Ohio Right to Marijuana Use Initiative (2020)

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Ohio Right to Marijuana Use Initiative
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Election date
November 3, 2020
Topic
Marijuana
Status
Not on the ballot
Type
Constitutional amendment		Origin
Citizens

The Ohio Right to Marijuana Use Initiative was not on the ballot in Ohio as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 3, 2020.[1]

The initiative would have added a new section to Article I of the Ohio Constitution and made the following changes:[2]

  • state there is a right to use marijuana,
  • regulate where marijuana can be used,
  • allow employers to continue to enforce drug-free workplace policies, and
  • authorize Ohio General Assembly to amend certain marijuana regulations.

Text of measure

Ballot title

The title for this measure submitted by petitioners was as follows:[2]

“

Marijuana Rights and Regulation[3]

”

Full text

The full text of the measure is available here.

Background

Recreational marijuana in the United States

See also: History of marijuana ballot measures and laws

As of July 2019, 11 states and the District of Columbia had legalized marijuana for recreational purposes; nine through statewide citizen initiatives, and two through bills approved by state legislatures and signed by governors. Colorado and Washington both opted to legalize recreational marijuana in 2012. In a subsequent Colorado measure, voters enacted a statewide marijuana taxation system. The three ballot measures that passed in 2014 were Oregon's Measure 91, Alaska's Measure 2, and the District of Columbia's Initiative 71. Voters in California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada approved recreational marijuana legalization ballot measures in November 2016. The Vermont State Legislature approved a bill in mid-January 2018 to allow recreational marijuana, and Gov. Phil Scott (R) signed it into law on January 22, 2018. Gov. Scott vetoed a previous bill to legalize marijuana in May 2017. On June 25, 2019, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill into law legalizing the use and possession of recreational marijuana. Initiatives legalizing recreational marijuana were on the ballot in November 2018 in Michigan and North Dakota. The Michigan initiative was approved, and the North Dakota initiative was defeated.[4][5]

The map below details the status of recreational marijuana legalization in the states as of November 2018. States shaded in green had legalized recreational marijuana usage (the shades of green indicate the years in which ballot measures were adopted; light green indicates measures approved in 2012, medium green indicates measures approved in 2014, medium-dark green indicates measures approved in 2016, and dark green indicates measures approved in 2018). The states shaded in dark gray had defeated ballot measures that proposed to legalize recreational marijuana. States in blue had recreational marijuana approved by the state legislature and signed by the governor. The remaining states (those shaded in light gray) had not legalized recreational marijuana.

Recreational marijuana legalization measures, 2012-2020

The following table provides information on the political context of the states that had voted on legalization measures as of 2022.

Click "Show" to expand the table.

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Ohio

In Ohio, the number of signatures required to get an initiated constitutional amendment placed on the ballot is equal to 10 percent of the votes cast in the preceding gubernatorial election. Ohio also requires initiative sponsors to submit 1,000 signatures with the initial petition application. Ohio has a signature distribution requirement, which requires that signatures be gathered from at least 44 of Ohio's 88 counties. Petitioners must gather signatures equal to a minimum of half the total required percentage of the gubernatorial vote in each of the 44 counties. Petitions are allowed to circulate for an indefinite period of time. Signatures are due 125 days prior to the general election that proponents want the initiative on.

The requirements to get an initiated constitutional amendment certified for the 2020 ballot:

County boards of elections are responsible for verifying signatures, and the secretary of state must determine the sufficiency of the signature petition at least 105 days before the election. If the first batch of signatures is determined to be insufficient, the petitioners are given a ten-day window to collect more signatures.

Stages of this initiative

  • On March 17, 2020, Chad Alan Spohn filed the initiative with Ohio Attorney General.[1]
  • On March 23, 2020, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost rejected the petition because local county boards found that only 271 of the 1,248 signatures submitted were valid. Initiative petitions are required to submit 1,000 valid signatures when the petitions are filed.[6]

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ohio Attorney General, "List of petitions submitted to the Attorney General's Office," accessed March 17, 2020
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named fulltext
  3. ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  4. ↑ The Hill, "Vermont governor vetoes marijuana legalization," May 24, 2017
  5. ↑ Associated Press, "Illinois becomes 11th state to allow recreational marijuana," June 25, 2019
  6. ↑ Ohio Attorney General, "Letter to Petitioners," accessed March 24, 2020
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