Ohio marijuana proposal in danger of falling short

Anne Saker | The Cincinnati Enquirer

CINCINNATI — The marijuana legalization effort in Ohio is in danger because it does not have enough signatures yet to put a measure on the Nov. 3 ballot.

“We’re coming in lower than we were expecting,” said Ian James, executive director of ResponsibleOhio, the private investor group that wants to legalize marijuana this year.

Ohio’s secretary of state is expected to announce as early as Monday whether ResponsibleOhio gathered enough valid signatures of registered Ohio voters to get the measure before voters in 2015. ResponsibleOhio needs 305,591 signatures to qualify. On June 30, the group turned in 695,273 signatures with the goal of ensuring it would have the right number, 50%, to qualify.

In four southwest Ohio counties, final counts show the petition campaign had a majority of valid signatures only in Warren County, at 53%. Hamilton County had a 33.74% validity rate. Butler and Clermont counties came in at 41%.

If the secretary of state finds that ResponsibleOhio did not get to 305,591, the group has 10 calendar days to send out its army of signature gatherers in hopes of hitting the target.

James said he believes the 10-day period will be enough to gain the necessary signatures to place ResponsibleOhio’s proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot. He attributed the lower-than-expected validity rate to the possibility that registered voters often forget to notify county election boards when they move to a new address. When a voter’s address on a ballot petition doesn’t match the one at the board of elections, the signature is invalid for the petition.

ResponsibleOhio is proposing a constitutional amendment that would legalize marijuana in Ohio this year. The proposal limits the commercial cultivation of marijuana to 10 farms as a way for the state to tightly regulate the growth, production and sale of the crop. Home growers could get a $50 annual license to grow up to four plants.

Opponents of ResponsibleOhio call its plan a monopoly, although the correct economic term is oligopoly. In direct opposition to ResponsibleOhio, the Ohio Legislature has already placed on the Nov. 3 ballot a measure that would prohibit “a monopoly, oligopoly or cartel” for any business in Ohio, especially one that would produce and sell any drug on the federal schedule of controlled substances.