Medical marijuana unlikely to make Oklahoma ballot

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Despite having passed the 65,987-signature threshold to secure a spot on the November ballot, it appears that medical cannabis won’t appear before Oklahoma voters this fall owing to a dispute over how the attorney general reworded the ballot initiative’s title.

The Associated Press reported that Oklahomans for Health, the group behind the proposed ballot measure, didn’t turn its signatures in with enough time to spare so that such legal disputes could be resolved before the Nov. 8 election. The group submitted its signatures on Aug. 11, and was one of the last statewide pro-cannabis campaigns to do so.

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt said he rewrote the ballot title due to various faults in the initiative, such as the lack of a list of qualifying conditions for medical cannabis, the AP reported.

“The signatures were not submitted with enough time to allow this process to be played out completely,” Pruitt said.

But an Oklahomans for Health spokesman said Pruitt “cherry-picked” provisions from the ballot question that would “cause fear or uncertainty” among voters. He also agreed, however, that the planned challenge to Pruitt’s rewrite will mean that the initiative won’t be on the November ballot.

Also, the state Supreme Court has not yet weighed in on whether Oklahomans for Health submitted enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.