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A federal court on Wednesday ruled that a lawsuit from Ohio marijuana activists concerning proposed decriminalization measures they wanted to place on local 2020 ballots across the state could not proceed despite their repeated attempts to seek petitioning relief amid the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n
The case before the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit proved unsuccessful, with judges deciding that the challenge was no longer relevant because last year\u2019s election has passed and the case was therefore moot.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout a time machine, we cannot go back and place plaintiffs\u2019 initiatives on the 2020 ballot,\u201d the panel said, referring to the 2020 lawsuit from the Sensible Movement Coalition (SMC) that sought to force officials to allow electronic signature gathering and make other changes to rules to accommodate the decriminalization campaigns in the early part of the pandemic.<\/p>\n
A federal judge did rule in the group\u2019s favor last year<\/a>, but the appellate court subsequently shot it down. The U.S. Supreme Court also declined to take up the case following an appeal.<\/p>\n Because SMC\u2019s complaint was directly connected with the 2020 election, the appellate judges said the plaintiffs can\u2019t \u201cget any of the relief they asked for.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe need not restate the facts at length,\u201d they said. \u201cThe short of it is this: Plaintiffs are three Ohio voters. They regularly circulate petitions to get initiatives on local and statewide ballots. For the 2020 election cycle, plaintiffs hoped to place initiatives on municipal ballots to decriminalize marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPlaintiffs sought specific relief. They challenged Ohio\u2019s ballot-access laws as applied to the unique circumstances existing during the 2020 election,\u201d the judges wrote. \u201cBut because of intervening events\u2014the passing of the election and the rescission of Ohio\u2019s stay-at-home orders and emergency declaration\u2014we cannot give plaintiffs what they ask for.\u201d<\/p>\n SMC has pushed back against the notion that its case is irrelevant just because the 2020 has election passed. The group said that it could\u2019ve continued to collect signatures between March and July to qualify the initiatives for this year\u2019s election if the court has approved the alternative petitioning process.<\/p>\n But the court contended that \u201ceven if that\u2019s true, this is the first time plaintiffs are saying so,\u201d and so they would not entertain the argument.<\/p>\n Finally, activists argued that the same pandemic-related circumstances that necessitated electronic petitioning and the other changes they requested\u2014included deadline extensions and reduced signature requirements\u2014may well apply in 2021, as the health crisis is not over. The judges said flatly that \u201cthis speculation does not get the job done,\u201d as Law 360 first reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOhioans had to make sacrifices as the state responded to COVID-19. We appreciate the difficulties the virus posed to plaintiffs\u2019 efforts to gather signatures for their initiatives. But the event for which plaintiffs sought relief has passed. So their claims are now moot. We affirm the district court\u2019s dismissal of their complaint.\u201d<\/p>\n SMC has been behind more than a dozen successful decriminalization initiatives<\/a>, and they\u2019re actively working to place additional reform measures before voters<\/a> at the local level this year.<\/p>\n Another group of Ohio marijuana activists have a separate plan to legalize cannabis in the state as lawmakers pursue reform legislation. The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CTRMLA) on Tuesday announced a new effort to implore legislators to enact the policy change<\/a>.<\/p>\n The group submitted the requisite 1,000 signatures to the Ohio attorney general\u2019s office on Tuesday. Officials now have 10 days to review the summary and text to ensure that it is \u201cfair and truthful\u201d and approve it for circulation. Several existing medical cannabis businesses are backing the measure.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, state Rep. Casey Weinstein (D) recently announced he will be sponsoring legislation alongside Rep. Terrence Upchurch (D) this session that would\u00a0legalize and regulate marijuana in the state<\/a>. It would mark the first time such a proposal to allow recreational cannabis commerce has been introduced in the legislature<\/p>\n \u2014 \u201cOhioans and Americans are way out ahead on this issue, and the comfort level with first decriminalization and medical marijuana and then full legalization is just so far beyond where legislators are,\u201d Weinstein told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview about his bill. \u201cThis is an effort to close that gap and catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n Weinstein\u2019s bill would would legalize possession of up to five ounces of cannabis for adults 21 and older and allow them to cultivate up to 12 plants for personal use. It will also include provisions to expunge prior convictions for possession and cultivation activities that are being made legal under the measure.<\/p>\n The separate proposed law that CTRMLA is pushing would legalize possession of up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis for adults 21 and older, and they could also have up to 15 grams of marijuana concentrates. Individuals could grow up to six plants for personal use, with a maximum 12 plants per household.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a notable departure from the failed 2015 legalization ballot initiative, which faced criticism from advocates because of an oligopolistic model that would\u2019ve granted exclusive control over cannabis production to the very funders who paid to place it before voters.<\/p>\n Read the text of the court\u2019s ruling on the Ohio marijuana case below:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Ohio marijuana case<\/a> by Marijuana Moment<\/a><\/p>\n House Approves Marijuana Banking, Employment And D.C. Sales Provisions In Large-Scale Spending Bill<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Federal Court Rejects Ohio Marijuana Activists\u2019 Challenge Over 2020 Decriminalization Initiatives<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A federal court on Wednesday ruled that a lawsuit from Ohio marijuana activists concerning proposed decriminalization measures they wanted to place on local 2020 ballots across the state could not proceed despite their repeated attempts to seek petitioning relief amid the coronavirus pandemic. The case before the U.S. Circuit CourtContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":49148,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49147"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49149,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49147\/revisions\/49149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Federal Court Rejects Ohio Marijuana Activists\u2019 Challenge Over 2020 Decriminalization Initiatives<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"