The vote had been watched closely nationally as Ohio could have become the fifth state in the nation and the first in the Midwest to legalize recreational pot.
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Voters in Ohio will decide today whether to legalize marijuana in that state – a ballot measure that is gaining national attention for the well-known names trying to push it through.
Failure of the proposed state constitutional amendment followed an expensive campaign, a legal fight over its ballot wording, an investigation into petition signatures – and, predominantly, a counter campaign against a network of 10 exclusive growing sites it would have created. If legalization does pass, it will surely come as a great victory to marijuana advocates who have been working for years to end prohibition in the state. “Never underestimate the wisdom of Ohio voters”.
NORML will update this post tomorrow with the final vote counts for all of the measures mentioned. He said he didn’t believe opponents’ arguments that legalization would increase risks to drug addiction, saying he believes harder drugs cause more problems. “People are counting on us and we can not let them down”.
That’s because 84 percent of Ohioans support legalizing medical marijuana, according to the most recent Quinnipiac poll.
Medical marijuana is already legal in California, but the state voted against full legalization in 2010. Issue 2 would ban commercial monopolies from being written into the Constitution. If passed, it could give the Ohio Ballot board authority over ballot initiatives concerning monopolies – including marijuana and extending to other issues as well.
“I am deeply troubled by reports of glitches with electronic voting systems occurring and polling locations not opening on time in my district”, state Rep. Alicia Reece (D-Cincinnati), who serve as president of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, said in a released statement. “Tonight we’ve proven that legalization, even by popular initiative, can be stopped”.
Several polls leading up to Election Day showed that a clear majority of Ohioans support legalizing marijuana, but voters won’t tolerate this issue being taken over by greedy special interests.
In the past, marijuana legalization ballot initiative campaigns have largely been run by social justice-oriented organizations such as the Drug Policy Alliance and the Marijuana Policy Project. Election officials in two of Ohio’s counties say lines of voters dwindled a few after an early wave of Ohioans who cast their ballots early in the state’s general election. “Ohio voters are smart people and said no to State Issue 3, which would have made the state’s drug issues worse, harming people and the economy”. The marijuana legalization marketing campaign, ResponsibleOhio, sought the extension citing these issues.
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In Washington, a pro-animal group backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and the Humane Society spent almost $140,000 on ads to support a measure to stiffen penalties for trafficking rare animal species. Results of the vote for a similar depenalization measure in Logan, Ohio are not yet publicly available.
