(COLUMBUS,
Ohio)—Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine
today rejected the petition for the proposed Cannabis Control Amendment
because the summary of the petition was not “fair and truthful.”
On May 11th,
the Ohio Attorney General’s Office received a written petition to amend the
Ohio Constitution by adding the Cannabis Control Amendment. Attorney
General DeWine’s letter rejected the summary for several reasons,
including, but not limited to:
- The summary has numerous inconsistencies with the amendment language regarding restrictions on minors.
- The summary states certain local authorities can ban commercial distribution of marijuana and related items "in whole or in part," but the amendment has contains no provisions allowing for a partial ban.
- The summary repeatedly uses the phrase "marijuana concentrates" in places where that phrase does not appear in
the amendment.
“Accordingly, I am
unable to certify the summary as a fair and truthful statement of the proposed
amendment,” DeWine stated in his letter rejecting the petition. “However, I must caution
that this is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all defects in the
submitted summary.”
In
order for a constitutional amendment to proceed, an initial petition containing
summary language of the amendment and 1,000 signatures from Ohio registered
voters must be submitted to the Ohio Attorney General. Once the summary
language and initial signatures are certified, the Ohio Ballot Board would determine
if the amendment contains a single issue or multiple issues. The petitioners
must then collect signatures for each issue from registered voters in each of
44 of Ohio’s
88 counties, equal to 5 percent of the total vote cast in the county for the office
of governor at the last gubernatorial election. Total signatures collected
statewide must also equal 10 percent of the total vote cast for the office of
governor at the last gubernatorial election.
The full
text of today’s letter and of the initiative petitions submitted can be found
at www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov/BallotInitiatives.
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