Pro-marijuana legalization group ResponsibleOhio put together a new proposal that would allow Ohio residents to grow their own marijuana.
A marijuana advocacy group is looking for signatures on a revised ballot proposal that will allow individuals to grow their own marijuana.
The proposal, originally released earlier this month by the political action committee ResponsibleOhio, would amend the state constitution to legalize marijuana for both medical and recreational use.
“Just as we allow people to homebrew their own beer, we want people to be able to home grow their own marijuana,” Lydia Bolander, spokeswoman for the group, said Tuesday.
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The original proposal would have allowed marijuana to be grown at one of 10 growing facilities in the state. The plants would then be sent to one of five testing facilities before being sent to a licensed retailer.
Bolander announced in a news release Tuesday that they were in the process of revising the proposal. The new proposal was released Thursday.
After it receives 1,000 signatures, the petition will go to the attorney general’s office for approval. After that, it will need 3,000 additional signatures before it can appear on the ballot.
The proposal, which previously was pending approval from the attorney general, now has to begin the legislative process over again.
The proposal will now include a measure allowing individuals over the age of 21 to apply for permits authorizing them to home-grow up to four marijuana plants. Those individuals would be prevented from selling to others, though. The plants would also have to be stored inside and be inaccessible to anyone under 21.
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Individuals would have to apply for the permit through a seven-member commission appointed by the governor, comprised of specialists like law enforcement officers and physicians.
The proposal does not include any regulations regarding where people obtain their homegrown marijuana plants.
There was also a proposed reduction from the 15 percent in the original proposal to a five percent tax on marijuana purchased from licensed retail stores.
“Combined with a lower tax rate for consumers, these changes will make our communities safer by smothering the black market,” Bolander said in the news release.
Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl said he thought decriminalization would probably be good for the state, but he was skeptical of this proposal.
He said he was worried that the proposal favored big businesses, since private investors have sole ownership over the growing centers.
“It sounds too convoluted to me, with businesses as the big winners” he said.
He said if the measure does pass, he wouldn’t be surprised to see marijuana retailers springing up in Athens.
“It’s a college town,” he said.
Eleanor Ahrens, president of Southeast Ohio NORML, the local chapter of a national marijuana advocacy group, said it would be hard to tell what types of effects the proposal would have, but that legalization would ultimately be advantageous for Southeast Ohio.
“We shouldn’t have the fear of going to jail for a plant,” she said.
She said hemp cultivation would benefit local farmers who are “strapped for money” and that marijuana would serve as a more economical way to medicate neurological disorders.
Bolander said, even after revision, she is optimistic about the group’s chances of getting the proposal on the ballot, and that the new language will likely make it even easier to gain signatures.
“We are going to have the best team working on this proposal… and we have no doubt that we’ll be able to (get it on the ballot),” she said.
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