Ohio Legalization Group Submits 6,545 More Signatures, Nearly 10x What’s Needed for Ballot

Leaving nothing to chance, an Ohio coalition sponsoring a statutory measure to legalize adult-use cannabis filed another 6,545 signatures Aug. 3 with Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office in Columbus. This is nearly 10 times the valid signatures needed for the measure to appear before voters in Ohio this November (in addition to the ones that have been validated already).

The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CRMLA) originally submitted more than 223,000 signatures July 5 only to be told by LaRose on July 25 that nearly 100,000 had be rejected (or roughly 45%), leaving the effort just 679 signatures short of what’s needed to appear before Ohio voters.

RELATED: Ohio Rejects Nearly 100K Cannabis Legalization Signatures; Advocates Have 10 Days to Collect More

With that shortcoming, CRMLA organizers had 10 days to collect additional signatures to make up the difference—an opportunity that Republican state lawmakers are challenging via their sponsorship of Issue 1 in a special election to be held Aug. 8.

Issue 1 proponents are also aiming to require a 60% supermajority for constitutional ballot measures. If the issue passes, it would not impact the current 2023 cannabis proposal. (CRMLA’s proposal is a statutory measure that only aims to change the Ohio Revised Code.)

The 10-day grace period for CRMLA ends Aug. 4, but the organizers turned in the additional signatures a day early, with nearly 10 times the number needed to reach the state threshold: Roughly 11% of the extra signatures need to be validated in order for the proposal to officially land on the November ballot.

“Today, our Coalition submitted 6,545 signatures to the Ohio Secretary of State, well above the 679 required to get on the ballot this November. I cannot express our thanks enough to everyone who came out to support this effort,” CRMLA spokesperson Tom Haren said in a statement provided to Cannabis Business Times.

“This submission validates what we’ve said all along: Regulating marijuana is popular in Ohio,” he said. “We’re looking forward to giving Ohio voters a chance to make their voices heard at the ballot this fall.”

Should voters pass the initiative, Ohio would become the 24th state to legalize adult-use cannabis in the U.S., joining neighboring Michigan, where licensed retailers reported nearly $2.3 billion in cannabis sales in 2022—after launching a commercial retail program in December 2019—according to the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency. Ohioans regularly cross the state border to enjoy these legalized freedoms next door.

In their own state, Ohioans would need a simple 50%-plus-one majority to pass the CRMLA-sponsored statute.

A USA Today/Suffolk University poll revealed that 58.6% of 500 Ohio voters recently surveyed support legalizing adult-use cannabis, while 34.8% oppose it and 6.6% are undecided. Pollsters conducted the survey July 9-12, 2023.

CRMLA’s proposed statute seeks to allow adults 21 and older to purchase and possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis (or 15 grams of extract) and grow up to six plants per person or 12 plants per household.

In addition, the proposal aims to impose a 10% tax on cannabis sales, with revenue going toward state costs to run a legalized program; substance abuse and addiction treatment programs; supporting municipalities with dispensaries; and social equity and jobs programs.

While the state’s existing medical cannabis operators would be grandfathered into a forthcoming adult-use program, the proposed statute would require an additional 40 adult-use cultivator licenses and 50 adult-use dispensary licenses to be issued “with a preference to applications who are participants under the cannabis social equity and jobs program.”

The statute would also authorize a Division of Cannabis Control—to be established within the Department of Commerce—to issue additional adult-use cannabis licenses 24 months after the first adult-use operator license is issued.