After Ohio’s legalization vote, right here’s the place marijuana is — and isn’t — prison

(NEXSTAR) — Ohio citizens legalized leisure marijuana on Tuesday, making the state the twenty fourth to take action.

Beginning subsequent month, Ohioans 21 years previous and older shall be allowed to own as much as 2.5 oz of hashish and as much as 15 grams of hashish extract. They are able to stay as much as six hashish vegetation or as much as 12 if there are two adults a minimum of 21 years previous of their family.

An extra gross sales tax of 10% will follow to hashish merchandise as smartly.

Ohio was once already one of the vital 15 states that had legalized clinical hashish.

As of November 2023, 24 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for clinical and leisure use. There are a number of that licensed leisure use throughout the closing two years.

Rhode Island and New York kicked off gross sales in December 2022. Connecticut, Maryland, and Missouri started gross sales this 12 months.

Some states attempted and didn’t legalize leisure marijuana this 12 months. That incorporates Oklahoma, the place citizens rejected the legalization of leisure marijuana in March.

A suggestion to legalize marijuana in Indiana was once voted down in early April. Hundreds of supporters have signed a petition to have a proposed constitutional modification referring to marijuana legalization added to Florida ballots in 2024.

Even though they haven’t legalized marijuana for medicinal or leisure use, 9 states have licensed the usage of CBD and merchandise low in THC. In the past amongst the ones states was once Kentucky, which has since legalized clinical marijuana (regardless that it received’t take impact till 2025).

A invoice that may legalize marijuana in Indiana is predicted to be offered subsequent season, Nexstar’s WXIN experiences.

3 states – Idaho, Nebraska, and Kansas – haven’t any public program in any respect, in step with the Nationwide Convention of State Legislatures.

Previous this 12 months, the Division of Well being and Human Products and services despatched its findings on marijuana to the Drug Enforcement Management, reportedly recommending that or not it’s reclassified as a Agenda III drug. That classification method the substance has a “average to low attainable for bodily and mental dependence.”

Whilst it sounds promising, no longer a lot has in fact modified for marijuana. It is going to take a little time for the DEA to make any choice on reclassifying weed. And even though it’s reclassified, marijuana would nonetheless be a managed substance, matter to federal regulations and laws. 

It additionally would no longer right away be legalized for leisure use at the federal stage. Rescheduling marijuana does no longer decriminalize marijuana, both. Reclassification would, on the other hand, open the door to extra analysis – as it’s more straightforward to review Agenda III medicine than Agenda I medicine. 

In a Gallup survey revealed Wednesday, a report seven in 10 respondents mentioned they beef up the legalization of marijuana within the U.S. For the closing 3 years, beef up has held stable at 68%.