Ohio Attorney General Rejects Recreational Marijuana Legalization Petition

An amendment to the Ohio Constitution legalizing recreational marijuana has been rejected by the state’s Attorney General. The written petition was received on April 9. The petition was titled, “Marijuana Rights and Regulations Amendment.”

Several reasons for its rejection were provide by the Attorney General’s Office, The Sunbury News reports. One reason being that the General Assembly would determine the regulations for “marijuana commerce” in the state, but the language wasn’t accurate. The summary of the amendment was also lacking regulatory structure guidelines allowing individual municipalities to vote whether to allow the businesses as well as a 240-day period to enact rules, regulations and necessary laws.

Mike DeWine said, in his rejection letter, that, “For these reasons, I am unable to certify the summary as a fair and truthful statement of the proposed amendment. However, I must caution that this letter is not to represent an exhaustive list of all defects of the submitted summary.”

For a constitutional amendment proposal to move forward in Ohio, it must contain the proper summary language and at least 1,000 Ohio voter signatures. The signatures must be valid. The Ohio Ballot Board then examines the materials and looks for issues. If it moves past this state, signatures must be obtained in at least half of Ohio’s counties and equal 5-percent of the total votes projected for that county. The statewide signatures collected must equal 10-percent of the total votes cast for the last gubernatorial election.

It has not been stated whether adjustments will be made to start the process again to have enough time to get the initiative on November ballots.