By Benjie Cooper
IG: @nuglifenews
YouTube: Lucid’s Vlog
Ohio AG Mike DeWine
Ohio’s medical marijuana program will be fully operational by September, but residents of the Buckeye State might be getting the chance to vote on marijuana legalization as well in the not-too-distant future.
Thursday, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine certified petition language for the “Marijuana Rights and Regulations” amendment, a measure to allow adults 21 years of age and older to produce, distribute, sell, purchase, share, and use cannabis.
The initiative’s next stop will be the Ohio Ballot Board where a bipartisan panel of lawmakers will determine whether the measure should be listed as one ballot issue, or as multiple ones.
Once the board gives its approval, supporters of the initiative will need to collect 305,591 signatures from registered Ohio voters before it qualifies for the ballot.
The measure’s sponsor, Ohio Families for Change, was hoping to have it on the November 2018 ballot, but aren’t expecting to have enough signatures by the July 4 deadline for this year’s election.
Prior to his recent acceptance of the initiative’s language, DeWine rejected it in April due to problems he saw in the text.
In 2015, Ohio voters opted not to pass a constitutional amendment that would have legalized marijuana in the state but would have forced all cultivation to be done at ten sites promised to campaign investors.
The newly-certified initiative places no limit on the number of commercial cultivation sites that can exist in Ohio and allows people to grow at home for personal use.
