One week from today it will be Election Day in Ohio. Ohio voters will vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on various issues, the most high profile of which will be marijuana legalization. Issue 3 would legalize marijuana possession, cultivation, and for some, cultivation for profit. If Issue 2 passed as well, it would nullify at least some of the provisions of the marijuana legalization initiative, and according to some in Ohio’s Legislature, would nullify the entire legalization initiative, even if both pass. We can wait for the results to be finalized and cross that bridge when we get there.
There has been a flurry of polls dealing with Issue 3 released lately. It was a just a couple of weeks ago that a poll was released which showed that Issue 3 would win by a fairly large margin. However, two polls were released last week which showed that things were too close to call, with a large chunk of poll respondents saying that they were undecided. A poll released yesterday found that the initiative would fail according to the poll’s results. Per Cleveland.Com:
A new public opinion poll reports nearly half of your Northeast Ohio neighbors have tried marijuana and most support some form of legalization, but they aren’t sold on Issue 3.
Consistent with other recent statewide polls, Northeast Ohioans overwhelmingly support medical marijuana (about 83 percent), according to the Baldwin Wallace University Community Research Institute poll released Monday. A smaller majority — 55 percent — favor legalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana for “personal use.”
But only 43 percent of survey respondents said they were likely or very likely to vote for Issue 3, the marijuana legalization amendment on the Nov. 3 ballot. About 38 percent said they would likely not vote for Issue 3 and nearly 20 percent said they were undecided.
I’ve had a more and more conversations with Ohio residents as the vote approaches. I would say that the support I’ve seen via e-mails and messages is about 50/50. How the vote will end up is anyone’s guess right now but one thing is for sure, and it’s something that I tell everyone from Ohio that will listen – if the initiative fails, EVERYONE better step up and if they have deep pockets, they better put their money where their mouths are the next election cycle. And if they don’t have money, they better be first in line to volunteer. We will find out if Ohio becomes the 5th state to legalize marijuana one week from today.
