OhioSB 56136th General Assembly (2025-2026)SenateWALLET

Revise medical and adult-use marijuana laws; levy marijuana taxes

Sponsored By: Stephen A. Huffman (Republican)

Signed by Governor

Courts and Civil LawCourtsCrimes, Corrections, and Law EnforcementCrime and PunishmentMarijuana, Cannabis, and HempTaxation

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

78 provisions identified: 26 benefits, 28 costs, 24 mixed.

Older marijuana cases can be cleared

People with specified marijuana-possession cases predating the section's effective date can apply to the sentencing court to clear their records. Eligible cases include violations of R.C. 2925.11(C)(3)(a), (C)(7)(a), and (C)(7)(b). Cases under (C)(7)(c) or (d) qualify only when they involve 15 grams of hashish or less. The filing fee is $50, and applications are allowed any time on or after the section's effective date. After a hearing, the court must grant relief unless legitimate government needs substantially outweigh the applicant's interests.

Marijuana policy violations can cost workers benefits

Employers do not have to allow or accommodate marijuana use, possession, or distribution. They can refuse to hire, discipline, or fire workers and keep drug-testing, drug-free-workplace, or zero-tolerance policies. The law creates no employment claim based on those actions and leaves federal employment restrictions in place. Workers fired for marijuana use that violates a formal employer policy are treated as discharged for just cause. They cannot serve an unemployment waiting period or receive unemployment benefits for the duration of that unemployment.

Legal marijuana use protects benefit access

State and local authorities cannot deny public benefits because of marijuana use or possession that follows Ohio's cannabis law. This covers medical, adult-use, and homegrown marijuana. The protection does not cover unemployment compensation.

Dispensary licenses reserved for qualifying owners

Ohio reserves at least 15% of retail dispensary licenses for qualifying businesses. Qualifying owners are Ohio-resident U.S. citizens who are Black or African American, American Indian, Hispanic or Latino, or Asian. They must collectively own at least 51%, control management and daily operations, and share capital, assets, profits, and losses proportionately. Applicants must meet applicable licensing conditions. When too few qualifying businesses apply, remaining licenses follow the usual process.

Qualifying owners gain reserved cannabis licenses

At least 15% of grower, processor, and laboratory licenses must go to qualifying businesses. Qualifying owners are economically disadvantaged Ohio residents and U.S. citizens who are Black, American Indian, Hispanic or Latino, or Asian. Together, they must own at least 51%, control management and daily operations, and hold proportionate shares of capital, assets, profits, and losses. Applicants must satisfy license requirements. If too few qualify, the remaining licenses follow the usual process.

State funding for cannabis host communities

Ohio provides $47.5 million in fiscal year 2026 and $49 million in fiscal year 2027 for cannabis host communities. Cities and townships with at least one licensed dispensary receive payments from the state Tax Commissioner. The law also provides any extra money needed to make the required payments. These payments go to local governments, not directly to households.

False marijuana identification brings mandatory fines

Knowingly giving false identifying details to obtain adult-use marijuana is a first-degree misdemeanor. Using specified false, fictitious, or altered identification at a licensed dispensary also brings a mandatory $250–$1,000 fine. One prior identification conviction or guilty plea raises the fine to $500–$1,000 and allows a class seven license suspension. Two or more priors keep that fine range and allow a class six suspension, potentially until age 21; community service can replace specified license suspensions, and other sanctions can apply. Knowingly asking another person to buy adult-use marijuana at a licensed dispensary is a fourth-degree misdemeanor, rising to second-degree after a prior conviction or guilty plea for that act.

Marijuana users face age and sharing limits

People under 21 cannot use, grow, process, transfer, or transport adult-use or homegrown marijuana. People without a marijuana license cannot knowingly give, sell, or transfer either type, even without payment. The law preserves expressly allowed unpaid transfers between adults on private property within the possession limits. Those limits are 2.5 ounces of plant material and 15 grams of extract.

Commercial drivers face cannabinoid drink rules

Ohio's commercial driver's license law includes legally defined drinkable cannabinoid products in its meaning of a drug of abuse. Commercial drivers and others covered by that law are subject to its drug rules for these products.

Adult-use marijuana buyers pay 10% extra tax

Adult-use marijuana buyers pay a 10% excise tax on the retail price at checkout, in addition to sales and use taxes. A $100 adult-use purchase carries $10 in excise tax before other taxes. Vendors report and remit the excise tax on a separate return alongside sales-tax reporting. A separate 10% tax applies to consumer sales of marijuana that is neither adult-use nor medical marijuana. For those sales, both buyer and vendor are liable for the tax, interest, and penalties.

Cannabinoid drink sellers face age enforcement

Drinkable cannabinoid retailers must examine identification and verify buyers are at least 21. Reckless unauthorized retail sales or sales to people under 21 are first-degree misdemeanors initially and fifth-degree felonies for later offenses. Knowingly violating opened-container restrictions is a minor misdemeanor. Ohio's liquor control superintendent can enforce specified drink rules, while the cannabis control superintendent can enforce policies under section 3779.24. Both must establish enforcement and penalty policies when that section takes effect.

Hemp businesses face fees and oversight

Ohio must set hemp license rules covering applications, qualifications, renewals, denials, suspensions, revocations, and hearings. Application and annual fees cannot exceed state oversight costs; growers pay uniform fees. Cultivation rules apply only if Ohio runs a cultivation oversight program. Those rules must require yearly inspections of at least a random sample of growers, annual reports, and recordkeeping. Rules must also cover corrective plans, federal enforcement requirements, and disposal of unlawfully produced plants and products.

Hemp licenses face felony and activity limits

Hemp grower and processor applicants must complete required background investigations and comply with Ohio's criminal-check requirements. A controlled-substance felony guilty plea or conviction within the prior ten years bars an applicant. Such a plea or conviction also requires license revocation for ten years. Materially false applications make applicants ineligible for either license. Ohio rules must prohibit hemp cultivation license holders from growing marijuana and hemp processing license holders from processing marijuana.

Hemp operators face licensing and checks

Ohio's agriculture director must oversee hemp processing and can establish a hemp cultivation oversight program. Processors need licenses; growers need them when Ohio implements cultivation oversight, with statutory research and other exceptions. Licenses last three years unless suspended or revoked earlier. Individual requests under section 928.03 must include completed forms and fingerprints for checks of convictions or guilty pleas in Ohio or another state. If the director later intends to transfer state cultivation oversight, the director must take the necessary steps to transfer it to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Adults can grow marijuana within limits

Adults 21 or older can grow six plants each, with no more than 12 plants at one primary residence. Growing and processing must stay at that residence; plants must be secured from people under 21 and hidden from public view. Growing is barred at specified family child-care homes and licensed halfway-house-type facilities, and where a rental agreement bans it. Hydrocarbon extraction, sales for profit, and growing or possessing marijuana for someone else are prohibited. Compliant home-growing activities receive protection from arrest or prosecution, subject to the law's stated exceptions.

Adults get marijuana access with limits

Adults 21 or older can buy marijuana from licensed dispensaries with current, valid government identification. Daily sales cannot knowingly exceed legal possession limits: 2.5 ounces of plant material and 15 grams of extract. These limits cover purchased and homegrown marijuana together; legally held seeds, live plants, and clones do not count toward the plant-material limit. Adults can give marijuana without payment on private residential or agricultural property, within those limits per recipient per day. Authorized activities receive protection from arrest or prosecution, and Ohio's cannabis regulator must specify allowed marijuana accessories.

Cannabis jobs require checks with temporary exceptions

Cannabis employers generally cannot hire applicants without a submitted background check showing no disqualifying conviction or guilty plea. Ohio must set temporary work authorization standards for urgent circumstances; applicants must show compliance with state record-check laws. Authorization lasts up to three months, with one renewal of up to three more months at Ohio's discretion. The law removes required rulemaking to list crimes that disqualify cannabis workers. It also removes required rules identifying offenses that do not disqualify workers when convictions or guilty pleas occurred over five years before employment starts.

Cannabis businesses face local site limits

Licensed growers, processors, dispensaries, and labs generally cannot locate within 500 feet of protected community sites. Distance is measured from the parcel containing a school, church, public library, public playground, or public park. The Division must reject relocations that violate this limit. Facilities holding an operating certificate need not close or move when a protected site later opens nearby; research with an approved review-board protocol is exempt. Townships can regulate or prohibit medical and adult-use growers, processors, and retail dispensaries in unincorporated areas.

Cannabis businesses face structured license selection

Adult-use retailers must apply for a separate license for each location, using medical-dispensary application rules. When eligible growers, processors, or labs outnumber available licenses, the Division must use an impartial, evidence-based ranking. Factors include operating plans, security, finances, location, economic development, environmental and employment factors, and legal history. In a lottery, 'exceeds' applicants get twice the odds of 'meets'; 'highly exceeds' gets twice the odds of 'exceeds.' Applicants rated 'does not meet' are excluded.

Emergency dispensary shutdowns have clear limits

The Division can suspend a dispensary license without a prior hearing only with clear and convincing evidence of immediate, serious harm to others. The danger must come from continued medical or adult-use marijuana distribution. Suspension lasts until lifted or a final order is issued. Without a final order within 90 days after the hearing, the Division must lift the suspension on day 91.

Hemp businesses face handling and location rules

Ohio must set hemp THC testing, labeling, packaging, production, and manufacturing standards. Rules must also cover transportation, storage, and the production, storage, and disposal of byproducts. Hemp cannot be processed in a home or on residentially zoned land. Ohio must set a minimum distance between hemp plants and medical or adult-use marijuana cultivation. That distance does not apply when the marijuana grower moves nearby after the hemp grower starts operating.

Licensed marijuana growers face area caps

Level I marijuana growers can have up to 100,000 square feet of cultivation area. Level II growers can have up to 15,000 square feet. License holders can request one or more expansions, but each needs approval from Ohio's cannabis regulator. Total growing area cannot exceed the cap for that license level.

Cannabinoid drink buyers get product safeguards

Cannabinoid drinks cannot contain alcohol, and their hemp must come from growers licensed under a specified qualifying program. Manufacturers must test drinks before sale or offering them to distributors; sellers cannot offer untested drinks or drinks exceeding policy limits. Testing must use a licensed Ohio lab or an approved out-of-state lab meeting substantially similar requirements. Labs must issue a test report, keep related records for one year, and manufacturers must label THC milligrams to match that report. Ads cannot be false, misleading, aimed at or attractive to minors, obscene or indecent, or promote illegal activity.

Dispensary customers get privacy and health warnings

Dispensary employees must meet state training requirements. Dispensaries cannot make public information that identifies, or could identify, a medical patient or adult-use consumer. They must prominently warn that adult-use or homegrown marijuana use by people under 21 is harmful and illegal. They must also display information about addiction and possible health harms.

Marijuana buyers get safer packaging and labels

Growers must identify, package, and label medical and adult-use products before transferring them to licensed processors or dispensaries. Processors must use child-resistant packaging and list THC and CBD content before supplying dispensaries. Adult-use labels must name the processor and dispensary, give their addresses, and show the product's amount, strength, type, or form. Labels must also warn that use by people under 21 is harmful and illegal.

Marijuana consumers get testing and ingredient safeguards

Licensed labs must test medical and adult-use marijuana for strength, consistency, and contamination, then report the results. Labs must get their samples from licensed growers, processors, or dispensaries. Ohio must set testing times, minimum sample sizes, uniform methods, and procedures for sharing results. Ohio must also set standards for non-marijuana ingredients and can ban ingredients that fail those standards.

Online marijuana orders and medical delivery access

Ohio must set standards for licensed dispensaries to accept online and mobile orders for medical and adult-use marijuana. It must also set standards for dispensaries or their agents to deliver medical marijuana to registered patients or caregivers. The delivery provision does not cover adult-use marijuana.

Visiting medical marijuana patients gain reciprocity

Ohio must make a good-faith effort to negotiate agreements with states whose patient or caregiver requirements are substantially comparable. Those states must also recognize Ohio medical marijuana cards. Under an agreement, visiting patients and caregivers gain the same listed rights as Ohio registrants to use, possess, obtain, or administer medical marijuana. An out-of-state authorization alone does not establish reciprocity without an agreement.

Commercial driver rules drop express drink reference

Beginning December 31, 2026, Ohio's commercial-driver definition of “drug of abuse” no longer expressly includes drinkable cannabinoid products. The definition is used in licensing and disqualification rules. This change does not make drink use legal in every driving situation or remove other controlled-substance rules.

Real estate agents get cannabis protections

Ohio real estate licensees cannot face discipline solely for property work permitted by the marijuana laws. Covered work includes transactions for adult-use growing, processing, dispensing, or testing sites. The protection also covers handling related brokerage trust-account funds.

Export-only hemp drinks get rule exemption

Manufacturers can make hemp beverages for human consumption without meeting Ohio's drinkable-cannabinoid product requirements when production is solely for export. This exception does not authorize sale of those noncompliant drinks within Ohio.

Marijuana products and ads face child protections

Medical and adult-use marijuana cannot be sold shaped like people, animals, or fruit, including cartoon versions. Ohio must identify child-attractive forms and use methods; sellers cannot offer those forms or methods. Packaging and marketing cannot use cartoon or popular-culture figures aimed at children or youth. Adult-use ads cannot claim health or medical benefits, and Ohio can stop ads that break the rules. Marijuana ads are banned within 500 feet of parcel boundaries containing schools, churches, public libraries, playgrounds, or parks, except signs at licensed facilities.

Marijuana users get safety information

Ohio's cannabis regulator must establish a toll-free line for adult-use consumers, medical patients, caregivers, and health professionals. It answers questions about harmful marijuana reactions and available services and help; the regulator can contract out its operation. The regulator must also hire a statewide nonprofit for research-based cannabis and related drug-misuse prevention, education, and public-awareness efforts. The nonprofit must raise at least 10% of initiative funding from private contributions. The regulator must oversee and evaluate the work and report to lawmakers annually.

Ohio creates youth cannabis prevention program

Ohio's Department of Behavioral Health must run a statewide program to prevent youth cannabis use. The program uses harm reduction and practices aimed at preventing or reducing substance use and related disorders. The department can also choose other evidence-based approaches. The provision states no funding amount or start date.

Cannabis regulators retain rules and flexibility

Existing cannabis and tax rules under former Chapter 3780 remain effective until amended or repealed, unless they conflict with this law. Regulatory restrictions in cannabis rules adopted during the first 12 months after the relevant section takes effect are exempt from specified state rulemaking requirements. This exemption applies to rules adopted under Chapter 3796 by Ohio's cannabis regulator.

Banks get protection serving cannabis businesses

Ohio financial institutions receive limited protection from specified state criminal laws when providing financial services to licensed marijuana businesses. The protection covers allegations based on financing marijuana possession, delivery, or manufacturing. The business must comply with Ohio's marijuana licensing chapter and applicable state tax laws.

Existing cannabis businesses get renewal protections

Cultivator, processor, laboratory, and dispensary renewals bypass the evaluation, ranking, and lottery rules used for new licenses. The Division cannot deny renewal solely because an existing facility is near other license holders; other renewal requirements remain. Former adult-use licenses count as equivalent current licenses, with the current procedures, requirements, and penalties. When one person holds both equivalent licenses at the same location, the Division must merge them, including expiration and renewal.

Hemp operators gain new licensing routes

Qualifying processors must receive Ohio licenses through applicable out-of-state licenses or specified experience or certification routes. The alternative routes cover satisfactory experience or government or private certification in states that do not issue the relevant license. Cultivators can use corresponding routes only when Ohio has implemented cultivation oversight. With the agriculture director's approval, Ohio's agriculture department and universities can process hemp for research without a license. Their research cultivation exemption also requires Ohio cultivation oversight.

Hemp trading needs fewer license barriers

People, universities, and Ohio's agriculture department can possess, buy, or sell hemp products without hemp cultivation or processing licenses. A hemp-processing byproduct can count as a hemp product even above 0.3% THC. That exception requires production, storage, and disposal under Ohio's hemp rules; it does not generally permit high-THC consumer products.

Cannabis businesses avoid special local charges

Local governments generally cannot impose gross-receipts taxes or fees on marijuana license holders, or charges similar to state taxes or fees. They also cannot charge license holders or their property amounts not generally charged to other businesses. Charges otherwise authorized by Ohio law remain allowed. This does not directly change household taxes.

Cannabis taxpayers get refunds and clearer notices

Ohio pays certified cannabis-tax refunds for amounts illegally or mistakenly assessed or collected, or otherwise overpaid. Refunds come from the tax refund fund, using receipts from the same tax. Attorney General debt notices must identify the assessment or case number, tax, reason for liability, and how and when interest is added. Notices must also explain the authority to settle the debt or accept periodic payments; they do not guarantee either option.

Cities cannot add overlapping cannabis taxes

Ohio cities and villages cannot levy a tax that is the same as or similar to the state's cannabis taxes. This limits overlapping local taxes on the covered activity. The law gives no dollar estimate of savings.

Dispensary communities receive marijuana tax money

Marijuana tax collections go into the adult use tax fund, with money transferred as needed for certified refunds. Of the remaining money, 64% goes to Ohio's General Revenue Fund and 36% to the Host Community Cannabis Fund. Municipalities and townships with at least one licensed dispensary receive monthly host-community payments based on tax attributable to their jurisdiction. They can use the payments for any lawful purpose.

Marijuana users face tighter location limits

People cannot knowingly consume adult-use or homegrown marijuana in public, and public-place operators cannot knowingly allow it. Medical marijuana cannot be smoked or burned. Adult-use and homegrown smoking, burning, or vaping, and medical vaping, are allowed only on private residential or agricultural property. Further limits apply in specified child-care homes, transitional or correctional residences, rentals that ban it, public places, and workplaces. Public places need not accommodate marijuana use and cannot allow medical smoking, burning, or vaping. Ohio's law does not authorize marijuana use, possession, or administration on federal land in Ohio.

Record-clearing applicants pay fifty-dollar filing fee

Applicants for expungement under section 2953.321 must pay a one-time $50 application fee unless they are indigent. Indigent applicants pay no fee. Of each fee, $30 goes to the state and $20 to the county general revenue fund. Half the state's share goes to the Attorney General Reimbursement Fund.

Marijuana users face vehicle safety rules

Adult-use and medical marijuana and paraphernalia must travel in original unopened packaging or in the required inaccessible storage area. Opened items and homegrown marijuana must go in the trunk, behind the last upright seat without a trunk, or another allowed area. That area must not normally hold occupants or be easily reached by the driver. Medical or adult-use authorization does not permit impaired operation of vehicles, streetcars, trackless trolleys, boats, or aircraft.

Student athletes can face marijuana endorsement bans

Colleges and organizations overseeing college sports can ban student athletes from signing certain paid name, image, and likeness deals. Covered deals involve adult-use marijuana products or licensed adult-use growers, processors, labs, or dispensaries in Ohio or another state. The law allows these bans but does not require every organization to impose one.

Marijuana land loses farm tax valuation

Land used to grow or process medical or adult-use marijuana cannot qualify for the stated agricultural-use valuation. The exclusion applies to the affected land or portion of land. Losing that classification can raise property-tax costs, but the law gives no tax amount.

Cannabis applicants face tax and background checks

For applications under review, Ohio's Tax Department must provide tax-compliance, violation, and penalty information when the cannabis regulator requests it. That information is confidential and generally can be shared only with the applicant concerned. The Tax Department can charge the regulator its reasonable administrative cost. After required notice, Ohio must deny a license when a required background-check participant fails to submit forms or blocks direct report delivery.

Cannabis license applicants pay for checks

Specified owners, prospective owners, officers, board members, and daily-operation managers must complete criminal-record checks. A federal check is required without five years of prior Ohio residency and evidence of a federal check requested during that period. The Division may also request a federal check from someone with five years of Ohio residency. Each person checked pays the state bureau's fee; the law provides no amount here.

Licensed growers face personal cultivation limits

Licensed cultivators cannot grow medical or adult-use marijuana for personal, family, or household use. They also cannot grow it on public land, including state parks. This restriction applies to licensed cultivators, not households generally.

Cannabis violations threaten licenses and inventory

Violating section 3796.06(F) is a first-degree misdemeanor, or a fifth-degree felony after a prior conviction or guilty plea for it. Ohio must immediately revoke a covered license after a guilty finding or a guilty or no-contest plea. After suspension, revocation, or nonrenewal, the regulator can seal a holder's marijuana upon clear and convincing evidence of immediate, serious danger. Sealed marijuana generally stays held through appeals; a court can order perishable medical or adult-use marijuana sold and hold the proceeds. Public Safety must help enforce both the marijuana and drinkable cannabinoid laws.

Illegal marijuana activity triggers existing crimes

Violating the possession rule in section 3796.221(B) is treated as marijuana possession under Ohio's existing criminal law. Violating the cultivation rule in 3796.04(C) is treated as illegal marijuana cultivation. Violations of 3796.09(I), 3796.10(I), 3796.20(C)(2), or 3796.221(C) are treated as marijuana trafficking.

Marijuana users face vehicle and use penalties

Operators violating the cannabis-use rule in section 3796.06(C)(2) face applicable existing impaired-operation laws for vehicles, boats, or aircraft. Passengers violating that rule commit a third-degree misdemeanor while the operator is operating or controlling the conveyance. Without those operator or passenger penalties, violations of 3796.06(C)(2) or (C)(3)(a), (b), or (d) are minor misdemeanors. Violations of the adult-use restrictions in 3796.062(A), (B), or (C) are also minor misdemeanors. Violations of 3796.062(D) fall under Ohio's existing marijuana-paraphernalia offense law.

State cannabis investigators gain enforcement powers

Ohio's Public Safety investigative unit can investigate and enforce authorized cannabis and cannabinoid-drink laws. Designated agents can make arrests, execute search warrants, and seize evidence or contraband, sharing authority with local officers. Agents can carry concealed weapons during authorized undercover investigations. The Pharmacy Board must share relevant prescription-database information with designated cannabis-control investigators about people or entities under active investigation.

Adult-use marijuana stays limited to adults

People cannot knowingly give, sell, or distribute adult-use or homegrown marijuana to anyone under 21. People under 21 cannot knowingly buy, use, or possess it. These restrictions do not change the separate medical-marijuana access rules.

Cannabinoid drink businesses face sales limits

Manufacturers may sell cannabinoid drinks only to distributors or retailers designated AD or C; distributors may sell only to those retailers in Ohio. Only AD and C retailers may sell to customers, and they cannot charge less than their purchase price. Manufacturers and distributors cannot vary a retailer's price by purchase quantity or pay for particular advertising or displays at its permitted location. Covered transactions between manufacturers, distributors, and retailers in the United States require cash; claims for prohibited credit cannot be enforced. The law also bars specified business assistance, premiums, and rebates between these businesses.

Cannabinoid drink suppliers face territory rules

Manufacturers must assign distributors geographic sales areas, with only one distributor for a given brand in each area. Distributors cannot distribute that brand outside their assigned area; manufacturers can use additional distributors for additional brands. Cannabis officials, consulting agriculture officials, must maintain cannabinoid lists and clarify what counts as a container. Federal list changes carry over automatically, subject to the superintendent's review and authority to amend them. List changes must be published and put into rules filed for legislative review within six months of adoption or change.

Cannabis applicants face stricter criminal-history rules

Cannabis license applicants do not receive Ohio's general licensing protections under section 9.79(B) through (K). Cannabis licensing rules must include at least every felony among disqualifying crimes. Checks of applicants' administrators, daily-operation personnel, owners, officers, and board members use cannabis-specific offense rules, removing the former section 9.79 reference. Job-applicant checks at licensed cannabis businesses instead use offense rules under both sections 9.79 and 3796.03.

Cannabis businesses must meet license requirements

Each cannabis business location needs an application, ranked by eligibility, suitability, and ability to operate. Applicants need qualifying criminal records, tax compliance, financial capacity, truthful and complete information, required fees, and no local prohibition. Locations must be at least 500 feet from schools, churches, public libraries, public playgrounds, and public parks; dispensaries also need adequate liquid capital. Grower, processor, and dispensary applicants face limits on ownership, investment, compensation, or shared personnel involving testing laboratories and laboratory applicants. People cannot knowingly perform covered cannabis business activities without the proper license, and Ohio's Chapter 4796 license-recognition rules do not apply.

Cannabis owners face business number limits

A person may own or operate at most eight licensed dispensaries, one licensed cultivator, and one licensed processor at once. The Division must set the number of cultivator licenses, considering Ohio's population, medical patient demand, and adult-use demand. The law removes the instruction to set dispensary license numbers, but sets no new cap or required license count.

Ohio caps marijuana stores at 400

No more than 400 licensed marijuana dispensaries can operate in Ohio at one time. The cap covers stores serving medical and adult-use marijuana consumers.

Cannabinoid drinks gain sales with limits

Designated AD retailers can sell qualifying cannabinoid drinks for use on or off their premises; C retailers allow off-premises use only. Open containers are generally barred in public and vehicles on public roads or public travel or parking areas. Exceptions include private homes and the premises of the AD retailer that sold the drink. A limousine exception requires a prearranged trip partly paid by the passenger or their guest; the passenger must stay outside the driver's front compartment. Beginning December 31, 2026, the law repeals 12 listed sections of the cannabinoid-drink chapter; the supplied information does not explain each repeal's effect.

Marijuana potency caps allow state rule changes

Medical and adult-use marijuana plant material cannot exceed 35% THC, and extracts cannot exceed 70%, unless state rules provide otherwise. Ohio can raise extract limits by rule. It can also set THC limits per serving or package.

More marijuana forms, stricter edible storage

Adult-use marijuana can be sold in medical-marijuana forms and additional forms. Added options include extracts, smoking or vaping products, drinks, pills, seeds, live plants, clones, and pre-rolled products. Adult-use consumers, medical patients, and caregivers must keep edible products in their original packaging whenever they are not actively used.

Medical marijuana patients face purchase checks

Patients must show current, valid government-issued identification to buy medical marijuana at a licensed dispensary. Sales must follow a written recommendation from a physician certified to recommend medical marijuana. Dispensaries must keep an adequate supply of medical products to meet typical patient demand.

Medical marijuana registration shifts with required checks

Beginning March 31, 2024, medical marijuana registration moved from Ohio's Board of Pharmacy to its Division of Cannabis Control. A treating doctor certified to recommend marijuana, or the doctor's delegate, must submit patient and caregiver applications. The doctor must certify a genuine treatment relationship, a qualifying condition, and discussion of risks and benefits. Applications also require a drug-database report covering at least the prior 12 months and identification of linked patients or caregivers. Complete applications meeting these requirements lead to registration and an identification card.

Renters face lease limits on marijuana

Landlords can include lease bans on smoking, burning, or vaporizing marijuana in rental homes and shared areas. Leases can also ban growing homegrown marijuana. Landlords cannot reject a tenant solely for being a medical marijuana patient or caregiver, unless federal law requires rejection.

Marijuana businesses gain contract and banking support

Ohio makes contracts involving marijuana license holders enforceable as state public policy. At a bank's request, the cannabis regulator must share specified records about a prospective licensed marijuana customer. These include license status, affiliates, application materials, applicable sales and product volumes, compliance, and violations or penalties. The regulator can charge a reasonable administrative fee. Banks must keep these records confidential, except for disclosures allowed by law or to the customer and specified representatives.

Dispensaries face deadlines with extra time

A dispensary can lose its license without an operating certificate within 18 months after its provisional license is issued. It may request up to two six-month extensions. The Division must approve extensions when the holder shows good-faith efforts to become operational. Provisional cannabis licenses, including dispensary licenses, cannot be transferred to another person or business.

Dispensary applicants face weighted license selection

When eligible dispensary applicants outnumber licenses, Ohio must rank them impartially using plans, locations, jobs, employment practices, and legal histories. In a lottery, applicants rated “exceeds” get twice the odds of “meets”; “highly exceeds” gets twice the “exceeds” odds. Applicants who fail eligibility rules cannot receive a license.

Marijuana advertisers get review deadlines

Medical and adult-use marijuana advertisers must submit names, logos, signs, and other advertising materials to Ohio's cannabis regulator. The regulator must approve or deny them within 21 business days. Materials count as approved when the regulator does not deny them within that period.

Cannabis tracking adds duties and privacy

The state must electronically track medical and adult-use marijuana from seed source through dispensing, with immediate updates. License holders must submit the information the Division requires. Collected information is confidential and is not a public record. Public releases are limited to summaries, statistics, or combined data that do not identify consumers or patients. The Division can hire another entity to build or maintain the database.

Ohio reshapes cannabis oversight and supply

The Division of Cannabis Control administers the cannabis program and licenses growers, processors, dispensaries, and testing labs. Medical patient and caregiver registration continues. For Ohio's cannabis chapter, medical marijuana is a Schedule II controlled substance, even when other state controlled-substance rules conflict. The law removes the requirement to set a maximum 90-day medical supply by product form and THC content; it sets no replacement limit. It also repeals listed parts of the former adult-use statutes, but the supplied information does not explain each repeal's effect.

Cannabis businesses can serve both markets

Licensed growers may grow both marijuana types, acquire seeds and other plant materials, and trade marijuana with other license holders. Licensed processors may obtain both types, make legally allowed products, and trade those products with other license holders. Growers and processors using these permissions must work with both medical and adult-use marijuana. Dispensaries may obtain and sell both types, trade with other license holders, and sell specified paraphernalia under state requirements. They may also deliver medical marijuana under Division delivery rules.

Cannabis businesses face oversight and gift limits

The Division must ban gifts, samples, and free or discounted goods used to induce or reward license holders' business or referrals. This is not a ban on all discounts or samples. The Division may inspect applicants' premises, license holders' premises, and license-holder records without advance notice for rule-authorized reasons. Investigative Unit premises inspections require a license holder and a Division request or alleged criminal activity, or an invitation from local law enforcement. The Unit may also investigate related criminal activity away from regulated sites.

Hemp businesses face revised legal rules

Ohio calculates delta-9 THC as its percentage by weight plus 87.7% of the tetrahydrocannabinolic acid percentage. The marijuana definition excludes hemp, but no longer expressly excludes hemp products; this does not settle every product's status. The drug definition excludes hemp products, but hemp itself can qualify as a drug when it meets that definition. The Pharmacy Board cannot place legally defined hemp on a controlled-substance list through its rules. People transporting hemp or hemp products must follow Ohio's hemp transport rules.

Local cannabis limits protect earlier licenses

Starting on the amendment's effective date, new or relocated dispensaries cannot be within one mile of another licensed dispensary. They also cannot occupy a facility permitted to sell beer and liquor. Municipalities and townships may ban or limit licensed growers, processors, and dispensaries, but cannot restrict other state-authorized activities or qualifying research. Earlier provisional licenses and operating certificates generally remain protected, except from local rules adopted before the amendment's effective date. Ohio no longer must write rules about businesses when a school, church, library, public playground, or park later opens within 500 feet.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

Stephen A. Huffman
Republican • Senate

Cosponsors

Andrew O. Brenner
Republican • Senate
Bernard Willis
Republican • House
Bill Reineke
Republican • Senate
Brian Stewart
Republican • House
Darnell T. Brewer
Democratic • House
Eric Synenberg
Democratic • House
Jamie Callender
Republican • House
Jerry C. Cirino
Republican • Senate
Johnathan Newman
Republican • House
Josh Williams
Republican • House
Karen Brownlee
Democratic • House
Latyna M. Humphrey
Democratic • House
Marilyn John
Republican • House
Mark Sigrist
Democratic • House
Michele Reynolds
Republican • Senate
Mike Odioso
Republican • House
Phil Plummer
Republican • House
Sarah Fowler Arthur
Republican • House
Sean P. Brennan
Democratic • House
Steve Wilson
Republican • Senate
Tim Schaffer
Republican • Senate
Tom Young
Republican • House

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 238 • No: 99

Senate vote • 12/9/2025

Conference report agreed to

Yes: 22 • No: 7

House vote • 11/20/2025

Conference Committee on S.B. 56: Conference report agreed to

Yes: 52 • No: 34

Senate vote • 10/29/2025

Refused to concur in House amendments

Yes: 0 • No: 32

House vote • 10/22/2025

Passed

Yes: 87 • No: 8