COLUMBUS, Ohio – A proposal to legalize marijuana in Ohio has failed to clear an initial state hurdle, though backers of the effort say they plan to revise the constitutional amendment.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine on Monday rejected a petition for the proposed amendment citing problems with its summary.
“After reviewing the submission, I conclude that I am unable to certify the summary as a fair and truthful statement of the proposed amendment,” DeWine stated in a letter to the petitioners.
The group ResponsibleOhio is pushing to get the amendment before voters this year or next. It would legalize the sale of marijuana for medicinal and recreational use and create 10 grow sites across the state.
Among other deficiencies, DeWine said the proposal’s summary language omits that it would permit the sharing of specified amounts of marijuana between adults age 21 and older.
He also found that the summary language does not accurately reflect how proposed tax revenue would be distributed and noted that at least one of the proposed marijuana establishments “may be within 1,000 feet of a house of worship and/or a public playground,” which would conflict with claims made in the summary language. DeWine’s office did not try to validate claims regarding locations since the other deficiencies were enough to reject the language.
A ResponsibleOhio spokeswoman says the petition was for an earlier version of the proposal and revised language would be resubmitted soon.