Pubdate: Thu, 16 Jul 2015
Source: Columbus Dispatch (OH)
Copyright: 2015 The Columbus Dispatch
Contact:  http://www.dispatch.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/93

BUYING THE CONSTITUTION

Big Money, Not Popular Demand, Is What Drives the Marijuana Proposal

The haphazard signature-gathering effort by backers of a 
marijuana-legalization ballot issue suggests something other than a 
grass-roots clamor to bring legalized pot to Ohio.

And the cities and townships where backers of the issue propose to 
set up their government-sanctioned-monopoly pot farms don't seem 
exactly enthusiastic about that prospect.

All in all, the lurching campaign effort shows ResponsibleOhio's 
proposal for what it is: a bid to use the mechanics of state 
government - and, thereby, voters - to create an insider business 
opportunity for a handful of people. The campaign is driven not by 
popular demand, but by the big money of the investors who stand to profit.

If a genuine grass-roots group of Ohioans wanted to see marijuana 
legalized for medical or recreational use, nothing would stop them 
from circulating petitions in support of that effort. But despite 
ResponsibleOhio's complaint that lawmakers have been ignoring a 
burning desire for years, that supposed desire hasn't inspired very 
many people to volunteer to pass petitions.

To get the proposed amendment onto the November ballot, the group is 
paying people to circulate petitions. To be fair, few groups could 
muster the hundreds of thousands of valid signatures needed by using 
volunteers alone; many turn to paid circulators. And 
ResponsibleOhio's paid circulators certainly aren't the first to turn 
in lots of flawed signatures.

But, a spot check at county boards of elections shows a remarkably 
shoddy effort by ResponsibleOhio's circulators: As of Friday, major 
counties were finding more than half of the signatures invalid for 
one reason or another. At this rate, when the counting is done, the 
group won't have the 305,591 valid signatures required to make the 
ballot, even though it collected more than double the number. (If 
that happens, Ohio law allows a 10-day "cure period" for petitioners 
to try to get the additional signatures needed.)

In Franklin County, as of Tuesday, only 40 percent of 113,000 
signatures counted so far were valid. About 26,000 people weren't 
registered to vote at the address they listed on the petition; 23,000 
weren't registered at all. About 7,800 were duplicates and 2,600 were 
deemed "not genuine."

Circulators with any commitment to the cause they're pushing, beyond 
a per-signature payment, tend to try a lot harder to get valid signatures.

The pushback from communities that stand to host the constitutionally 
protected pot farms is more evidence that ResponsibleOhio's 
heavyhanded approach is unwise. If the proposal was simply to make 
marijuana cultivation legal, prospective growers might emerge 
naturally and work with local officials and residents to win them over.

Instead, ResponsibleOhio's investors secured rights to properties in 
10 locations around the state and wrote a constitutional amendment 
that would give them exclusive rights and hamper local government's 
ability to get in their way.

It's no wonder Ohioans - those who actually have kept up their voting 
registrations and are concerned about their communities - aren't the 
ones driving this selfserving scheme.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom