Responsible Ohio waits for marijuana voting results
Ian James, executive director of Responsible Ohio, sends out a text as he waits for results on Issue 3. James told supporters that "no matter what happens," the measure changed the dialogue around marijuana in Ohio.
(Gus Chan/The Plain Dealer)
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio voters on Tuesday said they were not ready to legalize marijuana, despite a multimillion-dollar campaign aimed at convincing them that the time and the plan were right.
Voters were on track Tuesday to reject Issue 3, an amendment that would have launched a legal medical and recreational marijuana industry in Ohio, and instead were likely to approve a competing amendment that prohibits monopolies and economic benefits from being written into the state constitution. That amendment, Issue 2, also contains a provision that supporters say would have nullified Issue 3 if both measures had received a majority of votes.
Issue 3 was failing 64 to 36 percent with 98 percent of precincts counted, according to unofficial numbers from the Ohio secretary of state's office. Issue 2 was passing 52 to 48 percent. The Associated Press called the race about 30 minutes after early results were posted online.
Ian James, executive director pro-Issue 3 group ResponsibleOhio, said the campaign will regroup and begin on Wednesday a new effort to legalize marijuana in Ohio.
"We wanted to change the dialogue -- we did do that," James said. "This was the first step to legalization -- we're not going away. What we have in prohibition of marijuana does not work."
Curt Steiner, campaign director for the "no" on Issue 3 group Ohioans Against Marijuana Monopolies, said voters concluded Issue 3 was an unsavory abuse of the ballot issue process and nothing more than a business plan to seize control of the recreational marijuana market in Ohio.
"Never underestimate the wisdom of Ohio voters," Steiner said. "They saw through the smokescreen of slick ads, fancy but deceptive mailings, phony claims about tax revenues and, of course, Buddie the marijuana mascot."
Issue 3 proposed legalizing recreational and medical marijuana sales and use for adults over age 21. The proposal limited commercial growing to 10 parcels of land belonging to investors bankrolling the initiative.
Opponents, including many pro-marijuana advocates, seized on that aspect of the plan. Issue 3's ballot title, set by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, said the measure would "grant a monopoly" on marijuana cultivation.
Husted said Tuesday that Ohio voters were smart to vote down Issue 3.
"Monopolies were the theme of this Election Day and voters said with a clear voice that there is no place for them in Ohio's Constitution," Husted said.
And state lawmakers put Issue 2, the "anti-monopoly amendment," on the ballot in an effort to block Issue 3. Issue 2 prohibits monopolies and other economic benefits from being written into the state constitution. Initiatives that meet that definition, as determined by the Ballot Board, could appear on the ballot but voters would also have to approve a separate question asking voters to approve the monopoly aspect of the plan.
ResponsibleOhio reported spending more than $15 million on its campaign through mid-October and planned to spend another $5 million in the final weeks before Election Day. ResponsibleOhio investors and celebrities Nick Lachey, former 98 Degrees boy band member, and Oscar Robertson, Basketball Hall of Famer, appeared in statewide television advertisements the week before Election Day.
Issue 3 was opposed by more than 100 organizations representing business interests, medical professions, mental health agencies, and hospitals, among others. Without a large campaign war chest, Ohioans Against Marijuana Monopolies relied on its broad coalition to reach voters instead of TV commercials.