As the elections have now finished, Ohioans made it clear they want institutional rights for Issues 1 and 2 with both passing on Nov. 7, 2023 by drastic margins.
56.6% of Ohioans voted yes on Issue 1, making the institutional abortion protections and reproductive rights a permanent addition into the state’s constitution.
57% of Ohioans voted yes on Issue 2, legalizing the recreational use of cannabis.
Ohio has joined the collection of states that have legalized abortion following the overturn of Roe v. Wade. This is an amendment to the state constitution.
Allowing for protections for abortion and other reproductive rights will not stop with Ohio. This will be on the ballot for many other states in the country during the next year’s presidential elections.
Following this new amendment, abortion is legal until 22 weeks of pregnancy. This is a big shift from the previous heartbeat bills that allowed for abortions until the fetus’ cardiac activity.
Following the vote, Ohio became the 24th state to officially legalize the use of recreational marijuana.
This legalization will take 30 days to go into effect. On Dec. 7, 2023, recreational use and possession of 2.5 grams of cannabis will be legal.
Following this day, cannabis will be regulated similarly to alcohol. Only citizens of the age of 21 and over will be allowed to participate in recreational use under these provisions.
Ohioans are also allowed to grow 6 to 12 plants per household—without the possession of a license.
Pew Research completed a survey in 2022 which found nearly nine in 10 US adults say marijuana should be legal for either medical and recreational use by adults.
In Ohio, 57% of voters voted for the legalization of cannabis—totaling over 2 million citizens.
Governor DeWine has already made it clear he has accepted these results. However, DeWine has said he will do what he can to protect citizens, especially young children, from cannabis.
According to Spectrum News, Dewine stated, “We’ve already seen an uptick in the number of children going to our emergency rooms because they ingested and ate what looked to be a brownie,” DeWine said. “What looked like a cookie, and we know that those numbers will go up, but we have every responsibility to do everything we can to keep those numbers down as much as we can.”
