GOP Gov DeWine Says Ohioans Said Yes To Legal Weed Without Reviewing Details, Promises No Surprising Elements In His Amendments

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) met Monday with the state House Speaker Jason Stephens (R) and Senate President Matt Huffman (R) to discuss possible changes to the recently approved Issue 2, an adult-use cannabis legalization bill.

While DeWine was reluctant to share more details about the meeting with journalists at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, he did confirm that they didn’t bring any new ideas to the table that they hadn’t already announced last week, reports Cleveland.com’s Jeremy Pelzer.

In less than 48 hours after the voters had approved cannabis legalization DeWine came to the public seeking changes to the law that would restrict advertising, limit public consumption, and mitigate the risks of impaired driving.

After Monday’s meeting, DeWine said, “I don’t think there’s any surprises out there. I don’t think any of the things that I have suggested that we do really flies in the face of the spirit of what people were voting for. I truly believe that most people went in (to voting booths), and the issue was, are we gonna have legal marijuana or we’re not going to have legal marijuana? And the details – I’m not sure people got focused on it. I have to focus on it because we have to administer it. We have to make sure it actually does in fact work.”

The governor added that any amends to the proposed law must be approved before Dec. 7, when part of the law takes effect.

“If we can do this before December 7, it just gives everybody better notice of what the rules are and how this thing will work out,” the governor said. “It’s just going to be a lot better for everybody.”

Blumenauer Says Ohio’s Legalization Is A Great Exclamation Point

Meanwhile, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus who took part in Oregon’s cannabis decriminalization half a century ago, said that Ohio’s legalization is a “great big exclamation point on the things we’ve been talking about.” Blumenauer, who is retiring at the end of this Congress, highlighted how marijuana support got even more votes than the abortion issue.

“So I think it re-emphasizes the points we make: this is an issue that is tremendously popular across the country. It is an issue that nobody—nobody—has paid a price for endorsing,” he told Marijuana Moment. “And, for example, [Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA)] would not be in the U.S. Senate today if he hadn’t been such an outspoken proponent of cannabis legalization for years before his Senate election. I have no doubt in my mind that made the difference.”

Blumenauer concluded that backing cannabis legalization has “the potential of making Joe Biden’s reelection a lot smoother.”

Photo: Benzinga edit with images by Vivien McClain Photography via Wikimedia Commons and Alesia Kozik via Pexels