Senate bill would also redirect most of the revenue from legalized weed into funding Republican law enforcement priorities, instead of the community programs and addiction treatment services authorized by voters.
The Stanford marshmallow test stands as perhaps one of the most famous psychological experiments of the last 50 years: Put one marshmallow in front of a child and tell them that if they wait 15 minutes before eating it, they’ll get more marshmallows; but if they eat that one marshmallow before time is up, no more will be coming. It’s an exercise in delayed gratification.
On the issue of legal recreational marijuana, state Senate Republicans and Gov. Mike DeWine are essentially conducting a marshmallow test of their own on Ohioans: Have access to marijuana now by letting lawmakers overhaul the legal weed law voters passed in November with 57% support, or simply wait patiently for the law as it was passed to take effect in the summer and fall.
Even though marijuana is legal now, Ohio law has no system set up yet for people to legally buy it.
The Ohio Senate has passed a proposal to overhaul the law as passed by voters. Their version would allow medical dispensaries to sell recreationally immediately, but it would limit home grow, reduce THC levels, and ban the vast majority of vapes.
In an attempt to get the Ohio House to move this overhaul forward, Senate Republicans attached it to an unrelated House bill that would revise the state’s liquor control laws, but so far the House is not budging.
Under the Senate version, the Ohio marijuana tax rate would go up to 15% — an increase from Issue 2’s 10% tax at the point of sale for each transaction. A higher tax rate means a higher price for consumers. The proposed Senate bill would also allow for local governments and local counties to levy an additional tax on top of the marijuana excise tax of 3%, and would limit home grow to six plants per household as opposed to the 12 per household that would be allowed under the law passed by voters.
Significantly, the Senate bill would also redirect most of the revenue from legalized weed into funding Republican law enforcement priorities, instead of the community programs and addiction treatment services authorized by voters under the law passed in November.
This is how the revenue funds would be distributed under the Senate version:
- 28% to the county jail construction fund.
- 19% to the Department of Public Safety law enforcement training fund, or 16% if the marijuana expungement fund has ceased to exist.
- 14% to the Attorney General law enforcement training fund.
- 11% to the substance abuse, treatment, and prevention fund, or 9% if the marijuana expungement fund has ceased to exist.
- 9% to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline fund.
- 5% to the marijuana receipts drug law enforcement fund.
- 5% to the marijuana expungement fund.
- 5% to the safe driver training fund.
- 4% to the Ohio Investigative Unit Operations fund.
- 3% to the Division of Marijuana Control Operations fund.
- 2% to the marijuana poison control fund.
Over in the Ohio House, Republican state Rep. Jamie Callender has introduced a bill making minor clarifications to the law as passed by voters, and keeping intact the revenue distribution passed by voters:
- 36% to the host community cannabis fund.
- 36% to the cannabis social equity and jobs fund.
- 12.5% of the substance abuse and addiction fund would go into Ohio’s 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline fund to administer the 988 system.
- 10% of the substance abuse and addiction fund would provide mental health and addiction services in county jails.
- 3% to the operations of the Division of Marijuana Control and Department of Taxation.
- 2.5% to the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to develop the state’s mental health workforce.
DeWine, meanwhile, has said that although he opposed Issue 2 in November, he wants to get Ohioans access to buy legal weed as soon as possible as a way to combat the black market. He has also called for additions to the law around advertising, and certain restrictions to protect children, as well as addressing the currently unregulated Delta-8 that can be purchased by minors.
Callendar has said the Ohio Senate version is unacceptable. And the Ohio Senate certainly isn’t taking up Callendar’s proposal protecting the law as passed by voters. Callendar doesn’t seem to mind, though, knowing that in this instance, inaction is a friend: “We are continuing to do nothing,” he said. “Let the will of the people go into effect.”
In other words, Callendar and the Ohio House are passing the marshmallow test while Ohio Senate Republicans are doing everything they can to overturn the will of voters and convince us it’s somehow best to eat our single marshmallow now and be grateful.
I’ve always been fond of a particular line from the French sculptor Auguste Rodin: “Patience is also a form of action.” That’s worth keeping in mind, now and always.
This article was republished under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 with permission from the Ohio Capital Journal. You can read the original version here.
