So about an hour after we posted this story, the state auditor’s office certified ResponsibleOhio’s signatures. The group’s marijuana legalization model will be put to the voters on Nov. 3.
Original story below:
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According to at least one news story out of Cincinnati, ResponsibleOhio’s Ian James is confident that the marijuana legalization campaign has gathered enough valid signatures to make it onto the Nov. 3 ballot. The official count isn’t in just yet, though Secretary of State Jon Husted’s office is expected to certify the count and make an announcement as early as tomorrow. The group needs signatures from 305,591 registered Ohio voters to qualify.
Yost, meanwhile, has made his opposition to ResponsibleOhio’s model clear.
Drawing an analogy to yellow oleomargarine prohibition in Ohio, Yost wrote a cleveland.com guest column that suggested that ResponsibleOhio’s plan isn’t the best for the state. The lesson is that Ohioans demonstrated the power to stand up to Big Dairy — and could, in the event ResponsibleOhio’s plan passes into law later this year, stand down Big Weed. “A legalized, properly licensed market should be available to all comers, not just the few with the money to enshrine into the Ohio Constitution a monopoly for themselves,” he wrote.
“Today, the self-proclaimed ResponsibleOhio is seeking an end to marijuana prohibition through the initiative process – but with a twist. If approved by voters, it would write into the Ohio Constitution the location of ten farms that would be allowed to grow marijuana, exclusively.
“A business plan shouldn’t be written into the constitution.”
Ohio voters shot down the margarine prohibition in 1949 via the ballot. It’s an interesting historical lesson.
There are other marijuana legalization efforts being kicked pretty seriously around the state. ResponsibleOhio’s is the only one we’ll likely see as voters this fall. Yost, who bears no legislative duties in the Statehouse, is urging Ohio voters to keep in mind the long-term consequences of all plans.
“The political churn,” as Yost creatively describes it, yielded cheap butter substitutes on the free market in Ohio. Imagine the heady nugs Ohioans could cultivate with such political energy.
This article appears in Aug 12-18, 2015.
I’m all for legalization, but setting up a select cartel of growers and shutting everyone else out of the newly-created market is a terrible idea.
I hope Ohio voters are smart and patient enough to garbage this obvious scam and hold out for one of the more reasonable proposals to make it on the ballot.
I’m all for legalization, which is why I will be voting YES on Nov. 3.
We need to stop arresting 20,000 Ohioans every year for possession, we need to tax and regulate sales like alcohol, and get much needed help to sick people.
Career politicians and their puppeteers absolutely hate ballot initiatives which by-pass filling their trough with bundles of cool cash.
Please vote YES on this, people. The folks using words like “cartel”. “oligopoly”, and “monopoly” are being disingenuous, and latching onto the only argument they can find to encourage you to vote their way. These ten companies are independent, competitive companies who have come together to help us find our way out of a truly insane prohibition. These companies will only be on the growing side of the business, and they’ll compete with each other on quality, price, and capacity. There will be at least 1100 retail level licenses available for the rest of us. Plus, if demand exceeds expectations, more growing licenses will become available. This is about ending a black market that damages our cities, and ending a prohibition that is only enforced on the young, the non-white, and the poor.
Wow, the people saying to vote YES on this sure have a lot of information readily available at their fingertips. You see, the whole argument that’s going to be made here is “vote yes if you want weed” and “stop the arrests” etc etc, when really these people are geniuses. Of course those 10 farms are going to compete with each other, lol, just like hospitals compete with each other too. I know! Tell your doctor at the Cleveland Clinic next time that your surgery would be 2,000 less at another hospital, and see what kind of look they give you! That’s the look I’m giving you when you tell me that these farms are going to compete with each other. Stupid, stupid, stupid. If you’re going to legalize this, make it OPEN TO EVERYONE without limitations. All or nothing, don’t make another monopoly.