Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost rejected summary language Tuesday for a proposed referendum that would overturn a law that will change Ohio’s voter-passed recreational marijuana law and ban intoxicating hemp products.
Ohioans for Cannabis Choice filed a petition for a referendum to repeal Ohio Senate Bill 56, which is set to take effect March 20 after Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed the bill into law on Dec. 19. The referendum was filed with Yost’s office on Dec. 29.
“Upon review of the summary, we identified omissions and misstatements that, as a whole, would mislead a potential signer as to the scope and effect of S.B. 56,” Yost wrote in a response letter to the petitioners.
If Yost had certified the language, Ohioans for Cannabis Choice would have been able to start to collect signatures to get a referendum on the November ballot.
“We are going to fix the language, collect an additional 1,000 signatures, and not slow down,” Dennis Willard, spokesperson for Ohioans for Cannabis Choice, said in a statement.
“Voters this November will have the opportunity to say no to S.B. 56, no to government overreach, no to closing 6,000 businesses and abandoning thousands of Ohio workers, and no to defying the will of Ohioans who overwhelmingly supported legalizing cannabis in 2023.”
Ohioans voted to legalize marijuana in 2023, recreational sales started in August 2024, and sales totaled more than $836 million in 2025.
“Republicans know Ohioans are ready to hold them accountable for rewriting Issue 2, so instead of letting voters decide, they delay and distract to try and prevent the referendum altogether,” Ohio House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn, D-Cincinnati, said in a statement.
The new law will reduce the THC levels in adult-use marijuana extracts from a maximum of 90% down to a maximum of 70%, cap THC levels in adult-use flower to 35%, and prohibit smoking in most public places. It prohibits possessing marijuana in anything outside of its original packaging and criminalizes bringing legal marijuana from another state back to Ohio. S.B. 56 also requires drivers to store marijuana in the trunk of their car while driving.
The Ohio Cannabis Coalition condemns the referendum efforts.
“Our members built and passed legalization in Ohio, and this referendum has nothing to do with protecting that victory,” OHCANN Executive Director David Bowling said in a statement. “This referendum would reopen the door to a Wild West marketplace of unregulated intoxicants.”
If Ohioans for Cannabis Choice are able to get the language certified, they’ll need to collect 6% of the total number of votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial election (248,092) to get on the Nov. 3 ballot. The group will also need 3% of an individual county’s gubernatorial turnout in 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties.
Organizers will have 90 days from the date the governor filed the law with the secretary to collect the required signatures.
The last referendum that passed in Ohio was when voters overturned an anti-collective bargaining law in 2011.
Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.