Several thousand marijuana enthusiasts will descend upon Waverly next month for the second annual Stargazer Cannabis Festival. It may also be the last.
"We're very sad about that fact, and it would be very ironic that this festival was conceived out of a celebration for legalization, and then ironically, the law will make it illegal," festival organizer Chad Thompson said.
Thompson is concerned about changes to cannabis laws in consideration at the state and federal level that would minimize or eliminate the three-day cannabis festival. Ohio lawmakers have weighed multiple changes to Ohio's recreational marijuana laws, which passed in 2023 with 57% of the vote. Federally, a provision currently included in the "Big Beautiful Bill" would prohibit most products that use hemp-derived THC.
Under the new federal proposal, the U.S. would redefine which hemp products are legal. Hemp was redefined in President Donald Trump's first term to mean cannabis that has minimal THC levels, 0.3% or lower. People have used this definition to synthetically manufacture cannabis products that are both legal and intoxicating. The budget draft would ban those hemp products, making ingestible hemp federally illegal again.
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