Oklahoma, the wild west of medical marijuana licenses, won’t get recreational cannabis any time soon, says Supreme Court

2022 cannabis measure receives no die from Oklahoma Supreme Court

The Oklahoma Supreme Court declined to intervene in a state question case to make recreational cannabis legal because the case still faces legal obstacles, making it doubtful the state question will appear on the November ballot becomes. Oklahoma became the 30th state to legalize medical marijuana in 2018.

Judges postponed action in a case involving the 820 state issue in a 5-4 decision released Tuesday until the proposal has passed a 10-day window in which anyone can challenge the 117,257 valid signatures that the campaign has collected to be eligible for a national vote or the electoral title.

To ensure his state question gets on the ballot this year, the Yes to 820 campaign asked the court to intervene. The court’s preliminary inaction could make it unlikely voters would determine SQ 820 this fall given a recently expired window to prepare for the November election, which campaign officials took as a positive sign.

Yes on 820 Campaign Manager Michelle Tilley expressed confidence that the SQ 820 will be up for election later this year. When the protest time is up, the court appears to be able to order SQ 820 put on the ballot, she added. She said they are confident that the state Supreme Court will authorize the admission of State Question 820 for the 2022 general election, as we are confident that our 117,000+ legitimate signatures would survive the 10-day protest process.

According to the state electoral committee, the deadline for putting a state question on the ballot paper in November expired last Monday. Last week, as that deadline neared, the campaign asked the court to order the Election Committee to prepare ballots that included SQ 820, though the measure still had to meet certain procedural requirements.

SQ 820 would legalize recreational cannabis for adults 21 and older and introduce changes to the criminal justice system that would allow some drug offenders to appeal some marijuana-related convictions.

PETITIONS AGAINST THE ELECTION

The judges also overruled two different legal objections to the ballot title that paved the way for a vote in what would later be the country’s main or special edition.

Although the Secretary of State had confirmed that the lawyers had submitted enough legal signatures to be eligible, authorities claimed that the campaign violated procedural deadlines for the 2022 election, leading to the lawsuit, which the Supreme Court of the State’s decision has been examined in the last few weeks until then.

The campaign had asked the court to order the state to put SQ 820 on the November ballot, but the court has now officially denied that request.

Given the timelines and the fact that there are still two legal concerns that must be properly resolved, the judges, in a unanimous 9-0 verdict, ruled that the petitioners cannot claim that they have a definitive right to place SQ820 on the to receive public ballots November 2022 under state law.

During the 10-day challenge process, four petitions against the campaign were filed; two of them contested the validity of the certified signatures, while the other two called for changes to the title and description of the ballot that the Attorney General had given the campaign.

The court had previously rejected the signature allegations, and on Wednesday rejected further requests for a hearing. The challengers may still file motions for a rehearing in the coming week, but the judges dismissed the summary language objection.

The ruling states that the possibility of re-hearings prevents the Court from resolving the matter properly and in accordance with the law. The governor and secretary of state will therefore be prevented from taking the necessary action to bring the initiative to a vote this year.

NOT ENOUGH TIME

Rather than temporarily adjourning the case, Judge Dustin Rowe stated in a dissenting opinion that he would have denied the campaign’s motion because the Election Committee had already begun producing the ballots for the general election, to meet a September 23 deadline voters to comply with for sending them to foreign countries and the military.

Delaying this issue, which could result in revisions to ballots that have already begun to be produced, impairs the Electoral Commission’s ability to uphold its legal duty to voters and jeopardizes the voting rights of some members of the public, particularly our servicemen and women abroad, he said.

The state also said in court documents that changing ballots after they’d already been printed by the Election Committee could require a bureau restart, which could result in Oklahoma missing statutory deadlines for mail-in ballot distribution. If SQ 820 has not met all of the formal requirements by the time the election committee begins preparing ballots, prosecutors allege that neither state law nor the Oklahoma Constitution requires the item to appear on that year’s ballot .

If SQ 820 does not appear on the November ballot, provided it survives potential legal challenges, it could be up for a vote in a statewide election by 2024. While this is unusual, the governor could call a special election before 2024.

CANNABIS SUPPORTERS BLAME THE NEW SIGNATURE SYSTEM FOR THE DELAY

The Yes to 820 campaign accused them that the new signature verification process introduced by the Secretary of State slowed their efforts to secure a spot in November’s election. The campaign claimed that the process of counting and validating signatures took much longer because these tasks were outsourced to a company affiliated with a political polling firm.

According to a statement from Jeffrey Cartmell, the Secretary of State’s legal adviser, the Secretary of State’s office has remained in touch with supporters of SQ 820 and looks forward to continuing to work with them and others to improve this new signature verification process.

According to Cartmell, the new method brings additional attention to the signature counting process. To qualify to vote, Oklahoma state polling campaigns must collect a certain number of signatures from registered voters.

FINAL EFFECT

Oklahoma residents, particularly cannabis users, were excited at the prospect of finally being able to vote to legalize recreational cannabis in the state, but due to a delay in validating and counting the signatures collected, residents had to wait until the 2024 general election before the state queso can be put to a vote.

OKLAHOMA GOES GREEN, READ THIS..

OKLAMOMA GOES BIG IN MEDICAL MARIJUANA LICENSES!