Cannabis advocacy group wants a referendum on the ballot

Ohioans for Cannabis Choice are starting to collect signatures to get a referendum on the ballot to block a new law that will change the state's voter-passed recreational marijuana law and ban intoxicating hemp products. But they are up against a March 19 deadline. They need more than 248,000 signatures to get on the Nov. 3 ballot. The group will also need 3% of an individual county's gubernatorial turnout in 44 of Ohio's 88 counties. Despite the looming deadline, Joey Ellwood, a hemp farmer in Tuscarawas County, is confident they will get the needed signatures to get the referendum on the ballot. "We have a ground swell and folks are angry," he said. "(Politicians) hate the fact that people spoke and now they're trying to re-criminalize cannabis and ban products, and we're not going to stand for that." Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost initially rejected the referendum's summary language, but approved it last week after Ohioans for Cannabis Choice made changes to the langauge. "We are on a limited timeline," Ellwood said. "The attorney general took a significant amount of time to go through that, which put us up against it." Ohio Senate Bill 56 — set to take effect March 20 — will reduce the THC levels in adult-use marijuana extracts from a maximum of 90% down to a maximum of 70%, cap THC levels in adult-use flower to 35%, and prohibit smoking in most public places. It prohibits possessing marijuana in anything outside of its original packaging and criminalizes bringing legal marijuana from another state back to Ohio. The legislation also requires drivers to store marijuana in the trunk of their car while driving. Ohioans voted to legalize marijuana in 2023, recreational sales started in August 2024, and sales totaled more than $836 million in 2025. The legislation would also ban intoxicating hemp products. "I have many patients that have maintained their sobriety from drugs and alcohol due to CBD and CBD-combined products," said Dr. Bridget Williams, a board-certified family physician. "I also have a lot of patients that have been able to maintain sobriety by using cannabis related products, CBD, and THC for social interaction." She founded Green Harvest Health, an Ohio medical cannabis clinic. "You have to consider that if we do not allow these opportunities to continue, we will have patients that will no longer have an option for their stress or the sleep issues they might experience," Williams said. Wesley Bryant, owner of 420 Craft Beverage in Cleveland, said he supports regulation, testing, age-gating products, and having a proper licensing framework. His business employs 20 people. "That's 20 families that I employ," he said. "What am I supposed to do on March 19, when I have to look at these 20 families and tell them, you can no longer work here, not because we failed as a business, but because the government failed us." On the federal level, Congress voted in November to ban products that contain 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container when they voted to reopen the government. Previously, the 2018 Farm Bill said hemp can be grown legally if it contains less than 0.3% THC. There is a one-year implementation delay for the federal hemp ban, but states can create their own regulatory framework before then. "I actually do not see a ban coming in November," Bryant said. "What I see is a regulatory framework that's been sorely missed from the jump start of the farm bill, so I think that that is coming." Ohio Cannabis Coalition and Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol — the group behind Issue 2 on the 2023 ballot — oppose the attempted referendum. "I don't want to bash my counterparts," Bryant said when asked about opposition from Ohio's marijuana industry. "That's not what I'm here to do. What I will say is they have a limited license program. It is in their best interest to abolish competition, and with S.B. 56, that's what you have, abolition of competition." The last referendum that passed in Ohio was when voters overturned an anti-collective bargaining law in 2011. Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky and see more state coverage online at the Ohio Capital Journal.