[image-1]Legalize Ohio 2016 — the group that had planned to bring a recreational marijuana ballot measure to voters later this year — has suspended its signature-gathering campaign and joined up with the Marijuana Policy Project’s efforts. (Legalize Ohio 2016 was also known colloquially by its PAC name, Ohioans to End Prohibition.)

The Legalize Ohio 2016 team found itself short on cash ($268 on hand at the end of last month) and signatures (a shade over 80,000 of the required 305,591). 

The bottom line: We’re not gonna see a recreational ballot issue this year in Ohio.

“Legalize Ohio 2016 will be reformed into a non-profit campaign that will circulate petitions for the MPP’s medical marijuana amendment, while simultaneously providing pro-bono support for an entire suite of campaign services for local decriminalization efforts,” the team announced this week.

This article appears in Feb 17-23, 2016.

Eric Sandy is an award-winning Cleveland-based journalist. For a while, he was the managing editor of Scene. He now contributes jam band features every now and then.

5 replies on “Legalize Ohio 2016 Suspends Campaign, ‘Joins Forces’ with Marijuana Policy Project”

  1. We were told by the Plain Dealer and the state legislators that we should vote down last year’s ballot measure because we could get a better deal. They told us they would move fast in 2016 to reform marijuana laws in Ohio. They told us they saw the polls and were listening.

    It appears to me they LIED. Maybe Scene should hold those liars to account.

    We’re sick and tired of marijuana prohibition.

  2. The career politicians and their lobbyists succeeded in gaining a monopoly — to grind this issue to a halt.

  3. It’s Ohio people. We’ll be the last state to approve legalization, just like we’ve been last in everything.

  4. We had a chance last year. I had a bad feeling this was going to lose steam without big money pushing it forward. It’s a real shame.

  5. The Bible-thumpers in the Statehouse and in Southern Ahia STILL belive all the bullshit about weed being a gateway drug to heroin and hell. It’s still 1970 in too many hollers, down at the other end of North Missitucky.

    We might end up deciding…again…who the next POTUS will be…but thanks to the God-fearing, weed-fearing kin of all those same wonderful folks who brought us Kent State, Ohio is…and will continue to be…a national joke…and a cultural disgrace. Once again, I am ashamed of my adopted home state.

    Chuckles the Clown

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