Marijuana issue on the ballot

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By Frank Lewis

[email protected]

If you live in Ohio you will definitely be voting on the issue of legalization of marijuana. On Wednesday, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office certified the petition for the proposed Cannabis Control Amendment to the Ohio Constitution.

On June 8, the Attorney General’s Office received a written petition to amend the Ohio Constitution, entitled “Cannabis Control Amendment,” from the group Ohioans to End Prohibition. The submission was certified on Wednesday as containing both the necessary 1,000 valid signatures from registered Ohio voters and a “fair and truthful” summary of the proposed amendment. The actual number of signatures affixed to the petition was 1,977.

“Without passing upon the advisability of the approval or rejection of the measure to be referred … I hereby certify that the summary is a fair and truthful statement of the proposed law,” DeWine said in his certification letter.

Once the summary language and initial signatures are certified, the Ohio Ballot Board must determine if the amendment contains a single issue or multiple issues. The petitioners must then collect signatures for each issue from registered voters in each of 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, equal to 5 percent of the total vote cast in the county for the office of governor at the last gubernatorial election. None of the signatures were collected in Scioto County. Total signatures collected statewide must also equal 10 percent of the total vote cast for the office of governor at the last gubernatorial election.

In part, the amendment reads – “Persons age 21 or older may purchase, use, gift or trade, marijuana paraphernalia, marijuana and marijuana products. Marijuana products include marijuana infused solids, marijuana infused liquids and marijuana concentrates.”

The full text of DeWine’s letter and of the amendment petitions submitted can be found at www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov/BallotInitiatives.

Reach Frank Lewis at 740-353-3101, ext. 1928, or on Twitter @franklewis.

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