Marijuana is legal; Or is it?

On November 7 Ohio voters passed issue 2 which would legalize recreational marijuana on December 7, but there is nowhere to buy it. 

Adults are allowed to legally grow and possess marijuana in their own homes, but there is not a place that is legally allowed to sell recreationally yet. 

The law was supposed to go into effect and allow adults over 21 to possess up to 2.5 ounces and grow up to six plants per person or 12 plants for a household. Right before these numbers would be the rule of the land, Senate Republicans proposed a rewrite to the law which would no longer allow growing at home and would decrease the legal possession amount to 1 ounce. The taxes on recreational marijuana would also grow from 10% to 15%. 

SensibleKent, a political organization that advocates for legal marijuana, director Bill Schmitt said “There should not be any changes made to the law that we all voted on, it’s not fair to the people.”

Governor Mike DeWine and the Senate did reach a compromise that would help benefit both sides of the issue. The compromise lowers the household amount of plants to six and boosts the tax to 15%, but it keeps the possession amount at 2.5 ounces. An aspect that helped Democrats agree was an addition that would free criminals that were convicted on charges of 2.5 ounces or less of possession.  

“That’s a big part of why these changes can still work out,” Schmitt said. “We really wanted people who were arrested with hardly any marijuana to bereleased and that can still happen.”

Sean Farrell, a Kent State student and Ohio voter, similarly felt that the changes are unfair to the voter.

“I get that the law has chances to be worked with but the vote was clear that we wanted to legalize weed,” Farrell said. “I’m in college so I won’t be growing at home but the purchase tax is not what we voted for.”

Another aspect of legalizing marijuana in Ohio is the decision on whether or not employers should be testing for marijuana. Just as December 7 came, Cleveland decided to no longer drug test applicants depending on the type of job. 

Mayor Justin Bibb said in an announcement “We are proud to continue leading the way by rolling out these updates, which builds on our prior marijuana reform efforts and other initiatives aimed at improvingour HR policies.”

Cleveland has made this change but has decided that jobs in the Department of Public Safety, Department of Port Control, the U.S. Department of Transportation and any job that requires a commercial drivers license or operating heavy machinery will still be tested.

Jack Littel, a bouncer at the City of Kent’s Barfly, does not see the need for certain jobs to drug test.

“I think it’s a good move from Cleveland because now that marijuana is legal, why can’t people use it in their free time,” Littel said. “It should be like alcohol, we don’t drug test for that, kind of like how I wouldn’t show up to work drunk, I wouldn’t show up high either.”

Cleveland may have set the precedent for other cities and counties to follow suit.

As of now, many jobs will still be testing for marijuana, but the law that took into effect on December 7 still has some benefits that are legal now. As long as citizens have less than 2.5 ounces in their possession they are legally allowed. All that’s left to do is wait on the final agreements from the government until marijuana can finally be free, as the voters asked for.

Photo by Matthew Franos

Kent Police Department will follow the guidelines put in place by Issue 2