Ohio’s Republican Gov. is pressing to reallocate the revenue raised from marijuana taxes for police training, jails in local communities and behavioral health care services.
The interview aired Sunday on Spectrum News 1. Mike DeWine was asked to explain what changes he wanted to see made to the law that legalized cannabis. He said that funding for police training would be a priority even if it wasn’t part of the law voters approved in 2023.
First of all, respect for the voters. The voters in Ohio voted by a large majority to legalize marijuana. He warned parents of the “higher” THC levels in current products.
According to him, frequent cannabis usage “decreases your IQ from three to seven levels.”
As far as changing the law, as the legislature has continued to debate since the ballot initiative passed, DeWine said he’s working with lawmakers “to come up with actually how the money would be spent that comes in from the tax that is on the marijuana—and one of the things that I would like to see is for some of that money to go to police training.”
“Every time we see some tragedy that occurs in regard to confrontation between the police and a citizen, the issues are raised, ‘Did the police officer do what they should have done?'” He stated. He said. The police are making split-second choices, so training is the only way to provide them with the necessary resources.
He spoke about the creation of “scenario based training centers” around Ohio, where officers would practice different scenarios in order to learn how to respond when faced with real law enforcement situations.
Dan Tierney told ABC 5 in a separate interview that DeWine “believes funds generated from drug recreational use should help local government combat the negative effects of drug use.”
Tierney stated that the Governor’s plan uses this money to improve local jails and provide training for law enforcement. The state will fund these priorities to free up funds that were previously paid by local governments.
According to the voter-approved tax, 10 percent of revenue generated by adult-use cannabis is divided between social equity, job programs, municipalities that permit adult-use marijuana operations in their region, educational and drug misuse programs as well administrative costs.
In the meantime, according to a survey conducted by the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law (OSU), local governments are “unanimously against” proposed legislative changes in marijuana tax allocations that were approved by the voters.
Steve Huffman, a Republican senator who helped pass a bill last month to make certain changes to the cannabis laws in the state, is one of those lawmakers leading the charge to change the law.
On Friday, an activist asked Huffman about his thoughts on amending the laws that the voters had passed. He specifically wanted to know what he thought of the proposal to remove certain provisions on social equality and to broadly ban public consumption.
Steven Puffman was a close friend of mine. The GOP continues to introduce these lame measures to kill and gut the cannabis industry, while criminalizing black, brown and poor communities. Ohioans need to wake up and realize that these politicians are criminals pic.twitter.com/fezJEkH1bK
— Gerald Moore Jr. 🇺🇸🇨🇩 (@geraldmoore_jr) March 21, 2025
Gerald Moore Jr. reminded the senator that since most people do not have their own home, the restrictions being promoted would lead to a lot of problems.
“I think the big thing about it is I don’t want to—people don’t want to sit next to their kid with somebody smoking,” Huffman said.
When asked how often he believed this occurs, Senator McConnell replied “it happens about every day.”
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Meanwhile, Rep. Brian Stewart (R), chair of the House Finance Committee, also recently filed a rival bill to the Senate-passed legislation that contains less sweeping changes to the marijuana law—for example, maintaining the current allowable amount of cannabis plans that can be grown at home by adults.
A group of civil rights and drug reform advocates held an event in early February to call attention to the proposed bills. The groups characterized the legislation as an attempt by the lawmakers to undermine the will expressed by voters.
Also, it’s expected that the state budget could be used as a tool to amend cannabis laws. The Senate’s bill introduced a higher tax on cannabis, which was later dropped, however, in the budget proposed by the governor, there is an even greater tax.
Earlier this month, Ohio’s Senate president pushed back against criticism of the Senate bill, claiming that the legislation does not disrespect the will of the electorate and would have little impact on products available in stores.
Separately in the legislature this month, Huffman and Sen. Shane Wilkin (R) introduced legislation that would impose a 15 percent tax on intoxicating hemp products and limit their sales to adult-use dispensaries—not convenience stores, smoke shops or gas stations
DeWine asked repeatedly for lawmakers to restrict or prohibit intoxicating products containing delta-8 THC, including hemp.
The number of federal Marijuana trafficking charges continues to decrease as the state level legalization increases, a new report by the government shows
Side Pocket Images. Image courtesy Chris Wallis.
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