(COLUMBUS,
Ohio)—Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine
today rejected the petition for the proposed End Ohio Cannabis Prohibition Act
of 2012 because the summary of the petition was not “fair and truthful.”
On August
2nd, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office received a written petition from Responsible
Ohioans for Cannabis to amend the Ohio Constitution by adding the End Ohio
Cannabis Prohibition Act of 2012. Attorney General DeWine’s letter rejected the
summary because it was unable to be certified as “fair and truthful” for the
following reasons:
- The summary omits references to amendment
language which repudiates federal cannabis prohibitions.
- The summary omits references to amendment
language that persons cannot be considered to be under the influence of
cannabis “solely because of the presence of metabolites or components of
cannabis in his or her body.”
- The summary states that educational courses
may be held by licensed commercial production companies or educational
institutions to teach people, among other things, about “medical harms or benefits from the personal
use of cannabis products.” However, no such language referencing medical harms or benefits exists in the
amendment.
- The summary omits references to
amendment language that confer new duties and responsibilities on the Ohio
Department of Agriculture and the Ohio Department of Commerce.
“For these reasons, 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 letter is not intended to represent 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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