Ohio state lawmakers are back in Columbus this week after taking several months off so most of them could run for reelection, and they’ve got a finite amount of time to get to work because anything not signed by Gov. Mike DeWine will die at the end of December.
High on the list of priorities for some is passing a bill on delta-8 THC and other similar products. The hemp-derived products, which contain psychoactive ingredients and still induce a high, have gone largely unregulated.
“This hyped-up hemp is being sold at gas stations all over the state of Ohio, and you have got young kids, there’s no age limit, kids are walking in there and buying this garbage,” DeWine said Thursday.
DeWine has been begging lawmakers to do something for a year, but some are still torn on how to handle the issue. Senate Bill 326, which DeWine said he backs, bans the products outright. Rep. Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) said he believes that’s an overreach that likely won’t last in the Ohio House.
“I think we can regulate them in much the same way that we regulate cigarettes and Sudafed and all kind of other harmful stuff,” Seitz said Tuesday. “By requiring an age restriction, by requiring that those products be locked up.”
Legislators said there are other must-dos and should-dos.
The Ohio Senate needs still to vote on House Bill 238, a mandatory biennial review of licensure boards and commissions. Also, bipartisan joint resolutions sitting in both chambers (House Joint Resolution 8 and Senate Joint Resolution 4) are proposing asking voters to renew a bonds program for state infrastructure projects—but to put that question on the May 2025 ballot, one would need to pass before the end of 2024.
More controversial bills are all ready for a vote, too. That includes House Bill 104, amended to include the “bathroom” bill that limits students to using the bathroom matching the gender on their birth certificate, and Senate Bill 83, addressing concerns conservatives have with higher education.
Democrats, who are in the minority in both chambers, have said they want to focus on bread-and-butter issues during lame duck: housing, childcare and property tax proposals.
“Our property taxpayers are struggling to keep up with massively increased property taxes,” said Rep. Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati) on Tuesday. “There have been bipartisan bills that would do just that for over a year, and the Republicans in the majority have failed to take them up and pass them. It is past time to provide relief when it comes to property taxes.”
Sen. Rob McColley (R-Napoleon), likely to soon serve as the next senate president, said some lawmakers’ are misguided on what issues to finish off in these final days.
“They can probably wait until the beginning of the (General Assembly), and in some cases, if there are overarching voluminous issues, maybe they should wait until we have a little bit more time to deal with them,” McColley said Thursday.
Each chamber has a handful of sessions on the schedule between now and the end of the legislative session, likely midway through next month. In the House alone, more than 25 lawmakers are done in December.
