NORML Hesitantly Backs Ohio Legalization Initiative

A campaign to legalize medical and recreational cannabis in Ohio has garnered a big endorsement from NORML, but the marijuana lobbying organization isn’t thrilled with a key business-related aspect of the measure.

NORML decided to get behind Issue 3, the legalization measure being pushed by ResponsibleOhio. However, it expressed concern that the initiative calls for just 10 legal cultivation sites, all of which would be owned by wealthy campaign investors.

Keith Stroup, who founded NORML in 1970 and is now legal counsel for the organization, wrote on the organization’s website that such a restriction is a “perversion of the initiative process,” and he called the ballot measure a “bitter pill to swallow.”

“In this instance, the initiative process is being used to try to make the rich and powerful even more rich and more powerful,” Stroup wrote. “But currently Issue 3 is the only option available to stop the senseless and destructive practice of arresting marijuana smokers in Ohio.”

The NORML board of directors therefore voted to support the measure, but some board members abstained to note their opposition for the record, and one even flat-out opposed the initiative, Stroup wrote.

Issue 3 will be on the ballot this November in Ohio.