CINCINNATI (Jeff Hirsh) -- The group ResponsibleOhio joined with a labor union Monday for an announcement about the planned marijuana farms, should its ballot initiative pass.

ResponsibleOhio says it's collected 700,000 signatures, which is more than twice what it needs to get an amendment to the state constitution on the ballot. If passed, the amendment would legalize ten grow farms around the state, including several in the Tri-State. They'd be owned by investors, who've put up $20 million to finance the ballot campaign. ResponsibleOhio says taxpayers would also benefit with more than half a billion dollars distributed among state governments by 2020.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)-A petition for a proposed initiated statute called the “Fresh Start Act” which would expunge the criminal record of a person with past marijuana convictions if it becomes legal in Ohio, was certified by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.

According to the Attorney General’s office, the petition, a proposed initiated statute, was certified as containing both the necessary 1,000 valid signatures from registered Ohio voters and a “fair and truthful” summary of the proposed law.

COLUMBUS - Signatures for a new marijuana law proposal have been certified, the Ohio State Attorney General’s Office announced on Monday.

The “Fresh Start Act” from the group Responsible Ohio, which expunge criminal records for past marijuana convictions if the drug becomes legal, received the necessary 1,000 valid signatures from registered Ohio voters.

The Ohio Ballot Board must determine if the proposed statue would contain a single law or multiple laws.

Responsible Ohio would then need to collect signatures for each proposed law from registered voters in each of 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, according to the Attorney General’s Office, which is equal to 1.5 percent of the total vote cast in the county for the office of governor at the last gubernatorial election.

Department of Strange Bedfellows: Ohio marijuana activists applaud the ballot measure, passed by a conservative Ohio legislature, that would stop the plan by the private group ResponsibleOhio to legalize marijuana.(Photo: File)

Just in the past week, the politics of legalizing marijuana in Ohio in 2015 has created strange bedfellows – conservative legislators and longtime marijuana activists who want to stop the initiative of the private group ResponsibleOhio.

A campaign to legalize marijuana in Ohio took a step closer to making November’s ballot Tuesday, after its promoters turned in more than twice the required number of signatures.

COLUMBUS, OH – ResponsibleOhio today delivered petition signatures to the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office to qualify for the November 2015 ballot.

The Marijuana Legalization Amendment would allow adults 21 and over to buy marijuana and establish a network of 10 authorized growing locations around the state.

ResponsbileOhio says that they have 695,273 signatures on their petitions. They needed about 306,000 to qualify for November’s ballot. Secretary of State Jon Husted makes the final determination as to the validity of the signatures.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Lawmakers could potentially place another hurdle in the path to legalizing marijuana in Ohio.

The Ohio Senate Rules Committee is considering a bill that would send an amendment to voters this November.

That amendment, if passed, would ban any future amendments granting business monopolies and enshrining property rights for individuals in the Ohio Constitution.

Senate President Keith Faber said amendments like a proposed marijuana legalization amendment or the previously passed casino amendment are bad business.

“It stifles competition, it stifles the free market, and it puts private property rights inside the state constitution, our governing document,” he said. “It’s a bad public policy.”

Aims to prevent use the state constitution to sanction monopolies

COLUMBUS —The Ohio House voted 81-12 on Wednesday to put a question before voters that could undercut a marijuana-legalization measure that will appear on the same Nov. 3 ballot.

The lawmakers’ ballot proposal is aimed at derailing the marijuana-legalization proposal, along with other future attempts to use the state constitution to sanction monopolies.

“The people’s constitution should never, ever be a shopping center for market opportunities,” said Rep. Mike Curtin (D., Columbus), one of the resolution’s chief sponsors. “It is no exaggeration to call this a grave threat to our state constitution.”

DENVER, Colorado - Marijuana legalization in Colorado put business owners like Dottie Peterson in a quandary.

Peterson doesn't want workers at the staffing service she operates to use marijuana on the job, though she doesn't mind if they do it in their free time. But she can't hire drug users because of her insurance. Many companies, including hers, get better worker's compensation insurance rates by being a drug-free workplace, so the new employees she hires must pass drug tests.

An estimated $7.1 million would be spent on television and radio commercials in an effort…

A prospectus designed to persuade deep-pocketed Cincinnatians to back a $20 million campaign to legalize marijuana suggests their return on investment might not be limited to pot farms in Ohio.

If the marijuana proposal makes it onto the Nov. 3 ballot and is approved by voters, the investors might try to replicate the effort in other states, suggests the prospectus circulated last year by Ian James, CEO of the ResponsibleOhio political action committee.