Lawmakers don’t particularly like laws that aren’t written by them. After all, they’re supposed to be the experts when it comes to crafting legislation.

But when state legislators drag their feet on enacting public policy that time and time again has shown to garner widespread support among their constituents, sooner or later somebody will end up doing their job for them—the voters. With nationwide support for legalizing cannabis inflating to 70% in recent polls, politicians can’t hold out much longer.

As we saw in the November election, voters in Arizona, Montana and New Jersey passed adult-use cannabis ballot measures, Mississippians passed an effort to legalize medical cannabis, and South Dakota voters passed both medical and adult-use legalization initiatives at the same time.

Specifically, the citizen-led ballot measure in Mississippi prevailed over an alternative and competing measure put forth by the Mississippi Legislature. As industry advocacy leaders said, the alternative measure was a cynical effort by lawmakers to misdirect voters, and, if they actually wanted to put a medical cannabis program in place, they would have done it legislatively.

Unfortunately for the two-thirds of Mississippians voting in support of medical cannabis, the Mississippi Supreme Court struck down their approved ballot measure, ruling it unconstitutional on a signature-gathering technicality.

But the message was clear: citizens, even in the more conservative states, aren’t waiting any longer for their representatives to do what they ought to do.

In Ohio, a pair of lawmakers officially filed an adult-use cannabis bill July 30 in the state’s House. Sponsored by Reps. Casey Weinstein and Terrence Upchurch, the legislation to legalize adult-use cultivation and sales will be the first to come before Ohio lawmakers.

“A majority of Ohio voters support legalizing cannabis for adults, but politicians in the state have ignored the will of the people for many years,” Matthew Schweich, deputy director at the Marijuana Policy Project, told Cannabis Business Times. “I’m confident that a well-crafted legalization ballot initiative, backed by a strong campaign, would be approved by Ohio voters at the ballot box next year. If the Legislature wants to have a substantive role in crafting the details of the policy, then they should enact the newly introduced bill.”

Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who opposes legalization, could hinder the legislative effort. But a citizen-led initiative petition to put legislation in front of the Ohio Legislature, or possibly in front of 2022 voters, shows promise.

Although that initiative was delivered a recent blow by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost—who rejected initial summary language—the advocacy group behind it, the “Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol,” appears to have the right muscle from state political consultants who make their money running ballot issues, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported.

“We think this is an issue that’s popular in Ohio,” coalition spokesman Tom Haren said. “Any recent poll will tell you that. We think this is an issue that’s popular across political lines, geographic lines [and] social economic lines, and we think it’s something that the Legislature will recognize.”

If the coalition resubmits a revised summary and gains approval from Yost, and then gathers some-130,000 signatures, the Legislature would have four months to consider the initiative. Should state lawmakers fail to act, then the coalition could collect additional signatures to place their petition before the voters on the November 2022 ballot.

And if that day comes for Ohio voters to twist the legislative arm, state lawmakers will have no one to blame but themselves if they don’t agree with the legalization parameters.  

-Tony Lange, Associate Editor