote that the legislation effectively reaches a “carefully crafted compromise” between lawmakers with differing perspectives on cannabis issues.

“This bill has been very difficult to wrangle, but most of our substantive bills usually are. Rather than being some kind of mushy muddle of weak sauce tie-breakers, this bill does what we all claim that we wanted to come to Columbus to do,” he said. “It tackles the issue head-on. It makes tough decisions. It respects and implements the feedback from residents and advocates across the affected industries. This bill wisely balances between Ohioans’ individual liberties, their safety, the financial wellbeing of our local communities and the need to protect the health and safety of Ohio’s children.”

Rep. Jamie Callender (R), who sponsored marijuana legalization legislation ahead of voters’ approval of the reform at the ballot, said the bill is “not perfect” but argued that lawmakers “have to act” to address intoxicating hemp and other pending issues.

“This is the revised code we’re writing,” he said. “I anticipate there will be numerous other bills on these topics in the near- and long-term future, as there should be… I’ll keep working with everyone to make it better.”

While its supporters have described it as a less heavy-handed approach compared to the original Senate bill, the measure would make substantive changes to the existing legalization law—with several provisions that advocates say directly contradict the will of voters and represent overreach on the part of lawmakers.

For example, the proposal would eliminate language in current statute providing anti-discrimination protections for people who lawfully use cannabis. That includes protections meant to prevent adverse actions in the context of child custody rights, the ability to qualify for organ transplants and professional licensing.

It would also recriminalize possessing marijuana from any source that isn’t a state-licensed dispensary in Ohio or from a legal homegrow. As such, people could be charged with a crime for carrying cannabis they bought at a legal retailer in neighboring Michigan.

Additionally, it would ban smoking cannabis at outdoor public locations such as bar patios—and it would allow landlords to prohibit vaping marijuana at rented homes. Violating that latter policy, even if it involves vaping in a person’s own backyard at a rental home, would constitute a misdemeanor offense.

Karen O’Keefe, director of states policies at the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), said in a letter to House lawmakers on Wednesday that SB 56 as currently drafted “eliminates essential protections from the voter-enacted law and recriminalizes innocuous conduct that voters legalized.”

“Please reject this erosion of freedoms enacted by voters,” she said.

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Ohio Lawmakers Advance Bill To Scale Back Voter-Approved Marijuana Law And Impose Hemp Regulations

Ohio House lawmakers on Tuesday approved an amended Senate-passed bill that would make significant changes to the state’s voter-approved marijuana legalization law while incorporating a series of regulations for hemp that are meant to align the two sectors of the cannabis industry.

Members of the House Judiciary Committee agreed to changes to the measure from Sen. Stephen Huffman (R) before advancing it to other panels and an expected floor vote on Wednesday. But while certain controversial provisions of the bill as passed by the Senate were scaled back, it would still make major changes to the marijuana law voters approved in 2023.

The measure will now go to the Rules Committee before being re-referred to the Finance Committee, after which point it’s expected to receive floor action.

“We’ve had years of testimony. We’ve heard from marijuana advocates, hemp advocates, public health advocates and everyone in between,” Rep. Brian Stewart (R) said. “We are generally going to take the feedback from the hemp industry, which said, ‘Treat us like marijuana,” he said. “They will have the same potency limitations, the same advertising restrictions, the same restrictions on quantities, serving size and how they operate.”

Rep. Jamie Callender (R), who has led the charge on marijuana policy in the House, said ahead of the vote that the revised bill would be “very thoughtful and targeted.” But at the hearing, he added that the legislation is “not perfect” or what he would have drafted.

“It’s a bill that can get passed that will help us implement some of the elements of Issue 2 that have been held up and give clarity to the rulemakers on some of the points that are outstanding,” he said, referring to the voter-approved legalization measure. “It also clarifies and cements a few of the gains that were gained over the years: Sharing, home grow, no new prosecutions [and] the taxes going to the local governments.”

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