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Ohio voters approved a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana<\/a> on Tuesday, making the state the 24th in the U.S. to end prohibition.<\/p>\n The measure, campaigned for by the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CTRMLA), establishes a regulatory framework to allow adults 21 and older to purchase, possess and cultivate cannabis. Recent surveys signaled it was in a strong position to pass\u2014in spite of opposition from the governor and GOP state lawmakers.<\/p>\n
Results tracker sponsored by\u00a0 \u201cMarijuana is no longer a controversial issue,\u201d Tom Haren, spokesperson for the campaign, told Marijuana Moment. \u201cOhioans demonstrated this by passing State Issue 2 in a landslide. Ohioans are being extremely clear on the future they want for our state: adult-use marijuana legal and regulated.\u201d<\/p>\n Voters were presented with summary language for the initiative\u2014designated as Issue 2\u2014that says the measure will legalize and regulate \u201cthe cultivation, processing, sale, purchase, possession, home grow, and use of cannabis by adults at least twenty-one years of age.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA broad, bipartisan and diverse array of Ohioans spoke clearly tonight,\u201d Ohio Rep. Casey Weinstein (D), who has championed legalization in the legislature, told Marijuana Moment on Tuesday. \u201cThe time to legalize marijuana has come. I hope the leaders in the legislature will heed their call and honor the will of the vote.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the approve measure, the legalization of possession of up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana and cultivation of up to six plants (or 12 if two or more adults live in the same household) will become effective on December 7. Officials must get rules in place to start approving licensed retailers within nine months of the effective date.<\/p>\n Here are the key provisions of the Ohio legalization ballot measure<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cCannabis legalization is an issue that unites Democrats, Republicans and Independents,\u201d NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said on Tuesday. \u201cOhioans have seen similar legalization laws adopted in neighboring states and they know that regulating the cannabis market is preferable to the failed policy of prohibition. It is imperative that elected officials respect the voters\u2019 decision and implement this measure in a manner that is consistent with the sentiments of the majority of the electorate.\u201d<\/p>\n Matthew Schweich, interim executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) told Marijuana Moment that Tuesday\u2019s vote \u201cshows that a cannabis legalization campaign can win anytime and anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMore importantly, the people of Ohio will benefit greatly from a cannabis policy based on common sense and fairness,\u201d he said. \u201cThe plague of cannabis prohibition has finally been lifted from the Buckeye State.\u201d<\/p>\n The Ohio measure underwent an extensive path to passage that took activists to the courts, the legislature and finally the ballot.<\/p>\n Organizers first tried putting the measure on the state\u2019s 2022 ballot, but procedural complications prevented that from happening. They turned in enough signatures to trigger a legislative review by lawmakers, but the timing of their initial submission was challenged.<\/p>\n CTRMLA filed suit to force ballot placement, but that was unsuccessful with respect to the 2022 election. However,\u00a0the state agreed to a settlement<\/a>\u00a0that meant supporters would not have to collect the first round of initial signatures again and that the initiative would be immediately retransmitted to the legislature at the start of the 2023 session.<\/p>\n Once the signatures were transmitted to lawmaker this year, they had four months to act on the proposal but declined to do so. Advocates\u00a0then collected the remaining signatures for ballot placement<\/a>, which were officially certified by the state in August. The\u00a0Ohio Ballot Board finalized the summary language later that month<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014 Over recent months, polls have shown consistent majority support for the reform. For example, one survey released last month found that\u00a059 percent of respondents planned to vote yes on Issue 2<\/a>, while 39 percent opposed it.<\/p>\n Another poll of likely voters published last month found that\u00a057 percent supported the legalization measure, including a slim majority of Republicans<\/a>.<\/p>\n A survey of 35 state lawmakers found that\u00a0majorities of both Democrats (63 percent) and Republicans (52 percent) expected voters to approve the measure<\/a>\u00a0regardless of their own opinions about it.<\/p>\n But while Ohio lawmakers might have expected the initiative to pass, many Republican elected officials didn\u2019t want it to. As early voting kicked off late last month, the GOP-controlled Senate passed a resolution urging residents to reject measure<\/a>.<\/p>\n What happens next in the legislature remains to be seen. Senate President Matt Huffman (R) said last month that\u00a0it\u2019s \u201ccoming right back before this body\u201d for lawmakers to amend<\/a>. Huffman later clarified that he wouldn\u2019t seek to repeal the legalization plan entirely but would\u00a0instead \u201cadvocate for reviewing it and repealing things or changing things that are in it.\u201d<\/p>\n A number of Ohio lawmakers said in September that they\u00a0doubted the legislature would seek to repeal a voter-passed legalization law<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ahead of the vote, both sides of the campaign stepped up messaging and get-out-the-vote efforts as the election drew near. Last month, the yes campaign sent cease and desist letters to TV stations airing what organizers called opposition advertisements \u201cfilled with lies.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0And CTRMLA put out a pro-Issue 2 election ad of its own.<\/p>\n Last month, the yes campaign put out another ad, which\u00a0mocks Ohio from the perspective of a neighboring Michigan town<\/a>\u00a0for losing tax revenue when Ohioans drive across state borders to buy marijuana from licensed stores.<\/p>\n The ad came days after a new economic analysis found that Issue 2 would likely produce around $260 million in net benefits to the state on an annual basis.<\/p>\n \u201cOur simulation model suggests that in 90 percent of likely scenarios, recreational marijuana legalization will have a positive net economic benefit on society,\u201d that report said. The modeling also predicted that \u201cextremely positive results are more likely than extremely negative results.\u201d<\/p>\n A separate analysis published in August by Ohio State University researchers found the change\u00a0could bring in $404 million in annual tax revenue<\/a>.<\/p>\n Attorney General Dave Yost (R), meanwhile,\u00a0published an analysis of the initiative<\/a>\u00a0that he said is meant to provide voters with \u201cvital clarity and transparency\u201d amid a campaign that has seen \u201cinflamed and inaccurate\u201d rhetoric.<\/p>\n Despite the GOP-led resolution, other Republicans officials in Ohio\u00a0remain divided on the issue<\/a>. Gov. Mike DeWine (R) has said he believes \u201cit would be a real mistake for us to have recreational marijuana,\u201d adding that he visited Colorado following its move to legalize in 2012 and saw what he described as an \u201cunmitigated disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike the top state Republican lawmakers, one of the state\u2019s GOP representatives in Congress\u2014Rep Dave Joyce, co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, said in September that\u00a0he would be voting in favor of the initiative in November<\/a>. He encouraged \u201call Ohio voters to participate and make their voices heard on this important issue.\u201d<\/p>\n Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said late last month\u00a0he voted in favor of the legalization ballot initiative<\/a>, calling it a \u201chard decision\u201d but one that was based on his belief that the reform would promote \u201csafety\u201d for consumers.<\/p>\n Ohio voters rejected a 2015 measure, on a 64\u201336 vote, that would have amended the state\u2019s constitution to legalize marijuana and give control of the market to a small group of producers. Organizers for the current campaign said they\u00a0drew on lessons learned from that failure<\/a>\u00a0in crafting the current initiative.<\/p>\n Bipartisan Ohio lawmakers\u00a0filed a separate bill to legalize marijuana in May<\/a>, offering the legislature another opportunity to take the lead on the reform.<\/p>\n Congressional Committee Urges DOJ To Study \u2018Adequacy\u2019 Of State Marijuana Laws And Address Federal Research Barriers<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Ohio Voters Approve Marijuana Legalization Ballot Initiative, Making It The 24th State To End Prohibition<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Ohio voters approved a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana on Tuesday, making the state the 24th in the U.S. to end prohibition. The measure, campaigned for by the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CTRMLA), establishes a regulatory framework to allow adults 21 and older to purchase, possess and cultivateContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":70000,"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\/69999"}],"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=69999"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70001,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69999\/revisions\/70001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Ohio Voters Approve Marijuana Legalization Ballot Initiative, Making It The 24th State To End Prohibition<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"