Ohio lawmakers have forfeited an opportunity to enact an activist-led marijuana legalization proposal, letting a statutory deadline to take up the issue by Wednesday lapse and instead leaving it to advocates to pick up where they left off on signature gathering to place the measure on the ballot.
Ohio’s secretary of state submitted the reform legislation to lawmakers in January, giving them four months to consider legalizing cannabis before an election law was triggered that now frees up advocates to continue petitioning to put the reform directly before voters.
The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CTRMLA) initially worked to put the legalization initiative on last year’s ballot, but procedural complications prevented that from happening. Activists turned in enough signatures to trigger the legislative review, but the timing of their initial submission was challenged.
CTRMLA’s lawsuit to force ballot placement was unsuccessful with respect to the 2022 election, but the state agreed to a settlement that meant they would not have to collect another round of initial signatures and that the initiative would be immediately retransmitted to the legislature at the start of the 2023 session.
“We pursued an initiated statute so that we could engage with the General Assembly on
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