Here's who's bankrolling Ohio's marijuana legalization campaign
More than $1.6 million has been contributed to the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol's marijuana legalization campaign since 2021, according to campaign finance records.
The effort's biggest backer is the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), a Washington, D.C., legalization advocacy group that credits itself with helping to pass 15 medical marijuana laws and legislative reforms in a dozen other states with adult-use programs.
According to a review of finance reports, MPP has provided a total of $925,000 to the CRMLA over 14 donations since 2021, or more than half (approximately 56%) of the $1,665,750 given to the campaign in total so far.
The rest of the CRMLA's financial contributions come largely from a few Ohio cannabis companies or executives affiliated with them. Naturally, existing marijuana businesses stand to benefit from an adult-use market that would greatly expand their potential customer base beyond the medical-only market today.
These are the Ohio marijuana companies that have given money to the CRMLA:
• The Firelands Co. (Huron-based cultivator, processor and retailer): $160,000
• ATCPC of Ohio, dba Klutch Cannabis (Akron-based cultivator, processor and retailer): $155,000
• Standard Wellness (Gibsonburg-based cultivator, processor and retailer): $117,500
• Riviera Creek (Youngstown-based cultivator and processor): $62,500
• Buckeye Relief (Eastlake-based cultivator, processor and retailer): $50,000
Other CRMLA contributors comprise the following:
• Battle Green Holdings (a Columbus provider of services for the cannabis industry, including financing, intellectual property licensing and real estate support): $172,500
• JVA Campaigns (a Columbus political consulting and public relations firm): $14,250
• Battleground Strategies (a political consulting and public relations firm in Wisconsin): $9,000
CRMLA assembled in 2021 for the purpose of legalizing recreational marijuana for Ohioans aged 21 and older through what's known as an initiated statute.
The proposed law contains a variety of other rules and regulations as well. For examples, if passed, the CRMLA's measure would: permit home grow for adults 21 and older with a limit of six plants per adult but 12 plants per household; establish a new, single regulatory agency, the Division of Cannabis Control; and levy a 10% excise tax for adult-use sales with guidelines for the use of marijuana tax revenues.
As an initiated statute, the campaign must collect a certain number of voter signatures to submit its proposed law to the General Assembly.
Once transmitted to the legislature, lawmakers have four months to pass the measure as presented. If the statute is not passed in that time, the campaign behind it has an opportunity to collect additional petitions to bring the measure directly to voters as a referendum.
That's the stage that the CRMLA is at today.
After mobilizing in 2021, the CRMLA was on track for its proposed law to be placed on the ballot in fall 2022. Organizers wanted that because that was a gubernatorial election, which typically has a higher voter turnout.
However, conservative lawmakers blocked the initiative from reaching the ballot last year after raising technicality questions about whether CRMLA actually met required filing deadlines for submission of its petitions.
While the CRMLA was prepared to fight back, a settlement was reached that let the CRMLA resubmit its proposed law to the General Assembly with previously gathered signatures at the start of 2023.
As expected, lawmakers took no action on the bill. And as of May 5, the CRMLA has begun collecting its second tranche of signatures to bring the measure before voters.
The deadline for the CRMLA to submit petitions to qualify for this fall's ballot is July 5.
CRMLA spokesperson Tom Haren has every bit of confidence that the measure not only makes it to the ballot but gets approved by voters.
Spurring that confidence is the apparent popularity of marijuana legalization in Ohio and across the country.
Gallup surveys show that a steady 68% of U.S. adults favor legalizing marijuana for recreational use.
Another poll conducted last fall for Spectrum News by the Siena College Research Institute found that 60% of Ohioans support adult-use cannabis laws.
"Our proposal takes the best practices from other states while building off the existing medical marijuana framework," Haren said. "We think we will have a best-in-class regulatory framework and that our proposal will be a model for the other half of the country to build their programs."
