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Ohio votes against legalizing recreational and medicinal marijuana

Ohio votes against legalizing recreational and medicinal marijuana

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Ohio has voted down a proposal that would have legalized recreational marijuana, the AP reports. The legislation would have made Ohio the fifth state in the US to legalize the substance for personal, recreational use, and also covered medicinal marijuana.

Unlike other states before it, Ohio was voting to legalize weed with a major caveat: the marijuana sold in the state would have only been grown at 10 pre-designated farms, effectively giving an early monopoly on the business to a small group of producers, as The Washington Post explains. The owners of those farms were effectively bankrolling the constitutional amendment campaign through investors like singer Nick Lachey, of 98 Degrees fame.

As the Post notes, the model was divisive, even among some advocates of marijuana legalization. Before the vote, Ohio residents seemed similarly torn, with a recent poll showing a mere one-percent split separating those in favor from those against. Some legislators in the state already attempted to counter the proposal with a different ballot initiative to block the amendment, which could have led to legal repercussions if the ballot had passed.