By Benjie Cooper
IG: @nuglifenews
YouTube: Lucid’s Vlog
An initiative has officially begun its journey toward the ballot box with hopes of winning the voters’ approval and putting the high in Ohio.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine certified the Marijuana Rights and Regulations Act last week on the 10th before sending it to the Ohio Ballot Board for their review. After meeting Thursday, the Board certified the initiative, giving Ohio Families for Change (OFC) the go-ahead to begin collecting signatures.
The measure would “endow the Rights of persons in Ohio age 21 years and older to possess, cultivate, possess, use, transport, sell, purchase, and share marijuana in Ohio.”
OFC had initially hoped to gather enough signatures to meet the deadline on July 4, but collecting 305,591 of them before then is unlikely. Instead, the group is aiming for next year, striving to place their initiative on the 2019 ballot.
“Ohio Families for Change is pleased that the Ohio Ballot Board approved the Marijuana Rights and Regulations Amendment as a single issue,” said campaign consultant Jonathon Varner in a statement. “A core concept of our proposal is that it provides equal footing for small business owners and entrepreneurs in Ohio, in contrast to past marijuana efforts that would have kept the power in the hands of a select few.
If the OFC initiative becomes law, Ohio’s state medical marijuana amendment, which voters approved in 2016, would be unaffected.
