Oklahoma Marijuana Legalization Constitutional Amendment Initiative (2018)
| Oklahoma Marijuana Legalization Constitutional Amendment Initiative | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 6, 2018 | |
| Topic Marijuana | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type Constitutional amendment | Origin Citizens |
The Oklahoma Marijuana Legalization Constitutional Amendment Initiative was not on the ballot in Oklahoma as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 6, 2018.
Proponents of the measure failed to submit the required number of valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.[1]
Measure design
This measure would have allowed persons 21-years-old and older to possess and consume limited amounts of marijuana. The measure would have provided regulation of marijuana such as licensing cultivation facilities, product manufacturing, testing, and retail stores. The measure would have permitted local governments to regulate or prohibit the facilities. It would have also required the general assembly to enact an excise tax on the wholesale sale of marijuana and require that the first $40 million in revenue per year be credited to the public school construction assistance fund. The measure would have required the general assembly to enact legislation governing the cultivation, processing, and sale of industrial hemp.[2][3]
Text of measure
Full text
The full text of the measure is available here.
Sponsors
- Green the Vote sponsored this initiative, as well as a related measure they filed, the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Constitutional Amendment Initiative, State Question 796.[4]
Arguments
- Isaac Caviness of Green the Vote said, "We look at 796 and 797 as an insurance policy to make sure (State Question) 788 does not get over-regulated. Nobody in Oklahoma right now is happy that their tax dollars are being spent to incarcerate people and their tax dollars aren’t being spent on education.”[5]
Path to the ballot
The state process
In Oklahoma, the number of signatures required to qualify an initiated constitutional amendment for the ballot is equal to 15 percent of the votes cast for governor in the previous gubernatorial election. Signatures must be submitted 90 days after the initiative is cleared for circulation by the secretary of state. Measures are generally placed on the next general election ballot following signature verification, but the governor may call a special election or place the measure on the primary ballot. If petitioners are targeting a specific election, the secretary of state recommends that signatures be submitted eight months prior to the election; however, they must be submitted a minimum of 60 days before the election to make the ballot.
The requirements to get an initiated constitutional amendment certified for the 2018 ballot:
- Signatures: 123,725 valid signatures were required.
- Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures was September 8, 2018; each initiative has a specific deadline as well.
The secretary of state verifies signatures and submits the totals and the vote totals that determine the requirement to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which makes the final determination of sufficiency.
Details about this initiative
- This initiative was filed with the Oklahoma Secretary of State on April 3, 2018.[2]
- Signature collection for this initiative began on May 11, 2018. Signatures were due on August 8, 2018.[3]
- As of July 29, 2018, proponents of the initiative said they had gathered around 132,527 signatures.[6]
- On August 7, 2018, Tulsa World reported that Green the Vote leaders inflated the number of signatures they had collected as a way to boost morale among supporters. Tulsa World wrote, "Dody Sullivan and longtime Green the Vote leader Isaac Caviness had seen several petition drives fail over the past years as they and others tried to win a vote that would let Oklahomans decide on legalizing marijuana. So toward the beginning of the petition drive for signatures, when numbers appeared to be on the low side, Sullivan and Caviness agreed on a plan unbeknownst to the rest of the board. They would release a signature count weekly, but the numbers would not be accurate. Instead, they would be for the purpose of keeping people in the movement motivated."[7] Green the Vote board member Ashley Mullin-Lowry said the group had actually collected 73,000 as of August 5, 2018.[8]
- Signatures were submitted with the Oklahoma Secretary of State's office on August 8, 2018.[3]
- Proponents of the measure failed to submit the required number of valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.[9]
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ US News, "Recreational Marijuana Effort Falls Short in Oklahoma," accessed August 21, 2018
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Oklahoma Secretary of State, "State Question 979 full text," accessed April 4, 2018
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Oklahoma Secretary of State, "State questions," April 4, 2018
- ↑ KJRH, "Tulsa group cleared to gather signatures to put medical, recreational pot on November ballot," accessed May 1, 2018
- ↑ New petition tries for recreational marijuana as Oklahoma works to implement medical; it's 'an insurance policy,' supporters say," accessed July 5, 2018
- ↑ KOCO News, "Group says it reached signature goal to put recreational marijuana on November ballot," accessed August 10, 2018
- ↑ Tulsa World, "I have let you down': Green the Vote leaders inflated signature counts for recreational marijuana petition," accessed August 8, 2018
- ↑ Enid News, "Marijuana advocates admit to inflating initiative’s success," accessed August 8, 2018
- ↑ US News, "Recreational Marijuana Effort Falls Short in Oklahoma," accessed August 21, 2018
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