Effort to legalize medical marijuana in Ohio fails to get signatures

[Dreamz_Of_Green]

COLUMBUS — An effort to legalize medical marijuana in Ohio was stopped in its tracks Wednesday when supporters failed to get enough valid signatures on petitions, according to Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office.
The proposal needed 1,000 signatures, but just 534 of the 2,134 turned in by supporters were deemed to be valid, according to a release to the media from DeWine’s office.
The signatures were needed to begin the process of giving voters a chance to consider the proposed Ohio Alternative Treatment Amendment to the Ohio Constitution in 2012. Supporters proposed making it legal for doctors to prescribe marijuana to patients and for those patients to possess it.

 

[Dreamz_Of_Green]

Michigan bound im really disappointed in my ohio folks right now .

 

[Dreamz_Of_Green]

feels like its already medical here anyway .reggie bush was ran out of town . no one smokes or has regs or mids anymore everyone is going to michigan to get the good shit bringing it back to ohio and offing it at 15-25$ a gram which is fuckn redictuless. glad i grow my own. michigan is where im goin 3-4hrs is better then 3-4 days from family

 

[Groseph]

so...they received double the amount of required signatures but deemed nearly exactly 1/4 of them invalid?

Sounds fishy.. who deemed them invalid and why?

They didnt accept Hue Jass's and his buddies signatures?



- -

 

[Dreamz_Of_Green]

yeah i agree sounds like something is up

 

[Hammerhead]

Do they need to be a registered voter??? why was there sig not valid???

 

[Dreamz_Of_Green]

HH

have no clue bro i cant believe this shit! im forced to move to another state .just to be half ass legal or state level legal.

 

[bentom187]

ok you guys in ohio gave the final outcome/count to a AG(he puts weed users in jail and makes money from it) and you wounder why it failed?

 

[OhighO]

yes you need to be registered. Why the hell would they only collect 2000 if they need a thousand. When circulating a petition you need to get at least 5X the needed sig. This is for ANY issue and is common knowledge to anyone in political circles. This is the result of poor execution of a plan. I am ashamed to be from ohio.....

 

[OhighO]

Another thing is everybody wants to talk about it but wont get off their ass. I tried t get n touch with the sponsors of the bill but got no response.

REGISTER TO VOTE PEOPLE>>>>>>

 

[Hammerhead]

good luck next year.

 

[guest86120975]

WTF? Epic fail, where do I begin?

But wait, I think maybe this story is slightly deceptive in that it makes it seem like there is now not going to be a vote in Ohio for MMJ in 2012.....but they do have another chance to get all the signatures in, I mean...right? Confirm/deny?

 

[whateverman]

Something is up here.

Over seventy percent of Ohians support Medical Marijuana. How and why would they fake a few hundred signatures?

Wtf is going on here?

 

[WhiteShadow]

I thought there were two separate attempts going on. If correct, I don't think this is the one that Peter Lewis was backing with his money and there will be an initiative to vote on in 2012...could be wrong on that though

 

[OhighO]

There are 2 attempts i believe. This group that submitted their petition was from dayton. Kenny yuko sponsored he bill I belive but this is his last year....

 

[OhighO]

I should start a website and mailing list where supporters can be sent a voter registration card and after filling it out you could sign the petition. I am gonna look into the specifics and see what EXACTLY is required for a qualifying sig.


does anybody know contact info to get in touch with the people organizing this...

 

[OhioMMJ]

Hey OhighO, Ohio Patients Network is a good overview of what the hell is goin on in Ohio with MMJ. They're keeping an eye on both the groups that are trying to get this done. Here's the latest update:

Ballot Initiative Rejected and Round two

This article explains why the first round of signatures was rejected and how to get a copy of the petition so you can jump in and gather signatures to help put medical marijuana on the 2012 Ohio ballot.

Due to an unusual, but entirely legal reason, the majority of the signatures Miami Valley NORML gathered for the first phase of a Medical Marijuana ballot initiative was rejected by Ohio’s Attorney General Mike Dewine.

The error was that some of the petition circulators (including the author) counted what appeared to complete signatures versus the total number of signatures that were in the petition packet. So if a petition packet had 100 signatures and someone signed “Mickey Mouse” and the circulator wrote 99 instead of 100 in the Circulator Statement, the whole packet of 99 good signatures was rejected. The circulator could have lined out the "Mickey Mouse" entry or just entered 100. It is OK to over count but not to under count, strange but that is the rule.

In this link to the instructions, provided by my local Board of Elections, you will find the official instruction on how signatures are verified. It is a big file (5MB), so be patient if you have a slow connection, the important parts are highlighted in yellow. A smaller file (1.3MB) is also available in this link.

So now let’s make Ohio Medical Marijuana a reality and get that next thousand signatures so we can move to the second phase. f you want to get involved as a petitioner please download and print the PDF file. Be sure to read the first page carefully, then print as many copies as you can afford and go get signatures. You will find it a rewarding experience. Here is the link to the official petition with instructions.

You may want to get several clipboards to make your signature gathering quicker especially in a crowd. Click on picture of the clipboard to get some helpful tips on making the clipboard itself get the message across easier and faster.

Please send us an email using our Contact Us menu found above so we can help coordinate our efforts.

www.ohiopatientsnetwork.org

The group that recently turned in their signatures and got 'denied' is Ohio Coalition for Medical Compassion. Their website is here: http://o-mm.org. The email to get in contact with someone in that group is ballotdrive@gmail.com. They are starting now or have already started gathering the new batch of signatures! Anyone interested in helping, track 'em down and help!!

A lot of Ohioans want MMJ to come to our state... now we've got the groups, the money, and the process to get it on the ballot in November of 2012. All that's needed is interested citizens to do the WORK and get this DONE!

 

[WHAB]

Ohio: 2 Groups Push Medical Marijuana

Ohio: 2 Groups Push Medical Marijuana

COLUMBUS — An effort to legalize medical marijuana in Ohio was stopped in its tracks Wednesday when supporters failed to get enough valid signatures on petitions, according to Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office.
The proposal needed 1,000 signatures, but just 534 of the 2,134 turned in by supporters were deemed to be valid, according to a release to the media from DeWine’s office.
The signatures were needed to begin the process of giving voters a chance to consider the proposed Ohio Alternative Treatment Amendment to the Ohio Constitution in 2012. Supporters proposed making it legal for doctors to prescribe marijuana to patients and for those patients to possess it.

Hell Dreamz....everyone

It seems the effort is back on track. Two efforts, in fact...

This is an interesting read....and another State Constitutional Amendment (my favorite kind ).

2 GROUPS PUSH MEDICAL MARIJUANA

By Alan Johnson
The Columbus Dispatch
Thursday January 26, 2012

Two proposed medical-marijuana issues potentially headed for Ohio’s Nov. 6 ballot seem similar at first glance but are quite different in terms of specifics and supporters.

The Ohio Medical Cannabis Amendment of 2012 was approved yesterday by the Ohio Ballot Board, clearing the way for supporters to begin gathering the 385,245 signatures of registered voters needed to qualify the issue for the ballot. The group has until July 6 to submit names.

Mary Jane Borden of Westerville, a committee member for the Cannabis Amendment, said medical marijuana can be an effective, natural way to ease chronic pain without relying on addictive narcotic medications.

“We have a plant that’s been in existence for 10,000 years, and it’s never killed anyone,” she said.

Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have some form of medical-marijuana law.

In October, Ohio’s five-member ballot board, led by Secretary of State Jon Husted, approved a similar proposed constitutional amendment, the Ohio Alternative Treatment Amendment.

The general goal of both issues is the same: to persuade voters to amend the Ohio Constitution to legalize the use of marijuana to treat chronic pain associated with many diseases and conditions, including Alzheimer’s, cancer, HIV/AIDS, Parkinson’s, spinal-cord injuries and rheumatoid arthritis.

But the two proposals differ in their implementation. The Cannabis Amendment includes no limits on how much marijuana someone could buy, possess or grow, leaving that decision and many others to a commission to be established later.

The Alternative Treatment Amendment, by comparison, would embed voluminous detail in the Ohio Constitution, including the amount of marijuana (3.5 ounces) an individual could possess; where sellers could not locate (within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, recreation centers and drug-and-alcohol treatment facilities); and fees related to buying and selling.

Backers of the issues come from different points of view.

The Cannabis Amendment is supported primarily by patients, advocates and business people, said Theresa Daniello of Cleveland, who suffers from long-term thoracic back spasms. “My pain is forever,” she said, but it could be eased by marijuana.

The Alternative Treatment Amendment’s most high-profile backer is the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a group that has long advocated complete legalization.

Geoff Korff, a Salem, Ohio, lawyer and businessman on the Alternative Treatment team, said he is uncomfortable with leaving specifics to a commission. He said his group is organizing and gathering signatures, targeting specific events statewide.

Korff thinks only one issue will make it to November: “I honestly believe there will have to be some reconciliation that takes place.”

The Columbus-based Drug Free Action Alliance doesn’t like either proposal.

“We don’t do any medication through the ballot box or legislative initiative. We do it through the Food and Drug Administration,” said Marcie Seidel, executive director. “We don’t think this is the proper way to do it. It should go through the proper channels so that when a person takes a medication, they know what to expect from a certain dosage, the side effects and interaction with other drugs.”

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/01/26/2-groups-push-medical-marijuana.html

Give'r hell Ohioans!

Good luck to both teams

A victory for either group is a victory for all Ohioans...



Take care, everyone! ,
WHAB

 

[castout]

Good luck!!!!!

 

[Anti]

1,000 sigs is all they needed?

Problem is they probably went after young looking people who would happily sign it intending to register to vote before it became an issue.

Gotta get actual registered voters or it doesn't mean a thing.

Ask the old people. They were hippies once! Some of them will be sympathetic! You don't need every person who passes you to sign it. You just need 1,000 good ones. (or whatever.)