Toledo City, Ohio has won the approval of the ballot measure, but the fight has only started for the state on the legalization of Cannabis or Marijuana on both medical and recreational use. Minimizing the criminal penalties is subjected to possession of the said substance under 200 grams. According to Ohio law, possession of marijuana would result to revocation of driver's license from 6 month to 5 years.
As of September 15, 70% of the population in Toledo said yes to the decriminalization as a result of the triumphant petition signature drive called the Sensible Marijuana Ordinance, which failed last year in an 11-1 ratio. But the mistake has been changed and now the residents got the approval.
The Sensible Marijuana Ordinance issue 1 stated that to "decriminalized marijuana by decreasing the penalties of marijuana use to the absolute minimum while keeping the substance technically illegal in order to comply with state law." It aims to remove all jail time and fines for the violations, to prevent the reporting, accelerating the report to authorities higher than local city attorney, suspension of drivers' licenses, and seizing and forfeiting of assets in consequence of the marijuana-related violations.
The election last September 15 involved four districts and a total of 9,500 eligible voters. More than 6,700 voted for the decriminalization of marijuana. On the Lucas County election website, for the Sensible Marijuana Ordinance Issue 1, the poll statistics are, out of the 16,058 votes, 11,261 (70.13%) opted yes and only 4,797 (29.87%) voted no.
The campaign manager Sean Nestor was grateful for those who supported the act and hoped that the city officials will respect the ordinance. "This is certainly a historic moment in the state and even in the country. We do expect there to be challenges and we are prepared to meet them with the full political and legal force we can muster," he said.
