COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The co-founder of Ohio's 2015 failed recreational marijuana legalization measure plans to back a new legalization effort next year.

Jimmy Gould, co-founder of ResponsibleOhio, and others plan to propose on Monday a "free market" recreational marijuana measure for the 2018 ballot, according to a news release. Gould, along with ResponsibleOhio co-founder Ian James, unsuccessfully applied for one of the state's medical marijuana cultivator licenses.

Their company CannAscend ranked in the middle of the pack of 109 applicants for 12 licenses, state regulators said last week. The application was disqualified for an unknown reason.

Gould and James did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Friday afternoon.

In a press conference last week, Gould threatened a new legalization ballot measure for a free-market system, without "self-selection." The 2015 marijuana ballot issue would have limited commercial cultivation to 10 pre-selected sites owned by campaign investors.

Investors spent more than $20 million on the Issue 3 campaign, but the measure was defeated by a vote of 64 to 36 percent.

Gould initially promised another legalization measure in 2016 but abandoned that idea to join a task force examining the issue for the Ohio General Assembly. He has praised Ohio's medical marijuana law, which borrowed much from the task force's work.

Gould said he and other unsuccessful applicants plan to sue the state over several flaws they identified in the license application scoring process.

Gould alleged at least one other applicant plagiarized information from a consultant working for his company. Earlier this week, the Department of Commerce said it didn't know one of three scoring consultants it hired had a felony marijuana conviction on his record.

The department, which oversees the cultivators, product processors and testing labs, defended its scoring process and plans to move forward despite calls from state officials to freeze the issuance of grow licenses.