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An initiative to legalize marijuana will not appear on Ohio\u2019s November ballot, the campaign behind the measure announced on Friday. But activists did reach a settlement with state officials in a legal challenge that will give them a chance to hit the ground running in 2023.<\/p>\n
The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CTRMLA) filed a lawsuit last month seeking declaratory judgement<\/a> amid concerns that they might be challenged over the\u00a0timing of the group\u2019s initial signature submission<\/a> for the reform measure.<\/p>\n But while activists had hoped the court would grant relief to enable them to collect additional signatures for ballot placement this year, they instead reached a compromise with the secretary of state and legislative leaders that puts them on a path to bring the reform measure before voters in 2023.<\/p>\n The process to qualify this measure for the ballot has been complicated, so here\u2019s some background:<\/p>\n Advocates first needed to turn in a first batch of at least 132,887 valid signatures to the state to initiate a process whereby lawmakers would then have four months to consider the proposal and decide whether to act on it. They did that, but the legislature declined to move on reform<\/a>.<\/p>\n Without legislative action after four months, the campaign would then need to submit another 132,887 signatures to place the issue on the ballot.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what they were prepared to do, until the campaign was made aware of certain conversations among legislative officials and the attorney general\u2019s office about whether the state Constitution would permit ballot placement considering the timeline for the initial signature turn-in and certification by the secretary of state.<\/p>\n It came down to a question of whether the activist-led initiative needed to be submitted\u00a0and<\/em> certified within ten days of the start of the legislative session.<\/p>\n In an ideal world for advocates, the court considering their lawsuit would have decided that the initial submission fell within the appropriate timeline and allowed them to begin the second round of signature gathering. Short of that, however, the campaign included in its legal challenge an alternative option whereby the first 132,887 signatures they turned in would be resubmitted at the start of the 2023 legislative session, prompting another four month window for lawmakers to consider advancing the reform.<\/p>\n The state and activists settled on that option, meaning the campaign will be set up to start collecting a second round for ballot placement if lawmakers don\u2019t act again\u2014instead of having to start the whole process all over again.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most important thing for us was preserving an opportunity for Ohio voters to decide this issue,\u201d Tom Haren of CTRMLA said in a press release on Friday. \u201cWe are delighted to have reached this settlement, which has preserved our initial signatures, provided the General Assembly with a second opportunity to consider the proposed statute, and established a clear path to ballot access in 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be certain: we aren\u2019t going anywhere and are undeterred in our goal to legalize cannabis for all adults in Ohio,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a pair of Ohio Democratic lawmakers recently filed a bill to legalize marijuana<\/a> that directly mirrors the proposed initiative that activists are pursuing, but it is not expected to advance in the legislature.<\/p>\n Reps. Casey Weinstein (D) and Terrence Upchurch (D) are sponsoring the legislation, which is virtually identical to the CTRMLA citizen initiative. The lawmakers announced the plan on the unofficial cannabis holiday 4\/20.<\/p>\n \u2014 Weinstein and Upchurch\u00a0filed a separate legalization bill<\/a>\u2014the first in state history\u2014last summer. But that measure has not advanced. Meanwhile, a GOP legislator who\u2019s sponsoring a\u00a0different bill to tax and regulate cannabis<\/a>\u00a0recently tempered expectations about the chances for legislative reform, signaling that the issue will\u00a0likely have to be decided by voters<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ohio voters rejected a 2015 legalization initiative that faced criticism from many reform advocates because of an oligopolistic model that would\u2019ve granted exclusive control over cannabis production to the very funders who paid to put the measure on the ballot.<\/p>\n Activists suspended a subsequent campaign to\u00a0place a legalization measure on the 2020 ballot<\/a>\u00a0due to the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n A recent poll found that a\u00a0slim majority of Ohio voters would support<\/a>\u00a0marijuana legalization at the ballot.<\/p>\n There are also local reform efforts underway in Ohio for 2022.<\/p>\n Advocates say that counties have recently certified ballot measures to put local cannabis reform measures before voters<\/a> in Laurelville and Shawnee, for example.<\/p>\n And voters in Kent\u2014where activists already successfully proved that they\u00a0turned in enough valid signatures to put a local decriminalization initiative<\/a>\u00a0before voters after clearing up a verification error on the part of county officials last year\u2014will also decide on reform this year.<\/p>\n Several other jurisdictions\u2014including Ashville, Canton, Chippewa Lake, Gloria Glens Park, Harbor View, Helena, Lodi, McArthur, New Boston, Otway, Portsmouth, Rarden, Rushville, Rutland, South Webster, Sugar Grove and West Salem\u2014are also actively being targeted by activists with NORML and Sensible Movement Coalition (SMC) for reform measures this year.<\/p>\n The local developments come after voters in seven cities approved ballot measures to decriminalize marijuana possession<\/a>\u00a0during last November\u2019s election, building on a slew of previous local reforms in the state.<\/p>\n Prior to that election, more than 20\u00a0jurisdictions across the state had already adopted local statues<\/a>\u00a0effectively decriminalizing possession\u2014some of which have been passed by voter initiatives while others were adopted by city councils in major cities like Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland.<\/p>\n Read the text<\/a> of the settlement in the marijuana legalization ballot case below:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Seven In Ten Biden Voters Support National Marijuana Legalization, New Poll Finds<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Ohio Will Not Vote On Marijuana This November, But Lawsuit Settlement Puts Legalization Activists On Path For 2023<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
An initiative to legalize marijuana will not appear on Ohio\u2019s November ballot, the campaign behind the measure announced on Friday. But activists did reach a settlement with state officials in a legal challenge that will give them a chance to hit the ground running in 2023. The Coalition to RegulateContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":54706,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54705"}],"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=54705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54707,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54705\/revisions\/54707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Ohio Will Not Vote On Marijuana This November, But Lawsuit Settlement Puts Legalization Activists On Path For 2023<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"