With the Ohio legislature failing to act on marijuana legalization this week, The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol can now start collecting signatures for its legalization ballot initiative and will do so starting Friday, May 5.
In order to make it on the the November 7 general election ballot, the group will need to collect 124,000 signatures from registered Ohio voters by July 5.
“We’re committed and confident that we will have the team and time to get on the ballot,” coalition spokesperson Tom Haren told the Marijuana Herald. “We’re taking the best practices from other states to avoid the pitfalls seen in some states that have come before us.”
The coalition’s proposed initiative would legalize possession and personal cultivation of cannabis for Ohioans 21 and older. If passed, one adult could have up to six cannabis plants, with a household limit of 12 plants.
Commercially, it would also establish a legal marijuana industry and a Division of Cannabis Control within the Ohio Department of Commerce with the authority to regulate, license, investigate and penalize marijuana use.
This new division would also enter an agreement with the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to provide cannabis addiction services and establish, operate, and publicize an addiction services hotline.
“We are building off of the existing medical marijuana infrastructure so every current medical marijuana dispensary, for example, will become a dual medical and adult use dispensary and would authorize the issuance of additional adult use dispensary processor cultivator testing laboratory licenses,” Haren said.
Legal cannabis sales would also be subject to a 10% tax. Research from the Ohio State University estimated that, by its fifth year, the legal marijuana industry in Ohio would generate between $275 and $375 million in tax revenue annually.
Social equity and jobs programs would receive 36% of the revenue generated by the tax, funding for dispensary host communities would receive another 36%, addiction treatment and education would get 25% and the remaining 3% would cover regulatory and administrative costs.
To get the 124,000 required signatures, Haren says the coalition will hire professional signature collectors, go door to door and host events.
“When you have an unregulated market, a drug dealer doesn’t care who he’s selling to,” Haren told the Marijuana Herald. “We want to eliminate the illicit market and replace it with a regulated market. We think our proposal would do that. It offers a real alternative that will be competitive on price and access.”
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This article appears in May 3-17, 2023.