COLUMBUS (AP)—Voters have rejected a ballot measure that would have made Ohio the first state to make marijuana legal for both recreational and medical use in a single stroke.
The initiative’s failure follows an expensive campaign, a legal fight over its ballot wording and an investigation into the proposal’s petition signatures.
The constitutional amendment dubbed Issue 3 on the ballot would have allowed adults 21 and older to use, buy or grow certain amounts of marijuana.
It also would have established a regulatory and taxation scheme while creating a network of 10 growing facilities.
Those growing sites were targeted in a separate ballot question aimed at preventing monopolies from being inserted into Ohio’s Constitution for the economic benefits of a few.
The defeat of Issue 3 means a court challenge can be avoided as to which issue would have trumped the other.