COLUMBUS, Ohio—Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost on Tuesday announced that he has rejected proposed summary language for a state constitutional amendment that would legalize recreational marijuana for adults.

Yost notified backers of the proposed amendment that several findings and declarations that the measure proposes to be made by “the people of the state of Ohio” are not included in the summary.

“Thus, it completely fails to inform a potential signer that the amendment elevates these ‘findings and declarations’ to a constitutional standard,” the AG stated in a letter to Don McTigue, a lawyer representing the amendment’s supporters, which include Northeast Ohio attorney Tom Haren and Columbus-based GOP consultant Mike Hartley.

Yost noted that a few months ago he rejected summary language for another proposed constitutional amendment that McTigue submitted, for similar reasons. That amendment would have created a Nursing Facility Patients’ Bill of Rights.

Yost’s rejection means the group must revise its summary language, collect another 1,500 signatures from registered voters, and resubmit its proposal to the attorney general’s office.

However, the rejection costs them precious time: even if Yost approves their summary, they’ll only have about three months to gather the roughly 443,000 signatures needed to make the November ballot.

In a statement, Haren quibbled with Yost’s assertion that the proposed summary “makes no mention” of the purposes and findings clause, saying that information was included in the submitted language.

“While the Attorney General’s letter is a temporary setback, we are still within our internal timeline to achieve ballot access in 2020,” Haren stated. “We remain committed to giving Ohio voters the opportunity to legalize marijuana this year.”

Under the proposal, called “An Amendment to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol," Ohioans would allow anyone age 21 or older to buy, use, and possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana, as well as grow six marijuana plants per household, three of which can be flowering.

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