Marijuana advocates were met with disappointment this week after a proposal to include legalizing recreational marijuana on ballot was rejected by Ohio AG de to invalid signatures.
The petition had proposed for Ohioans to vote on the legalization of recreational marijuana but was rejected due to the lack of valid signatures. The proposed amendment would have allowed Ohioans 21 years and older to possess and use marijuana recreationally.
According to the officer for Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, the petition received on March 17th for a proposed marijuana-related amendment to the state’s constitution was rejected because it did not contain the minimum number of valid signatures required to be presented to voters.
The submission contained 1,248 signatures, but only 271 were valid, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office said. The proposal needed at least 1,000 signatures for an initiative to proceed.
The amendment also would have allowed businesses to apply for licenses to sell marijuana under the proposal. Additionally, the amendment called for employers to maintain a drug-free workplace, with marijuana being exempted from that policy.
“Because your submission did not contain the verified signatures of at least one thousand qualified electors, we must reject it,” Yost wrote to the petitioning committee.
