Tag: republicans

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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Governor candidate James Fishback faces allegations over relationship, began when partner was a minor

Republican gubernatorial candidate James Fishback is facing allegations from a former partner regarding a relationship that began when she was a minor, according to documents filed in a 2025 Leon County court case. The woman, now an adult, made the claims while recounting events that took place years earlier.

The allegations were outlined in a Petition for Injunction for Protection Against Stalking filed by Keniah Fort in January 2025. Fort stated that she joined Fishback’s organization in 2021 at age 16, while Fishback was 26, and that he initiated a romantic relationship with her while she was still a minor. She said he explicitly instructed her to keep the relationship secret, a tactic some experts might describe as grooming.

Documents show Fort alleged her relationship with Fishback escalated over time. In Spring of 2023, she said she and Fishback began to live together, during which she was financially dependent on him due to irregular pay from her work in his organization.

The petition describes repeated conflicts and aggressive behavior, including Fishback throwing objects, screaming, and on one occasion grabbing Fort’s arm, leaving visible marks. Fort alleged Fishback tried to gaslight her and threatened self-harm to manipulate her.

By March of 2024, the couple became engaged, but the engagement ended in September of that year. Fort said that after the breakup, Fishback’s behavior worsened. She made claims of cyberbullying and stalking, including threatening to turn off utilities in their shared home and posting about the breakup on social media,

The petition also included references to text messages and other communications, alleging that Fishback sent hundreds of messages over several days, repeatedly contacting her after she asked him not to, and contacted her family. According to documents, Fishback acknowledged in some messages that he had been “tough” on her but denied threatening her.

The court ultimately denied Fort’s petition for protection in June 2025, noting that Fishback may have been “a little obsessive-compulsive” but did not initiate contact “directly or indirectly with no legitimate purpose.”

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Congress Pushes for Nationwide Internet Age Verification Plan.

Republican lawmakers are proposing a new way to enforce accountability on tech companies to comply with age verification laws, despite resistance from websites like Pornhub. The App Store Accountability Act (ASA), introduced by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Representative John James (R-MI), proposes a different model: requiring app stores themselves to verify users’ ages and pass that information to apps when they are downloaded.

The bill is part of a broader push in Congress to tighten safeguards for minors online and has earned support from major tech companies, including Facebook parent company Meta, Pinterest, and Snap. Pinterest CEO Bill Ready argues that one standard would simplify the process and reduce the confusion created by a patchwork of state requirements. “The need for a federal standard is urgent,” he said.

“I think most people at most of these companies probably do want to protect kids,” Sen. Lee said, adding that support from tech companies like Pinterest “makes a big difference.”

However, the proposal faces resistance from civil liberties groups and digital rights advocates. Critics warn that compulsory age verification could limit access to lawful online content, raising First Amendment concerns. They also cite significant privacy risks, arguing that systems requiring users to submit sensitive personal information could expose them to data breaches or misuse.

Some major websites have rejected attempts to enforce online age verification. Pornhub has withdrawn its services from states that require government-issued ID or similar credentials for access to adult material. The company argued that these laws push users toward unregulated platforms while forcing supposedly legitimate sites to collect data they would prefer not to hold.

In 2025, the Supreme Court upheld a state age-verification law for explicit content in Texas, with the majority concluding that states may require age checks to prevent minors from viewing harmful material.

Supporters of federal action contend that the ASA would avoid the growing compliance difficulties posed by differing state regulations. Sen. Lee has stated, “I don’t believe that there’s anything unlawful, unconstitutional, or otherwise problematic about this legislation,” arguing that an app-store-centered approach would reduce repeated verification across multiple platforms.

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Feds Launch New Marijuana-Focused Ad Campaign To ‘Challenge The Dangerous Belief’ That People Drive Better While High

The Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Ad Council are rolling out a new campaign to “challenge the dangerous belief that it’s safe to drive after consuming marijuana,” with a disturbing ad that they say depicts a real-life story of a child killed by a driver who was under the influence of cannabis.

In an announcement on Tuesday, the Ad Council promoted the “Tell That to Them” initiative, which includes a 60-second ad showing a person claiming they “focus” better when driving while high and then causing a fatal car accident.

“I actually drive better when I’m high,” the man says. “If anything, I’m more careful, more chill, more relaxed.”

He is then shown driving head-on into an incoming car.

DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) partnered with the Ad Council for the campaign.

“Too many young men think marijuana doesn’t affect their driving ability or even makes them safer drivers,” NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison said in a press release. “That couldn’t be further from the truth.”

“Marijuana slows down a driver’s reaction time and impairs their coordination and judgement,” he said. “This new PSA reminds motorists that driving high puts us all at risk and can have deadly consequences.”

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Federal Judges Allow North Carolina to Use New GOP-Drawn Congressional Map

Federal judges in North Carolina allowed the state to use the newly drawn congressional map, which gives Republicans one extra seat in the House.

Two lawsuits were filed to block the North Carolina legislature from enacting the newly drawn map.

A three-judge panel of the US District Court of the Middle District of North Carolina denied requests for a preliminary injunction.

NBC News reported:

A federal court in North Carolina is allowing the state to use a new Republican-drawn congressional map that would help the GOP pick up another seat in the House during next year’s midterm elections.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina unanimously denied preliminary injunction requests brought by a pair of lawsuits that said in part that the new map was aimed at diluting the voting strength of Black voters, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The judges found that the challengers “presented no direct evidence” that the North Carola Legislature enacted the map for racially discriminatory purposes.

“Instead, the direct evidence shows that the 2025 redistricting was motivated by partisan purposes,” the panel wrote Wednesday in a 57-page opinion.

Wednesday’s ruling comes after the Republican-controlled North Carolina Legislature last month approved a map aimed at expanding the number of Republican seats in the House. North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, does not have the power to veto the map.

The challengers, in a pair of consolidated lawsuits, asked the court to block the state from using the new borders of two congressional districts for next year’s midterms.

Texas is also battling its newly redrawn congressional map in court and has asked the Supreme Court to halt the lower court’s ruling that blocked the new redraw.

Last Friday, Justice Alito paused the lower court’s ruling and temporarily restored Texas’s new congressional map.

In response to Texas’s redraw, California eliminated 5 House GOP seats.

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against California and argued that its new congressional map is a result of unconstitutional race-based gerrymandering.

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Rep. Maria Salazar Says US Needs To Invade Venezuela So US Oil Companies Can Have a ‘Field Day’

Amid the US push toward a war to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL) has made the argument that the US must “go in” to Venezuela so American oil companies can have a “field day” since the country sits on the largest proven oil reserves in the world.

“Venezuela, for those Americans who do not understand why we need to go in … Venezuela, for the American oil companies, will be a field day, because it will be more than a trillion dollars in economic activity,” Salazar, a Miami-born daughter of Cuban exiles, told Fox Business.

Salazar also said that the US must go to war with Venezuela because it has become the “launching pad” for people who “hate” the US, claiming Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas are active in the country. In one of the more absurd claims she made in the interview, Salazar said Maduro was “giving uranium to Hamas, and to Iran, and to North Korea, and Nicaragua.”

Salazar’s third reason for going to war with Venezuela is the claim that Maduro is the leader of the so-called Cartel of the Suns, or Cartel de los Soles, a group that doesn’t actually exist. The term was first used in the early 1990s to describe Venezuelan generals with sun insignias on their uniforms who were involved in cocaine trafficking and were actually working with the CIA at the time.

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GOP-Controlled Senate Committee Warns DC That Marijuana Is Federally Illegal, With ‘Enhanced Penalties’ For Sales Near Schools

GOP members of a powerful Senate committee are issuing a reminder that marijuana remains illegal under federal law and that the sale of cannabis near public schools and playgrounds can carry “enhanced penalties”—an issue they are specifically highlighting in relation to the location of dispensaries in Washington, D.C.

The Republican majority in the Senate Appropriations Committee released the text of a Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) spending bill and an attached report on Tuesday. As expected, the legislation itself retains a rider long championed by Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) barring D.C. from using its tax dollars to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana sales, despite voters approving a ballot initiative to allow possession and home cultivation more than a decade ago.

In the report, a section on funding for “emergency planning and security costs” associated with the federal government’s presence in the District includes additional language related to cannabis enforcement and zoning issues.

Here’s the text of that section:

“Marijuana Dispensary Proximity to Schools—The Committee reminds the District that the distribution, manufacturing, and sale of marijuana remains illegal under Federal law, which includes enhanced penalties for such distribution within one thousand feet of a public or private elementary, vocational, or secondary school or public or private college, junior college, or university, or a playground, among other real property where children frequent.”

The report language is being released months after anti-marijuana organizations formally narced on several locally licensed cannabis businesses in D.C.—sending a letter to President Donald Trump, the U.S. attorney general and a federal prosecutor that identifies dispensaries they allege are too close to schools despite approval from District officials.

The groups said that while they were “pleased” to see former interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin “take initial steps against one of the worst offenders” by threatening a locally licensed medical marijuana dispensary with criminal prosecution back in March, “we have not seen any public progress since then.”

Martin, for his part, has since been tapped by Trump to serve as U.S. pardon attorney.

Meanwhile, the underlying FSGG spending bill put forward by the committee’s GOP majority would continue to prohibit D.C. from creating a regulated, commercial cannabis market.

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Amid fraud claims, campaign to end Mass. adult-use cannabis claims win

The controversial bid to end Massachusetts’ $1.6 billion annual adult-use marijuana industry claimed yet another significant early victory.

Amid widening accusations of voter fraud, the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts “is confident it has submitted enough signatures to put the question on the ballot” ahead of a Nov. 19 deadline, a campaign spokesperson told The Cannabis Business Times.

Ballot questions filed over the summer by lead sponsor Caroline Cunningham, a member of the state Republican Committee, seek to repeal Chapters 94G and 64N of the state’s General Laws.

If the “Act to Restore a Sensible Marijuana Policy” qualifies for the 2026 ballot and is approved by voters, adult-use cannabis retail sales would be outlawed in Massachusetts- though medical marijuana sales, home cultivation, and “gifting” between adults 21 and over would still be allowed.

Will Massachusetts vote to stop adult-use cannabis sales?

The campaign successfully collected a minimum of 74,574 signatures by Nov. 19 in order to qualify for a local vetting process ahead of another filing deadline Dec. 3, campaign spokesperson Wendy Wakeman told the Business Times.

Organizers have vowed to collect as many as 100,000 signatures.

And that’s despite mounting claims that signature-gatherers are using deceptive tactics to convince voters to sign the petition.

As MJBizDaily reported earlier this month, there are several accounts of campaign workers approaching voters while claiming the petition does something else, such as combat fentanyl or create housing.

Wakeman claimed in an MJBizDaily interview to have no knowledge or involvement with the alleged deceptive tactics. Campaign workers engaging in such behavior are volunteers and not paid signature gatherers, she said.

Cannabis industry advocates aren’t convinced.

Bid to stop Massachusetts adult-use marijuana sales accused of fraud

Such acts constitute voter fraud, according to the Massachusetts Cannabis Business Association, a statewide trade group.

It remains unclear what recourse cannabis advocates could pursue if the repeal campaign does indeed advance.

Using false claims to woo voters to sign is a protected free-speech activity under Massachusetts state law.

However, voters could petition local authorities to have their signatures removed and the petition disqualified if they feel they signed under false pretenses, elections observers have said.

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Top MAGA Influencers Accidentally Unmasked as Foreign Trolls

Elon Musk’s social media site X has rolled out a new feature in an effort to increase transparency—and unwittingly revealed that many of the site’s top MAGA influencers are actually foreign actors.

The new “About This Account” feature, which became available to X users on Friday, allows others to see where an account is based, when they joined the platform, how often they have changed their username, and how they downloaded the X app.

Upon rollout, rival factions began to inspect just where their online adversaries were really based on the combative social platform—with dozens of major MAGA and right-wing influencer accounts revealed to be based overseas.

“This is easily one of the greatest days on this platform,” wrote Democratic influencer Harry Sisson.

“Seeing all of these MAGA accounts get exposed as foreign actors trying to destroy the United States is a complete vindication of Democrats, like myself and many on here, who have been warning about this”.

Dozens of major accounts masquerading as “America First” or “MAGA” proponents have been identified as originating in places such as Russia, India, and Nigeria.

In one example, the account MAGANationX—with nearly 400,000 followers and a bio reading “Patriot Voice for We The People”—is actually based in Eastern Europe.

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