By Jeremy Daw, westcoastleaf.com
The Ohio Cannabis Rights Amendment (OCRA), a 2014 ballot initiative to amend the Buckeye State’s constitution and establish a civil right to use cannabis for medicinal purposes and to grow industrial hemp, passed its first procedural milestone May 17, 2013.
State Attorney General Mike DeWine certified the Amendment’s description as “a fair and truthful statement of the proposed law or constitutional amendment” and confirmed that it was accompanied by more than 1,000 valid signatures, as required by law. The Ohio Rights Group, which drafted and promoted the proposed amendment, submitted it with a total of 2,058 signatures and 179 written petitions. Next the state Ballot Board must determine whether the proposed language covers only a single issue, after which the OCRA campaign will return to the body politic to gather the more than 385,000 valid signatures needed to put a constitutional amendment on an Ohio ballot.
The group has until 125 days before the general election to submit its signatures, a deadline of July 8, 2014. Signatures must originate from at least 44 of the state’s 88 counties. — West Coast Leaf News Service
