Ohio Republican squabbling keeps marijuana off shelves months after legalization

House Speaker Jason Stephens (L) and Senate President Matt Huffman (R). (Photos by Graham Stokes for the Ohio Capital Journal. Only republish with original article. Graphic by Morgan Trau.)

Five months after Ohio voters legalized the use of recreational marijuana, the product remains unobtainable — and Republican infighting is the likely culprit.

Issue 2 passed 57-43% in November and went into effect a month later. It allows for adults 21 years of age and older to smoke, vape and ingest weed. Individual Ohioans would also be able to grow up to six plants, but up to 12 per household. Click here to learn more about what the law entails.

While you won’t get in trouble for getting high, you’ll have a big problem trying to buy it legally.

Right now, there are no authorized sellers. The Division of Cannabis Control isn’t set to start processing retailer applications until June, which means users likely won’t be able to legally buy marijuana until late summer or early fall. To learn how to access marijuana, click here .

The state Senate passed a proposal in December to allow medical dispensaries to sell recreationally immediately. However, it would limit home grow, reduce THC levels and ban the vast majority of vapes — among dozens of other restrictions and changes to what the voters chose. Gov. Mike DeWine has urged its passage by the House.

The House is refusing to touch it, saying the other chamber is going against the “will of the people.”

In an update to reporters Tuesday, House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) explained there is no agreement on policy within the GOP.

“Getting a consensus on what that action will be in the House is probably not going to happen,” Stephens said. “I think there’s been a lot of discussion and talk within the House — within the Republican caucus, frankly — and getting those to where we have a consensus of saying ‘this is what needs to be different than what the people passed.'”

He is hoping the cannabis division gets their draft rules done, “sooner the better.”

He is mainly focused on tax revenue discussions, such as if it is more locally or state-focused. However, he and his team have supported getting marijuana on the shelves now — but say the Senate’s version isn’t fair to Ohioans.

“Representatives understand that the people of Ohio voted and this is how we’re going to implement it,” he said. “There will always be some sort of tweaking with the rules around recreational marijuana.”

Stephens’ “follow the people” approach is starkly contrasted with rival Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima), whose approach aligns closer with “we can fix it.”

“We kind of hustled around, as you know, the first 30 days of December and put out what we thought was a product that addressed some of the immediate issues,” Huffman told reporters in late March.

When it comes to social policy, Democrats are typically aligned — but each chamber is supporting their respective Republicans.

House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) told reporters Tuesday that policy is moving forward — just through the rulemaking process.

“I think that the window of reforming what the voters passed in Issue 2, or making changes, rather, to what was passed in Issue 2, is closing,” Russo said. “But it will move forward one way or the other regardless of if this legislature acts or not.”

Huffman doesn’t believe anything will move legislatively at this time, making sure to note that he hasn’t spoken to the speaker — but has spoken to other members of House leadership.

Foes

As the days go on, the 64-year-old Huffman and 53-year-old Stephens have been bickering about nearly everything since the fall: marijuana, the budget, education — but most importantly, speakership.

Huffman finally announced a long-expected move — his interest in running to unseat Stephens in January 2025. He suggested to Statehouse reporter Morgan Trau in March that Stephens is not doing a good enough job and said that Democrats have reached out to him about a possible speaker run.

Huffman is at the end of his Senate term, having spent eight years as a senator with four as president. He is running unopposed for a House seat — and eyeing the speakership role that becomes available every two years.

Huffman and Stephens have been making polite jabs at each other during press gaggles, but Huffman was more forward while talking to reporters, showing a clear shift in rhetoric from the typical passive aggression.

“I think that it’s very, very difficult to lead and legislate when he was elected in the manner that he was,” Huffman said. “I think if you’re going to get elected that way, then it’s difficult to say ‘I’m also the leader of the Republican caucus.’”

This drama stems from January 2023 and how Stephens came to power. The Republican caucus had previously chosen state Rep. Derek Merrin (R-Monclova) as speaker months before the full House floor vote.

Twenty-two Republicans (known “affectionately” by the other faction as the “Blue 22”) and 32 Democrats voted for Stephens for speaker during the actual vote, while the majority of Republicans voted for Merrin. Stephens, still a conservative, is significantly more moderate than Merrin — he is also more moderate than Huffman.

Huffman said Stephens hasn’t held as many sessions as there “traditionally” are, seemingly insinuating that the speaker wasn’t doing his job.

Stephens did not appreciate these comments.

“There are clearly other motives behind this analysis. Under this leadership team, the House has passed a number of policies that help people and have been applauded by national conservative organizations. We look forward to the Senate passing these bills, so that the Governor can sign them into law,” Stephens told Trau the same day.

When chatting with Stephens in April for the first time since the election, Trau brought Huffman up.

“How are you feeling now that Senate President Matt Huffman has stated his interest in running against you next year?” she asked.

“Well, I think it is really interesting that we still have nine months left… this [General Assembly]. The House has been working really hard. We have done a lot of really good things,” he responded. “Frankly, it would be better if the Senate President would pay attention to running the Senate instead of trying to run the House.”

It isn’t just the shady comments and the announcement of running that Stephens and his allies are mad about — it’s the money and campaigning.

Huffman had been in campaign talks for months now, gaining support from a significant faction of House representatives and national and statewide groups looking to oust Stephens.

Candidates, some of whom have now won, have told WEWS/OCJ that Huffman has helped support their bid to knock out the Stephens’ team incumbents.

Four incumbents lost due to heavy campaigning against them — however, this may have saved Stephens from losing his job as leader. A WEWS/OCJ analysis found that Stephens could only afford to lose four seats.

If every single one of the speaker’s allies remains loyal, he will retain the gavel. However, numerous members of the General Assembly who didn’t originally vote for Stephens have told WEWS/OCJ they plan to vote for him. There are several members who won open seats who have been endorsed by Stephens’ allies, so it is possible they would support him, as well.

Trau asked Stephens how he felt regarding the election results. He started by saying it was amazing to him the amount of money from outside groups that rallied against incumbent Republicans. He criticized mailers with fact errors on them, saying that wasn’t fair to the voters because they were getting false information — and there is little to no way to fight against that.

“I think the people in those districts were able to see through a lot of the silliness, but it was unfortunate that that level of outside money can come in for a House district,” he said.

He added that this was one of the reasons why he supports removing term limits.

“Is the state Rep. running to represent that district or is it a set of ideals that an outside group is more worried about?” he questioned.

Stephens has been attacked since the vote for partnering with Democrats.

“I absolutely will be speaking to Democrats,” Huffman said, adding that all 99 members of the House get to vote for speaker. “I absolutely will be – a few of those folks have contacted me first thing Wednesday morning.”

Russo was confused.

“That was certainly news to me,” she responded. “I think any good faith, honest negotiations about the future direction of this state, and certainly here in the House, starts with the Democratic leadership team — and anything that doesn’t start with that, frankly, it’s just an effort to get ahead.”

Both she and Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) are sick of the GOP infighting.

“I think we’re seeing politics at play, I think we’re seeing the ill effects of a Republican supermajority,” Russo said. “There are too many of them, they’re fighting themselves.”

Russo has consistently argued that this is a result of gerrymandering.

“We’ve always said that supermajorities, without having that balance in the legislature, the price for that is paid by the people of Ohio,” she added. “We don’t have a government that is responsive or productive.”

The lawmakers passed the fewest amount of bills in 2023 than they have in decades, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Service Commission. Each side gives different reasons for this — either it’s the lack of being actually “conservative,” or it’s because of external factors like major off-year elections, the 2024 primaries, both budgets and fighting with the Senate.

Gov. Mike DeWine cheekily told Trau in a one-on-one interview that it isn’t always a bad thing when the lawmakers don’t pass bills.

Toking their sweet time, but marijuana fans don’t mind

Broderick Randle II from cannabis processing facility BeneLeaves said his business would profit if dispensaries could open for recreational use now, but he would rather not make the money and wait for better policy.

“I think it’s the people’s rights that people have voted for it,” he said.

AJ Caraballo with Amplify medical marijuana dispensary feels the same.

“Waiting months to make sure we have a sustainable program, I think that’s more important than rushing and starting in 90 days,” he said.

This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.

Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on Twitter and Facebook .

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