cannabisnews.com: Group Suspends Effort To Get MMJ Issue On Ballot function share_this(num) { tit=encodeURIComponent('Group Suspends Effort To Get MMJ Issue On Ballot'); url=encodeURIComponent('http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/28/thread28845.shtml'); site = new Array(5); site[0]='http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u='+url+'&title='+tit; site[1]='http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit.php?url='+url+'&title='+tit; site[2]='http://digg.com/submit?topic=political_opinion&media=video&url='+url+'&title='+tit; site[3]='http://reddit.com/submit?url='+url+'&title='+tit; site[4]='http://del.icio.us/post?v=4&noui&jump=close&url='+url+'&title='+tit; window.open(site[num],'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=620,height=500'); return false; } Group Suspends Effort To Get MMJ Issue On Ballot Posted by CN Staff on May 30, 2016 at 08:16:38 PT By Alan Johnson, The Columbus Dispatch Source: Columbus Dispatch Ohio -- With an Ohio medical marijuana law awaiting Gov. John Kasich’s signature, backers of a similar constitutional amendment decided it wasn’t worth it to go forward. Ohioans for Medical Marijuana announced Saturday that they folded their campaign after gathering “hundreds of thousands” of signatures on a petition asking Ohioans to approval medical marijuana — including growing and smoking it.Neither of those things is permitted under medical marijuana legislation passed last week by the General Assembly, but much of the rest is the same. Kasich has not said whether he will sign the bill into law. “We make this decision with a heavy heart as we will surely disappoint our many volunteers, supporters and patient-advocates who invested considerable time and effort in our movement,” Brandon Lynaugh, campaign manager for Ohioans for Medical Marijuana, said in a statement.But Lynaugh said the campaign reached a “critical juncture,” and the decision came down to resources and money. The Ohio group is backed by the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington, D.C., organization instrumental in multiple marijuana campaigns nationwide.“The reality is that raising funds for medical marijuana policy changes is incredibly difficult, especially given the improvements made to the proposed program by the Ohio General Assembly and the fact that the Governor is expected to sign the bill,” he said.The law passed this week by lawmakers allows people with any of about 20 diseases and conditions to obtain medical marijuana in edible, oil and other forms. It also allows using marijuana in plant form for vaporization, but not smoking.One leading legislator said marijuana plants could grow in a year and medical marijuana could be in the hands of patients in 16 months or so; others say the timeline might be more like two years.House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, said in a statement that the end to the ballot issue is “welcomed news. But more importantly, it is an indication of the General Assembly’s willingness to listen and respond to the will of Ohioans.”United Ohio, another pro-marijuana group not involved in the ballot issue, said in a statement it was “overwhelmed in disappointment that Ohioans will not have a vote in 2016 on a ballot initiative that provides more comprehensive access.”“We may not have home grow. We may be missing important delivery forms. We may not have a robust enough list of qualifying conditions. But we no longer have a state without a medical marijuana program. And that’s more than we had last week.”Source: Columbus Dispatch (OH)Author: Alan Johnson, The Columbus Dispatch Published: May 29, 2016Copyright: 2016 The Columbus DispatchContact: letters dispatch.comWebsite: http://www.dispatch.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/SJKhKz7ACannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #4 posted by Hope on May 31, 2016 at 19:41:06 PT Making deals with the devil That operates in the minds of prohibitionists is ugly business. Dang. Why can't a group of zealous, unpaid volunteers organize and get something good done?Where are the heroes?I need to see, I want to see the "Mountain" of prohibition shaking harder and falling faster. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Greg Rx on May 31, 2016 at 10:52:39 PT: Going to be sorry I have read much of the 125 pages of criminal laws and punishment. You must use your regular doctor and a pharmacist must fill it. Doctors and pharmacies can't be involved if they do any federal business. Pharmacist make too much money to have one on duty at all hours. I am a pharmacist who is working on getting my Ohio license, so anyone interested in the Cleveland area, let me know. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Vincent on May 30, 2016 at 18:48:39 PT: Jellyfish Such jellyfish! Boy, they really chickened out on this one. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by The GCW on May 30, 2016 at 17:26:25 PT EEKS! If You can't grow it and You can't smoke it, what is that? That's a bad joke.Eeks. And to the group that's dropping the ball: Eeks! [ Post Comment ] Post Comment