Our previous post discussed an amendment to the Ohio Constitution which would legal marijuana, but only allow ten individuals enumerated in the Constitution to produce and sell marijuana. See Group Wants Constitutional Amendment to Allow Ten Individuals to Grow/Sell Marijuana. Now, a group called Ohioans to End Prohibition has a proposed “Cannabis Control Amendment”, which will not limit the growing and selling of marijuana to a named group of people. See Cleveland.com, Second campaign to legalize marijuana announces plan for 2016 ballot issue. The Cleveland.com article describes the new proposal as follows:
Revenue from taxes and licensing fees would fund Ohio’s public pension systems, drug education programs, and medical treatment for those suffering from addiction, according to an outline of the proposal on the group’s website. The amendment would allow Ohio farms to grow industrial hemp. Local governments could choose to ban cannabis production and distribution in their communities.
The new amendment has not yet been filed with the Ohio Attorney General, the first step in the initiative petition process. So, we must wait and see what the actual proposed wording will be.
As the Cleveland.com article points out, a Quinnipac poll found 87 percent of Ohioans support the use of medical marijuana and 51% favor allowing adults to possess small amounts for personal use. Some kind of marijuana amendment seems likely, but there is a lot of debate over how to accomplish marijuana legalization. Plus there are, of course, procedural and economic hurdles a group faces when trying to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot. See Cleveland.com article, Why medical marijuana and other issues can’t get on the ballot in Ohio.
If you are interested in further reading on the many legal issues involved in marijuana legalization, I recommend a blog written by several law professors, Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform. There is an interesting post about whether to allow municipalities to ban marijuana when a state legalizes it, The Local Option for Marijuana.
