cannabisnews.com: MJ Legalization Issue Approved by Ballot Board
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MJ Legalization Issue Approved by Ballot Board
Posted by CN Staff on May 15, 2015 at 14:20:15 PT
By Alan Johnson, The Columbus Dispatch
Source: Columbus Dispatch
Ohio -- As state officials realize that marijuana legalization is likely to appear on the fall ballot, state Auditor Dave Yost is urging lawmakers to make it harder for “special interest” issues to make it into the Ohio Constitution.Yost unveiled his idea Thursday at a meeting of the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission.
But he told Dispatch editors earlier in the day that the commission’s process, which will not conclude this year, isn’t fast enough. He wants lawmakers to act this summer to put an issue on the fall ballot, potentially competing with a marijuana-legalization issue proposed by ResponsibleOhio. The deadline for the legislature to submit issues for the fall ballot is Aug. 5.Under the Ohio Constitution, if two competing issues are on the same ballot, the one with the most votes prevails.Yost said his proposal isn’t aimed solely at the marijuana issue, which he opposes, but at how special interests now can access the ballot and become enshrined in the state constitution. ResponsibleOhio's proposal would grant an economic monopoly to 10 investment groups which would be the only ones allowed to grow and sell pot wholesale.If approved, Yost’s plan would require groups advocating special economic interests to go to the ballot twice, first to get voter approval for an exception, and then to approve the issue itself. The two-step process would not apply to all initiatives.The auditor said he has spoken with some lawmakers about his idea, but there is no consensus so far.Rep. Ryan Smith, R-Bidwell, chairman of the House Finance Committee, said he has seen Yost’s proposal and also is trying to collect other options so he and House leadership can decide on the best course of action.“I think there’s a strong consensus that it should be more difficult to amend the constitution, particularly in order to profit from establishing a monopoly,” he said. “Personally, I think the legalization of marijuana and developing these monopolies to do it is as bad a public policy as I can remember in my lifetime. It’s terrible.”Secretary of State Jon Husted also urged lawmakers to act, saying it would be better for the legislature to enact a marijuana law rather than allow special interests to build it into the constitution.“I encourage the General Assembly to start to get involved in the matter to determine what a thoughtful way forward would be,” Husted said Thursday after the Ohio Ballot Board gave the green light to a second marijuana proposal by a group called Better for Ohio.“We can’t stick our heads in the sand and pretend this is going to go away. It’s not,” Husted said. “I recognize the realities of the situation.”ResponsibleOhio spokesman Ian James said in response to the auditor’s proposal, “Dave Yost is wrong.“A ‘competing ballot issue’ is one of the same subject in which there is a direct conflict. What Yost proposes is a ballot issue requiring a two-step process, NOT legalization of marijuana. Therefore, there is NO direct conflict, and thus NO largest vote-getter winning provision to apply.”James also said Yost’s plan “would violate the First Amendment as it requires that the right to petition be applied equally.”The Ballot Board’s action, which was limited to determining if the proposal was one or more than one ballot issue, means Better for Ohio can begin collecting signatures for a proposal to legalize personal and medical use of marijuana. The group would have to gather 305,591 signatures of registered Ohio voters by July 1 if backers hope to get on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.The proposal backed by Toledo businessman Ed Howard uses most of the same language as ResponsibleOhio’s issue but would allow individuals to grow up to eight plants, instead of the four; expand commercial sites to 40 from 10; and require energy efficiency for high-electricity-use indoor growing facilities.Howard’s plan also contains a mysterious provision for picking who would run the growing sites that is tied to serial numbers on 40 $100 bills that he locked in a bank vault. He said details will be figured out if the issue makes the ballot.Howard hired Arno Petition Consultants, a California firm, to collect signatures.Dispatch Reporter Jim Siegel contributed to this story.Source: Columbus Dispatch (OH)Author: Alan Johnson, The Columbus Dispatch Published: May 14, 2015Copyright: 2015 The Columbus DispatchContact: letters dispatch.comWebsite: http://www.dispatch.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/iV48ishGCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #9 posted by The GCW on May 19, 2015 at 17:47:25 PT
POLL
POLL:Do you agree with President Obama's decision to restrict the transfer of military equipment to civilian police departments?YESNOhttp://www.denverpost.com/
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Comment #8 posted by kaptinemo on May 18, 2015 at 07:29:26 PT:
"By their works, ye shall know hem."
Yost and friends think they can still carry on like 'the good old days' when the 'good ole boy' legislators could delay, diffuse and deflect cannabis law reform legislation easily. When support for cannabis re-legalization went past 50%, however, that process could no longer be continued without paying a political price , and yet, true to their natures, the prohibs keep trying.It is never wise to piss off the paymaster, and with cannabis re-legalization a major concern of those who now pay the lion's share of the tax revenues, prohib pols are on direct collision course with those paymasters.This is causing the flushing all those DrugWar parasites (who were able to camouflage themselves with faux moral 'authority' as far as the previous taxpayers were concerned) out into the open where they can be dealt with politically. The latest electorate does not share the ignorance and prejudices regarding cannabis that the previous one did. This is removing the 'political cover' that allowed for such monstrosities as paramilitarizing police and savaging civil liberties. Any support the current electorate had for that was tenuous at best, and the police brutality against OWS protests and other such rallies, Ferguson and Baltimore, etc. evaporated that. All were examples of DrugWar excesses, and public disgust with the outward symptoms of those excesses show how far things have changed. With moves like Yost's and the Sheriff's Association backing the OK/NE lawsuit aiming at stripping Coloradans of their right to vote on issues important to them, the prohibs are being forced to show their true (fascist) stripes, and can't hope to paint them over, since we have the Internet and can track every public utterance.But, still, they carry on as if the reform steamroller that has been pursuing them for 40 years isn't now just 6 inches away from rolling them flat. Hitler in his bunker must have felt the same way...and they, like he, deserve no pity for what they've done.
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Comment #7 posted by Hope on May 16, 2015 at 16:33:05 PT
Comment 4
I expect that article will win prizes and awards.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #6 posted by Hope on May 16, 2015 at 16:30:08 PT
Notice how they say it's to get the jump on
special interest groups. Those "Special interest" groups he's referring to are the grass roots supported organizations that ARE the people and are a vehicle for the people to drive towards the sensible goal of legalization.MPP and DPA and any others are just like any other organization in this country, meant to band together and rally a group of like minded people with a goal in mind. A club, if you will. The organization gives the people power and direction. It brings together those scattered widely. They are the collective voice made of many and mostly agreeing voices. These guys want to get a jump on subverting the will of the people. They are against it.
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on May 16, 2015 at 14:55:12 PT
National Geographic Article
Will Marijuana for Sick Kids Get Government to Rethink Weed?URL: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/05/150515-medical-marijuana-federal-policy-research/
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #4 posted by FoM on May 16, 2015 at 14:53:55 PT
Science Seeks to Unlock Marijuana’s Secrets
URL: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/marijuana/sides-text
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #3 posted by swazi-x on May 16, 2015 at 12:58:46 PT
Rigging The System
This is clearly a panic-mode "modernization" to directly manipulate the rules in order to block one thing - cannabis - from the most democratic process we have left.These clowns should be charged with obstruction of justice - in the truest sense - for trying to deny our ability to decide for ourselves within the framework of government that we've had for 200+ years and for which we are (these days, mistakenly and rarely) admired for having. Those weasels in office can't win their way using facts, science, public opinion, or even massive lie-filled ad campaigns (This Is Your Brain On Drugs) so instead they're resorting to garden variety criminal activities - made so much easier since they are the ones at the helm.Truly disgusting and an obvious panic-driven action by a gaggle of useless, clueless 1%-ers against all us "little people" who don't deserve our rightful majority voice in this - or any other - issue, according to them.
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Comment #2 posted by Hope on May 15, 2015 at 16:24:37 PT
Dang!
You guys are going to have to pay close attention. I suspect this is all unnecessarily complicated for a reason.
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Comment #1 posted by The GCW on May 15, 2015 at 15:37:53 PT
Special state auditor
If Special Interest was stopped 8 decades ago there would be no cannabis prohibition.Today, in 2015, "special interest" is responsible for cannabis prohibition to perpetuate.The fight to end cannabis prohibition is a fight to clear clogged plumbing. When more than half of citizens vote to end forced clogged plumbing, then the ones clogging the plumbing are exposed as the poop packers and they are SPECIAL indeed.-& the special agent state auditor is clogging the plumbing.
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