NEWS

ResponsibleOhio sues over marijuana ballot language

Jessie Balmert
Gannett Ohio

COLUMBUS – ResponsibleOhio is taking complaints about what the pro-pot group says is misleading and partisan ballot language to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Medical Marijuana

The group promoting marijuana legalization demanded that the court remove language from the ballot initiative that ResponsibleOhio says was drafted intentionally to confuse voters in November, according to a 139-page complaint filed Thursday. The wording was approved last week by the GOP-controlled ballot board in a 3-2 vote along party lines.

The group says language headed to the November ballot overstates how much pot could be sold or swapped and doesn't make it clear that any store selling marijuana would need approval from local voters to set up shop, according to the court filing. The languages does not include information about marijuana research or specific diseases it could treat.

ResponsibleOhio also takes offense to the title drafted by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican who opposes marijuana legalization. It reads: Issue 3 grants a monopoly for the commercial production and sale of marijuana for recreational and medicinal purposes.

But Husted said the word monopoly is the best way to explain what ResponsibleOhio's proposal would create.

"The backers of State Issue 3 could have easily prevented Ohioans from calling their plan a marijuana monopoly by choosing to not write their plan as a marijuana monopoly," Husted said.

ResponsibleOhio's attorneys, including former Ohio Supreme Court justice Andy Douglas, asked the court to force the ballot board to reconvene and compile fair language. They also want Husted to write a new title.

ResponsibleOhio's proposal would create 10 commercial pot farms in specific locations across the state and allow individuals to grow up to four flowering plants for personal use with a license. Individuals older than 21 could smoke pot legally if the ballot proposal passes.

Another proposal from lawmakers, Issue 2, would prohibit economic monopolies from being written into the state constitution. If Ohioans approve both measures, Husted said the lawmakers' ban on monopolies would trump marijuana legalization. The debate would likely be resolved in court.