Ohio’s Republican governor is pushing to reallocate revenue generated from marijuana taxes to support police training, local jails and behavioral health services.
In an interview with Spectrum News 1 that aired on Sunday, Gov. Mike DeWine (R) was asked about what reforms he’d like to see to the voter-approved cannabis legalization law. And he said funding police training was a top priority, even if that wasn’t included in what voters passed in 2023.
“First of all, we respect the voters. With a pretty big margin, they said that marijuana should be legal in the state of Ohio,” he said, adding a word of “caution” to parents that THC potency is “much higher” in today’s products, which he called a “big issue.”
Part of the concern, he claimed, is that frequent cannabis use “does to reduce your IQ three to seven points.”
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 said. “Police have a very, very, very difficult job. They’re making literally split-second decisions, and the best way to give them, really, the resources they need is training.”
He specifically talked about creating “scenario-based training centers around the state of Ohio,” where police would play out various scenarios to inform how they’d respond in real-life law enforcement situations.
DeWine’s press secretary, Dan Tierney, separately told ABC 5 that the governor “believes money generated by recreational drug use should be used to help local governments combat the ills of drug use.”
“The Governor’s proposal uses these funds to help improve local jails, fund the 9-8-8 behavioral health crisis hotline, provide law enforcement training, and other priorities,” Tierney said. “To the extent these costs were borne by local governments, the state funding these priorities will free up local funds for other purposes and local priorities.”
As approved by voters, revenue from a 10 percent tax on adult-use cannabis are divided up to support social equity and jobs programs, localities that allow adult-use marijuana enterprises to operate in their area, education and substance misuse programs and administrative costs of implementing the system.
Meanwhile, a recent survey from the Ohio State University’s (OSU) Moritz College of Law found that local governments in the state are “unequivocally opposed” to lawmaker-proposed changes to marijuana tax revenue allocations approved by voters.
One of the lawmakers who’s helping lead the push to revise the state’s cannabis law is Sen. Steve Huffman (R), whose bill to enact certain changes cleared the full chamber last month.
An activist approached Huffman at the statehouse on Friday to ask him about the thinking behind amending what voters passed, specifically pressing him on proposals to remove select social equity provisions and broadly ban public consumption.
Had to run up on Steven Puffman after the Ohio Cannabis Lobby Day. The GOP keeps introducing these lame bills to try to gut and kill the cannabis industry while continuing to criminalize black, brown, and poor communities. Ohioans better wake up these politicians are rogue actors pic.twitter.com/fezJEkH1bK
— Gerald Moore Jr. 🇺🇸🇨🇩 (@geraldmoore_jr) March 21, 2025
Gerald Moore Jr. pointed out to the senator that most people don’t own their own homes, so the restrictive policies that are being pushed would create outsized complications for many adults.
“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.
Pressed on how frequently he believes that occurs, the senator said “it happens to me 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.
Advocates from drug reform and civil liberties groups held an event earlier this month to draw attention to the bills, characterizing them as an effort by lawmakers to undo the will of voters.
It’s also expected that a sweeping state budget bill could be used to make changes to the cannabis law. For example, an increased cannabis excise tax was introduced and later removed from the Senate bill, but an even steeper tax hike is now in the governor’s budget proposal.
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 has repeatedly asked lawmakers to regulate or ban intoxicating hemp products such as delta-8 THC.
Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
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