Will Ohio legalize weed in 2023? It’s complicated, but a vague deal was struck

Of Maureen Meihan

State officials and advocates for cannabis legalization reached a deal on Friday, agreeing to allow the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol to keep the signatures already collected while postponing their campaign to 2023.

The coalition agreed to delay its legalization campaign until next year in exchange for state officials agreeing to accept the more than 140,000 signatures the coalition had already collected rather than potentially having them start over.

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“This guarantees the validity of the signatures we’ve already collected and gives us a much clearer path when we have to come to the vote next year,” said Tom Haren, a spokesman for the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol per Cleveland.com.

It was an arduous legalization campaign… still is

The coalition, meanwhile, recently sued after House Republicans refused to pass the marijuana legalization bill the group had proposed under a state mechanism called “initiated legislation,” through which members of the public can propose new legislation. The House GOP pushed back, saying the group submitted its signatures too late anyway to be considered during this year’s legislative session.

Under the statute rules put in place, however, the public can compel lawmakers to pass a proposed law change if they can collect the required number of signatures — currently 132,887 — from registered voters in Ohio’s 44 counties. If lawmakers don’t enact the law as written within four months, supporters of an initiated bill can collect an equal number of signatures again to force it onto the ballot for the following November election.

The problem is that the coalition fell short by about 13,000 signatures in the first round after election officials ruled that more than 87,000 signatures were invalid.

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The group then took to the streets and collected the extra needed signatures during a 10-day “cure period,” but by that time they had missed a deadline in late December to force the state legislature to pass the proposal this year.

So if lawmakers don’t respond to the legalization measure by April 2023, it will vote in November 2023 while the group can gather the second round of needed signatures.

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been republished with permission.