COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Republican lawmakers continue to draft legislation restricting access to recreational marijuana, angering citizens across the political spectrum.
But when one of the most powerful leaders is urging for restrictions, claiming that marijuana increases crime, viewers and readers asked me to look into it, said Morgan Trau of Cleveland News 5.
First, let’s break down the current law. If you are 21 years old or older, you can smoke, vape, and ingest marijuana. Individually, you can grow six plants, but you can grow up to 12 plants per household if you live with others.
You can have up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana in all forms except for concentrates, which you can only have up to 15 grams.
What are the lawmakers trying to do?
There are two bills being proposed by legislators — Senate Bill 56 and House Bill 160. Both make dozens of changes to cannabis access, but most notably, S.B. 56 limits THC content and reduces home growing to six plants while H.B. 160 limits THC and keeps home growing the same.
For deep dives into each proposal, click here for Senate version and here for House version
Why are they trying to make these changes?
Although House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) was addressing a question about local governments having their fair share of the tax revenue from marijuana, he made some statements about crime that caught my interest.
“Those local governments, by and large, are going to use the revenue to deal with the problems that are caused by more marijuana being available in the community — we’re going to have more crime; we’re going to have more addiction problems,” Huffman said.
“Really?” He responded incredulously.
When I nodded, he laughed and said he would give me what he thought was an equivalent. This was alcohol.
“The more alcohol is available, the more people drink and the more bad behavior results… That’s what happens with marijuana and other substances that cause people to think poorly when they take it,” he said.
He also said that it is linked to an increase in suicides if teens get access to it.
“I think that it’s pretty clear that the science shows real problems, and we’ll have to deal with it,” he added.
But Case Western Reserve University Law professor Jonathan H. Adler, who also wrote ‘Marijuana Federalism: Uncle Sam and Mary Jane,’ a book on the intersection of marijuana legalization, law and crime, corrected Huffman.
“When you look at crime statistics in jurisdictions that have taken this step, you don’t see dramatic effects on crime and certainly don’t see evidence of significant negative effects on crime, or increases in crime, that some people fear,” Adler said. “There’s evidence that suggests some sorts of crime may, in fact, decline.”
Legalization of adult-use cannabis “appears to reduce highway fatalities, appears to reduce some types of violent crime,” he continued.
Even OVI incidents and enforcements in Ohio are down from 2024, before legal sales went into effect. As of March 2, there have been hundreds fewer in 2025 than this time last year, according to data from the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Dozens of studies done over decades have had differing results, which is why Adler warns about using absolutes as Huffman did.
“People on various sides of the debate about marijuana legalization cherry-pick the studies that support their priors,” the professor continued. “But when you look at the broader reviews of the literature as a whole, they don’t see these big effects.”
Read more at Cleveland News 5
