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By Julie Patterson, Business Correspondent
US Representatives Ed Perlmutter (D-CO), Denny Heck (D-WA), and 16 cosponsors introduced The Marijuana Business Banking Act, HR 2652, in Congress July 10 to address the multiple concerns cited by financial institutions when denying or revoking the accounts of state-legal marijuana businesses and owners. Stronger measures will ultimately need to be taken to fully support legalization so that cannabis can be sold without compromising federal law, but many entrepreneurs already see ground-floor opportunities in the industry.
Investors seek to develop marijuana brands
With the latest legalization strides gaining headline news in the media across the US, investors are beginning to show interest in developing cannabis as a commercial brand. Jamen Shively, who headed up Microsoft’s corporate strategy department for six years, is seeking investment to the tune of $10 million to develop a successful cannabis brand in Washington State. Shively is hoping to build a powerful name, similar to the branding of Starbucks, and that he will be able to eventually legally import cannabis from Mexico
The global marijuana trade has been estimated by the United Nations to be worth $142 billion and, despite the plant remaining illegal in the US under federal law, two states have legalized marijuana for recreational use after voters approved it in 2012. Washington State and Colorado have moved beyond allowing marijuana to be administered as a medicine, which 18 other states do, and have managed to pass this latest law at a local state level. Users over 21 are able to consume the herb for recreation, and, according to the New York Times, this is a significant step as it means that the legalization of marijuana nationwide moves closer and closer.
Shiveley’s marijuana headquarters
Shively’s plans are to establish headquarters in Seattle, but he realizes that he will have to comply with U.S federal law and abide by local regulations that exist in the two legalized states. Shiveley’s advisor at his recent news conference was the former president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, who said that the legal sales of marijuana would be an ideal alternative to the illegal selling by Mexican drug lords. The Democratic representative of Washington State, Reuven Carlyle, supports the initiative and claims that cannabis branding was an inevitable move.
Shively has bought the rights to dispensaries in Colorado, California and Washington State, including the Northwest Patient Resource Center. He plans to create separate brands for medical and adult-use markets and is keen to explore the plant’s concentrated oil as a treatment for cancer and other illnesses and intends to fund studies to develop this.
Entrepreneurs begin investing in marijuana
The beginnings of the legalization of marijuana are attracting investors and entrepreneurs. Reformers are hoping that personal use will be legalized in 14 more states by 2017, and if this takes place, the industry is expected to quadruple. According to the trade paper Medical Marijuana Business Daily, the legal market could reach $6 billion by the year 2018. There are currently 2000 legal dispensaries in the U.S and public companies are beginning to spring up, with Medical Marijuana, in San Diego, being worth $200 million.
Currently, because selling cannabis is a federal crime, investors are reducing risks by not actually buying and selling the herb, but by using supply chains and methods of best practice about design and resources. Some are skeptical of new investment and the development of brands to make the most of the market that is emerging slowly.
Federal authorities pose the greatest risk to fledgling businesses and many medical marijuana enterprises have faltered because that threat caused the market not to flourish as quickly as people thought it would in Colorado and California. Mark Kleiman, a hired consultant for Washington State, was particularly skeptical of Shivley’s business initiative for creating such a dominant brand in cannabis in such a public manner and claimed he was announcing his ‘conspiracy’ to break the law.
Pros and cons of retail sales
As legalization continues to be debated across the states, the pros and cons of retail cannabis sales were discussed last month in the Colorado Springs, Colorado, City Hall. The Police Chief suggested that there may be a rise in traffic crashes, ignoring all the data showing that traffic fatalities have actually declined as cannabis use has increased. Retail marijuana may cause discipline problems among military troops, claimed a representative from the Military Affairs Council. However, the only two studies ever conducted by the US military to test such claims found no connection between cannabis use and military discipline. Addiction is often raised as a concern when considering how to approach retail sales. While the percentage of regular cannabis users who become dependent is remarkably low compared to equivalent ratios among users of alcohol, coffee and even sugar, if people need help with a dependency there are quality facilities throughout the US to treat addiction and addictive behaviors. Sites offer local listings for addicts. Indeed, the lowered stigma of cannabis use associated with a legal regime may in itself lead to an increase in treatment requests, as problem users feel less shame and fear in seeking help. There is data that suggests that the legalization of recreational cannabis use may have a “stepping off” effect among addiction sufferers, and that broad social benefits will ensue as legal cannabis boosts the economy through job provision and sales tax revenue.
Despite federal law prohibiting the sale of marijuana across the US, Colorado and Washington are being seen as the pioneers of legalization and many businesses and dispensaries are gearing up for the future. The climate was optimistic in Las Vegas, NV, July 27, 2013 at the Southwest CannaBusiness Symposium sponsored by the National Cannabis Industry Association, the nation’s only trade association working to defend and advance the interests of legitimate cannabis businesses in Washington, DC. — West Coast Leaf News Service
By Lanny Zwerdlow, browniemaryclub.org
 The Democratic Party Club was named for "Brownie" Mary Rathbun The California Democratic Party passed two marijuana reform resolutions at its Executive Board meeting in Costa Mesa on July 21, 2013, including a call to end raids against lawful medical marijuana providers. These are official positions of the state party set into a form that will hold sway with Democratic elected officials and candidates and they also add a new level of mainstream approval for medical use and cannabis law reform.
The first resolution calls on President Obama to respect Colorado and Washington voters and not allow any federal interference in the enactment of state marijuana legalization initiatives, to end federal raids on patients and providers in medical use states and to appoint a commission to study national marijuana law reform.
The second calls on the state legislature to enact statewide guidelines for medical marijuana distribution that respects the power of local governments to regulate and license while it provides and ensures access “to all patients in all areas of California, rural as well as urban.”
Almost nine months after Colorado and Washington voters passed the world’s first two marijuana legalization laws, and after being repeatedly asked what the administration’s reactions will be, Attorney General Eric Holder continues to state that information will be released … soon. While polls show a majority of Americans want marijuana legalized, there has been little organized pressure to support the process.
That first resolution puts the California Democratic Party, the largest state Democratic Party in the nation, firmly on the side of states that seek to legalize and regulate marijuana. The state party joins the national Conference of Mayors in asking the President to end federal interference in state medical marijuana programs, and to end the raids.
This kind of political pressure can influence the President as well as elected US Congressional representatives who are voting on a number marijuana law reform measures that address the problems caused by the differences in state and federal law. Party activists hope these resolutions will help counter the enormous pressure under which Obama has been placed by local, state, national and international police agencies efforts to undermine and torpedo the rule of state law.
The second resolution aligns state Democrats with bills already under consideration in the state legislature. The Party endorsement of statewide regulation guidelines for cities and counties could help get a few of the wavering Democrats to take a stand.
Over 80 resolutions were considered and marijuana was not a contentious issue. The most contentious issue was oysters.
Both the cannabis resolutions were sponsored by the Brownie Mary Democratic Club of Riverside County and endorsed by the Riverside County Democratic Party and other Democratic clubs and organizations, as a perfect example of how working the grassroots can grow into statewide and eventually national support for marijuana law reform.
The turnout of Brownie Mary Democratic Club members and other advocates at County Central Committee meetings was instrumental in getting their endorsement. Getting it to the State Convention and Executive Board and eventually passed took the work of many Democratic activists throughout the state. This high level of networking shows that the political process will work for those who work within the political process.
For more information on the Brownie Mary Democratic Club, how to form a local Democratic club and how to get involved in the political process to make a real difference, visit browniemaryclub.org.
 A new start for hemp? The US House of Representatives has approved a version of the farm bill which includes hemp reform to allow for states to authorize hemp research. It does not authorize large-scale hemp farming, which is essential to making the US competitive in the global industrial hemp markets. The bill now heads to the Senate, which must approve the measure to send it to the President for approval. This is the first time since the 1950s that a hemp authorization bill has cleared Congress.
For over 75 years, federal law has banned the cultivation of every strain of cannabis, regardless of its psychoactivity, despite a long heritage of industrial hemp farming in US history. The amendment to the approved farm bill would allow universities to grow non-psychoactive hemp strains for research purposes, ending a blanket prohibition which has been in place in de-facto form since 1937 and overtly through the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) since 1970.
 A "Free Marc" Emery tee shirt hangs above a cannabis garden. Photo by Chris Conrad. The West Coast Leaf has learned that Marc Emery, the Canadian activist and businessman who has been held in US federal prison since 2010, has received approval for transfer to a Canadian prison. More details to come as they become clear.
 (From L) Andrew and Steve DeAngelo, John Davis, Henry Wykowski, Jamen Shively, Vicente Fox, Dale Gierenger, Dale Sky Jones and Nate Bradley announce a new coalition. A former Latin American head of state, a current US state legislator, a former Microsoft executive, the founder of the largest dispensary in the US and the chancellor of the country’s premier cannabis university met with activists and businesspeople from all over the west coast to plan a new international push to end the global War on Drugs. On July 8, 2013 Jamen Shively, the Microsoft alumnus who plans to build the first American brand of high-grade cannabis, brought together members of the cannabis community from Mexico to Washington state in an all-star symposium held at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco in anticipation of a larger summit to be held in Mexico July 18-20.
 Former Mexican president Vicente Fox (R) discusses legal possibilities with Arcview Group president Troy Dayton. Topping the bill was former Mexican president Vicente Fox, who befriended Shively in 2001 and appeared at his side to plead for a ceasefire in the gruesome and devastating violence which has plagued his home country for decades but especially in the seven-year period since he left office in 2006. “Since 2006, young men in Mexico have been dying at a rate of forty per day,” Fox lamented in English, referencing a body count which has now exceeded the number of American dead in the Vietnam War. “Mexico has to find a way out of this trap.”
 John Davis, Henry Wykowski and Jamen Shively discuss the end of the War on Drugs. Shively, who speaks fluent Spanish and has spearheaded past efforts to bring internet literacy to Mexican children, spoke with visible emotion as he described the drug-related body count in Mexico, which has topped 86,000 since 2006. “We are acting with urgency,” he said, his voice breaking. “It is better to apologize for a hasty press conference today than to apologize at forty funerals tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that.”
 Dale Sky Jones of Oaksterdam University spoke alongside her son Jackson. Also present was Steve DeAngelo, who as executive director of the embattled Oakland dispensary Harborside Health Center intimately understands federal opposition to ending the nation’s longest-running war. Dale Sky Jones, executive chancellor of Oaksterdam University, pleaded for an end to cannabis prohibition as a strategy to better protect her young son who might one day fall victim to the drug war’s violence in absence of reform. The symposium also brought together Dale Gierenger, director of California NORML, and John Davis, co-founder of Seattle’s Hempfest and Northwest Patient’s Resource Center among about a dozen other dispensary representatives and activists. All reiterated their opposition to the drug war and called for cannabis regulation as a way to help curb the violence.
 (From L): Activist Michelle Aldrich, entrepreneur Troy Dayton, Washington state Representative Roger Goodman, LEAP member Nate Bradley, NWPRC operator John Davis, Oaksterdam chancellor Dale Sky Jones, Harborside co-founder Steve DeAngelo, former Mexican president Vicente Fox, entrepreneur Jamen Shively, attorney Henry Wykowski, CalNORML director Dale Gierenger, Harborside director Andrew DeAngelo and Buds & Roses president Aaron Justis were among the dozens of luminaries who attended. DeAngelo and Shively announced their intentions to join the American delegation to the next international symposium on the drug war hosted at El Centro Fox, the Guanajuato-based think tank named for the former Mexican president, which will take place over July18-20 and will also draw delegates from Latin American states and Portugal, which decriminalized all drugs a decade ago and has since seen significant reductions in youth use of illicit drugs. — West Coast Leaf News Service
Study: Cannabis compound reduces cigarette consumption in tobacco smokers
By Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director
A natural plant compound found in cannabis reduces nicotine cravings. Inhaling the non-psychoactive cannabinoid CBD (cannabidiol) significantly mitigates tobacco smokers’ desire for cigarettes, according to clinical trial data published online in July 2013 in the journal Addictive Behaviors.
Investigators at University College London conducted a double blind pilot study to assess the impact of the ad-hoc consumption of organic CBD versus placebo in 24 tobacco-smoking subjects seeking to quit their habit. Participants were randomized to receive an inhaler containing CBD (n=12) or placebo (n=12) for one week. Trial investigators instructed subjects to use the inhaler when they felt the urge to smoke.
Researchers reported that, “Over the treatment week, placebo treated smokers showed no differences in number of cigarettes smoked. In contrast, those treated with CBD significantly reduced the number of cigarettes smoked by [the equivalent of] 40 percent during treatment.” Moreover, participants who used CBD did not report experiencing increased cravings for nicotine during the study’s duration.
“This is the first study, as far as we are aware, to demonstrate the impact of CBD on cigarette smoking,” they added. “These preliminary data, combined with the strong preclinical rationale for use of this compound, suggest CBD to be a potential treatment for nicotine addiction that warrants further exploration.”
Previously published clinical trials on CBD have found cannabidiol to be “safe and well tolerated” in healthy volunteers.
Separate investigations of CBD have documented the cannabinoid to possess a variety of therapeutic properties, including anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-epileptic, anti-cancer, and bone-stimulating properties.
Full text of the study, “Cannabidiol reduces cigarette consumption in tobacco smokers: Preliminary findings,” appears online in the journal Addictive Behaviors.
By Kris Hermes
WCL News — President Barack Obama’s administration has spent 50% more tax dollars in its effort to block medical access to cannabis by patients in states that have legalized its use than Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush combined. Likewise, three out of four federal civil forfeiture cases against medical marijuana-related properties were filed by his administration.
Far from his 2008 election promise not to waste federal resources going after state-legal marijuana and his 2009 pledge to respect state law, Obama has committed nearly every federal agency to focus on medical use and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has made the war on patients its highest priority.
Medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) issued a June 14, 2013 report detailing the costs of the federal government’s years-long enforcement effort in states that have adopted medical marijuana laws. Notably, the report, which is entitled “What’s the Cost?” states that since 1996 nearly half a billion dollars ($500 million) has been spent by the Justice Department over three presidential administrations to investigate, raid, arrest, prosecute, and imprison hundreds of medical marijuana patients and their providers.
Far outspending all of his predecessors, the report reveals that President Obama has dedicated nearly $300 million to such enforcement efforts, despite his repeated pledges to not use Justice Department funds in this way. In 2011 and 2012, the DEA spent four percent of its budget on the medical marijuana crackdown. Having conducted at least 270 paramilitary-style raids during the past four years, Obama’s DEA spent approximately $8 million to carry them out. However, the amount of taxpayer dollars spent on raids was dwarfed by the amount spent on investigative efforts preceding raids, indictments, and lawsuits, which has totaled more than $200 million.
According to ASA’s report, data and anecdotal information has been summarized to reveal “the human and monetary costs of enforcing unpopular and outdated federal policies.” For example, the report notes how the prosecution of Michigan medical marijuana patient and organ transplant recipient Jerry Duval, who surrendered to federal authorities in June to serve out a 10-year prison sentence, has exacted both an economic and social toll. It will cost taxpayers more than $1 million to imprison Duval, but his family has already been devastated by the federal government’s needless prosecution of Jerry and his son Jeremy and the seizure of their family farm worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Remarkably, the Justice Department has never claimed that the Duval family violated Michigan’s medical marijuana law in any way.
The Obama Administration can also be recognized for its unprecedented effort to seize the property of patients, their providers, and the landlords that lease to them. Out of nearly 40 asset forfeiture lawsuits involving medical marijuana carried out since 1996, as many as 30 were filed by the Obama Administration. At a conservatively estimated cost of $350,000 per forfeiture case, the Obama Justice Department is expected to spend more than $10 million on forfeiting the property of those in full compliance with state law. Federal law allows the government to seize a person’s property even though they have not been convicted of a crime.
Hundreds of letters from US Attorneys threatening asset forfeiture and criminal prosecution have shuttered more than 500 dispensaries in California, Colorado and Washington States. During the production of this report, at least another 100 letters were sent to landlords in California.
The report concludes with a set of recommendations, urging the federal government to take immediate action to address its outdated and harmful policy on medical marijuana. In particular, the report calls for amending a Congressional appropriations bill this summer that would prevent Justice Department funds from being spent on enforcing federal marijuana laws in medical marijuana states. The report also calls for the compassionate release of medical marijuana patients currently serving prison sentences, as well as the passage of HR 689, federal legislation that would reclassify marijuana for medical use.
A similar report was also issued June 14, 2013 by California NORML. It outlines the number of people prosecuted and imprisoned as a result of the Justice Department’s enforcement efforts. “Raging unabated,” the report points to the war on medical marijuana as the cause of at least 332 people being charged with related federal crimes, with no less than 158 people receiving prison sentences totaling more than 490 years.
The ASA report is intended for Congressional legislators in an effort to lobby for federal policy reforms, and is part of the Peace for Patients campaign recently launched by ASA. — West Coast News Service
 By Tom Angell, marijuanamajority.com
The United States Conference of Mayors unanimously passed a resolution June 25, 2013 criticizing the failure of marijuana prohibition and urging the federal government to respect the ability of states and cities to implement policies like marijuana legalization and medical marijuana without interference.
“Enforcing the costly and ineffective prohibition on marijuana drains limited resources that could be better spent on programs that more effectively serve the public and keep our cities safe from serious and violent crime,” notes the resolution, and “federal laws, including the Controlled Substances Act, should be amended to explicitly allow states to set their own marijuana policies without federal interference” so that localities can “set whatever marijuana policies work best to improve the public safety and health of their communities.”
“In November, voters in my city and state strongly approved a ballot measure to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana,” said Mayor Steve Hogan of Aurora, Colorado. “The bipartisan resolution we passed today simply asks the federal government to give us time to implement these new policies properly and without interference. Cities and states across the country are enacting forward-thinking reforms to failed marijuana prohibition policies, and for the federal government to stand in the way is wasteful and contrary to the wishes of the American people.”
Despite campaign pledges that “I’m not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue,” President Obama’s administration shuttered more state-legal medical marijuana providers in one term than were closed by federal authorities during the two terms of George W. Bush’s presidency. In the wake of November’s strong passage of initiatives to legalize and regulate marijuana for all adults by voters in Colorado and Washington, Attorney General Eric Holder has repeatedly said that the administration’s response is coming “relatively soon.”
Until federal laws are amended, the Conference “urges the President of the United States to reexamine the priorities of federal agencies to prevent the expenditure of resources on actions that undermine the duly enacted marijuana laws of states.”
The resolution is co-sponsored by 18 mayors, including Bob Filner of San Diego (California), Mike McGinn of Seattle (Washington), Carolyn Goodman of Las Vegas (Nevada), Jean Quan of Oakland (California), Steve Hogan of Aurora (Colorado), Marilyn Strickland of Tacoma (Washington), Kitty Piercy of Eugene (Oregon), and William Euille of Alexandria (Virginia), among several others.
“The prohibition on marijuana has been ineffective and counterproductive,” said Mayor Stephen Cassidy of San Leandro, California. “Voters in states and cities that wish to break the stranglehold of organized crime over the distribution and sale of marijuana in their communities by legalizing, regulating and taxing marijuana should have the option of doing so.”
A recent Gallup poll found that 64% of Americans say the federal government should not enforce anti-marijuana laws in states that have opted for a new approach. A poll by the Pew Research Center found that 72% of Americans believe that government efforts to enforce marijuana laws cost more than they are worth and that a majority (52%) support legalizing and regulating marijuana like alcohol. Marijuana legalization got more votes in Colorado in November 2012 than President Obama did.
The Conference resolution and full list of co-sponsors are online at marijuanamajority.com/mayorsresolution. Marijuana Majority is dedicated to helping people understand that marijuana reform is a mainstream, majority-supported issue and that no one who believes that marijuana laws need to be reformed should be afraid to publicly say so. More information is available at MarijuanaMajority.com. — West Coast Leaf News Service
By Phillip Smith, stopthedrugwar.org
The US Supreme Court dealt a blow to mandatory minimum sentences (MMS) on June 17, 2013 by ruling that any facts used to trigger MMS are “elements” of the crime that must be proven to a jury, not left to a judge. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the majority opinion that, “… mandatory minimums heighten the loss of liberty.”
Until the 5-4 ruling in Alleyne v. US, judges had been able to find certain facts that would trigger MMS, such as quantities of drugs involved in an offense, based on a “preponderance of evidence” in post-conviction sentencing hearings. Now, those facts will have to established by juries in the course of the trial, using the higher standard of proof “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The case is the latest in a line of cases that began with the groundbreaking 2000 Supreme Court decision, Apprendi v. New Jersey, which held that any fact that increases the range of punishments is an “element” of the crime and must be presented to a jury and proved beyond reasonable doubt.
Drug offenders are those most likely to be hit with MMS. Sentencing reform advocates were pleased by the ruling.
“Mandatory minimums for drug offenders will lessen, but it’s difficult to say to what extent,” said Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, which opposes MMS. “It’s also likely that this will have beneficial effects in reducing racial disparity, because so many mandatory minimums are imposed for drug offenses and African Americans in particular are on the receiving end of those penalties.”
“No defendant should have to face a mandatory minimum sentence because of facts that are not considered — or worse, considered and rejected — by a jury,” said Mary Price, vice president and general counsel for Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), which submitted a friend of the court brief in the case. “Today, those who face mandatory minimums do so with the Constitution more firmly at their backs.” — West Coast Leaf News Service
By Lynne Lyman, drugpolicy.org
A federal US District Court ordered California to take immediate steps June 20, 2013 to reduce its prison population to 137.5% of design capacity, or about 110,000 inmates. After 18 months of reductions, primarily through the Public Safety Realignment Act, the California Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) prison population plateaued at 120,000 before trending up in the past month.
In a sharply worded brief, the panel made it clear that the state’s proposed plan did not comply with its earlier order, and it ordered additional measures, such as expanding good-time credits. If those measures are deemed insufficient by Dec. 31, the Court ordered the state to release inmates identified as low-risk (a list that the CDCR is now required to develop).
A 2012 Tulchin Research poll found that 75% of Californians favor alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenses such as marijuana.
People of color — especially Black men — are disproportionately ensnared in our criminal justice system. Blacks comprise just 6.2% of California’s population. Yet, in 2010, Blacks represented over 18% of all felony drug arrests made here, and in 2009 Blacks represented a staggering 29% of all people incarcerated in state prison. — West Coast Leaf News Service
By Chris Conrad, westcoastleaf.com
The House of Representatives solidly rejected a last-minute lobbying bid from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) June 20, 2013 and adopted a farm bill amendment in a 225-200 vote to legalize growing hemp for research purposes. Soon thereafter, it voted down the $940 billion bill by 195-234. Most Democrats voted against the bill because it cut food stamps by more than $20 billion. Many Republicans voted no because the country is already $17 trillion in debt.
The vote is a blow to Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who has failed to move farm policy forward for two years in a row. A new and more conservative farm bill is expected to be put forward, but even if it is not, there’s a good chance the hemp amendment will get inserted into other legislation now that the full House has approved it.
Despite the full bill being voted down because of partisan differences, hemp and environmental advocates and marijuana reformers all see HR 1947 as an important victory. The DEA had argued that it would be too difficult for the US agency to do what law enforcement routinely does in scores of other nations — distinguish industrial hemp from its genetic cousin, the marijuana strains of cannabis. This marks the first time in over a half century that Congress voted to allow hemp farming, and perhaps the first time that it listened to arguments from both DEA and cannabis reformers, then sided with the citizenry.
The amendment, introduced by Reps. Jared Polis (D-CO), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Thomas Massie (R-KY), to allow universities and colleges to cultivate industrial hemp, is less ambitious than a Senate effort by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to fully legalize growing hemp for industrial use. McConnell’s bill remains stalled. — West Coast Leaf News Service
By Jeremy Daw, westcoastleaf.com
The Ohio Cannabis Rights Amendment (OCRA), a 2014 ballot initiative to amend the Buckeye State’s constitution and establish a civil right to use cannabis for medicinal purposes and to grow industrial hemp, passed its first procedural milestone May 17, 2013.
State Attorney General Mike DeWine certified the Amendment’s description as “a fair and truthful statement of the proposed law or constitutional amendment” and confirmed that it was accompanied by more than 1,000 valid signatures, as required by law. The Ohio Rights Group, which drafted and promoted the proposed amendment, submitted it with a total of 2,058 signatures and 179 written petitions. Next the state Ballot Board must determine whether the proposed language covers only a single issue, after which the OCRA campaign will return to the body politic to gather the more than 385,000 valid signatures needed to put a constitutional amendment on an Ohio ballot.
The group has until 125 days before the general election to submit its signatures, a deadline of July 8, 2014. Signatures must originate from at least 44 of the state’s 88 counties. — West Coast Leaf News Service
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