Medical Marijuana Issue To Face Challenges, Unlikely For November Ballot
Supporters of a petition aiming to get the medical marijuana issue on the November ballot are coming to the realization that although they appear to have the necessary signatures on their petitions, it is unlikely that it will appear on the November ballot as they had hoped.
Oklahoma State Attorney General Scott Pruitt submitted rewritten language of the ballot title on Thursday, for State Question 788. As originally written, the initiative, if approved by voters, would allow doctors in the state of Oklahoma to recommend a state-issued marijuana license to patients over 25 years of age. Patients would legally be allowed to possess up to 3 ounces for medical reasons. According to Pruitt, the initiative, as submitted, did not contain language pertaining to qualifying medical conditions which would allow doctors to make a license recommendation.
Attorney General Pruitt also commented that the delay is the responsibility of State Question 788, who according to him did not submit the 65,987 voter signatures in a timely manner which would allow enough buffer time for the state Election Board to print and sent ballots containing the initiative to counties and absentee voters, as well as any legal challenges that might occur.
Advocates of the initiative are challenging the new wording of the proposition, and are still hopeful they will be able to pass legal hurdles in time to get it to voters in November. But state officials say the chance of voting on the initiative will be delayed not because of the state, but instead because supporters of State Question 788 didn't submit the required 65,987 qualifying voter signatures, with enough buffer time for legal challenges and for the state's Election Board to print and send ballots to counties, military members and overseas voters.
Pruitt has a record of acting against marijuana issues. In 2014, he joined Nebraska's state Attorney General John Bruning in an attempt to file suit against the state of Colorado, after recreational marijuana use became legal there, using the argument that the law enforcement agencies of adjoining states have had added strain since the legalization. When the U.S. Supreme Court rejected that request, the two state Attorneys General asked to 10th U.S. Court of Appeals to join a law-suit against Colorado in a case brought by that state's marijuana opponents.