--- title: Ohio Voters Reject Marijuana Legalization Measure description: Voters in Ohio rejected a ballot initiative that would have legalized marijuana Tuesday. canonical: https://time.com/4099286/ohio-marijuana-legalization-rejected/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-04T04:28:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T23:24:31.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Ohio Rejects Marijuana Legalization Measure og:description: Nearly two-thirds of voters opposed it. og:url: https://time.com/4099286/ohio-marijuana-legalization-rejected/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3794f09592b3d55f/69886f7bbc6cfc74e13da379/state-election-ohio-_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4692 og:image:height: 2639 og:image:alt: State Election Ohio og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ohio Rejects Marijuana Legalization Measure twitter:description: Nearly two-thirds of voters opposed it. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3794f09592b3d55f/69886f7bbc6cfc74e13da379/state-election-ohio-_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ohio Voters Reject Marijuana Legalization Measure > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: You Can Now Buy Recreational Marijuana In Oregon [Watch (HLS stream): You Can Now Buy Recreational Marijuana In Oregon](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/q5cMgz1x.m3u8) (1:25)  _Published 2015-10-01. Oregon now will allow the sale of recreational marijuana in limited quantities, but what benefits and challenges likely await the state?_ by [Center for Public Integrity / Liz Essley Whyte](https://time.com/author/center-for-public-integrity/) ## Center for Public Integrity / Liz Essley Whyte Updated: Dec 13, 2023 11:24 PM UTCPublished: Nov 4, 2015 4:28 AM UTC  Voters cast their vote at the athletic wing of Orange High School Nov. 3, 2015, in Moreland Hills, Ohio Voters cast their vote at the athletic wing of Orange High School Nov. 3, 2015, in Moreland Hills, Ohio Tony Dejak—AP by [Center for Public Integrity / Liz Essley Whyte](https://time.com/author/center-for-public-integrity/) ## Center for Public Integrity / Liz Essley Whyte Updated: Dec 13, 2023 11:24 PM UTCPublished: Nov 4, 2015 4:28 AM UTC **Correction appended, Nov. 5** Voters in Ohio rejected a ballot initiative that would have legalized marijuana Tuesday despite millions of dollars spent by investors hoping to profit from the measure’s passage. [Ohio’s Issue 3](http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/06/18/17469/political-profiteers-push-ohios-pot-vote) would have made the state the first in the Midwest to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. But with most of the state’s precincts reporting, 65 percent of voters rejected the measure, even though the pro-pot advocates paid an estimated $6.2 million to air TV ads supporting it, according to a [Center for Public Integrity ](http://www.publicintegrity.org) analysis of data from Kantar Media/CMAG, a media tracking firm. The television spots said the measure would help sick children and hurt drug dealers, among other benefits. The [measure was controversial](http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/06/18/17469/political-profiteers-push-ohios-pot-vote) in Ohio due to what opponents called its “monopoly” provisions. The proposed constitutional amendment called for allowing only 10 farms to sell wholesale marijuana — farms owned by the investors bankrolling the campaign. “Issue 3 was about greed, not good public policy,” said Curt Steiner, who directed the campaign opposing the measure. “Never underestimate the wisdom of Ohio voters. They saw through the smokescreen of slick ads, fancy but deceptive mailings \[and\] phony claims about tax revenues.” Opponents cobbled together a broad coalition of groups representing doctors, churches, sheriffs, accountants and other professionals. In their messages, they decried the measure’s “monopoly” and the possibility of children getting their hands on legal pot. Pro-pot advocates aired more than 10 times the number of TV ads opponents aired. “The electorate in this off-year election was an electorate that was into the debate and reliant on more than just the TV ads,” said Democratic state Rep. Mike Curtin, who opposed legalization. “If they were just turning on the TV ads, then we were in trouble, because we’ve been outspent.” **Read More:** [_What’s at Stake in the 2015 Elections_](http://time.com/4057108/2015-elections-overview/) The controversial marijuana legalization measure divided even pro-marijuana activists, with some groups offering tepid support and others keeping a safe distance. Ohio resident Aaron Weaver, who would like to see marijuana legal in Ohio, campaigned against Issue 3 on social media and at debates and town halls across the state. He said early Tuesday that he would be “immensely disappointed in the intellectual capacity of Ohio voters” if Issue 3 passed. Ohio pot activists who didn’t like Issue 3’s monopoly provisions are already gearing up to try to pass a pro-legalization ballot initiative in 2016, this time without the controversial components. “Poll after poll shows that Ohioans are overwhelmingly in favor of legalization, but this year’s initiative failed because a greed-driven monopoly plan is wrong for the state of Ohio,” said Ohio marijuana activist Sri Kavuru in an email. “Some activists were let down tonight because they put their faith in a bad plan, but their efforts have brought us a step closer to legalizing marijuana in 2016.” The failed Ohio measure indeed may have shifted some attitudes: Ohio Auditor Dave Yost, a vocal opponent of the pot measure, said Tuesday he now supports legalizing medical marijuana alone, partly thanks to conversations he had while campaigning against Issue 3. At least five other marijuana legalization measures are expected to appear on ballots across the country in 2016\. One prominent marijuana advocate said the loss in Ohio won’t matter for those other races, because it came in an off-year election and a win would have been surprising to many. “A defeat in Ohio will really not be very significant for the national movement,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. Across the country, voters decided 22 statewide ballot measures Tuesday, with five attracting television advertising. Among them: * Mississippi voters said no to a measure that would have required state lawmakers to fund public schools at promised levels. * Political TV ads in Maine must now list their top three funders after a ballot measure passed Tuesday that also upped public funding for elections and stiffened penalties for campaign finance violations. Proponents of the measure, backed by national campaign finance advocacy groups, spent nearly $400,000 on ads supporting it. * In Washington, a pro-animal group backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and the Humane Society spent nearly $140,000 on ads to support a measure to stiffen penalties for trafficking rare animal species. Election results were not available at the time of this post. _(_ **_Update, Nov. 5, 2015, 2:45 p.m_**_.: The measure_ [_passed_](http://results.vote.wa.gov/results/current/State-Measures-Initiative-Measure-No-1401-concerns-trafficking-of-animal-species-threatened-with-extinction.html) _with 71 percent of the vote.)_ * And in San Francisco, a group backed by [Airbnb](http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/07/15/17649/hotel-industry-targets-upstart-airbnb-statehouse-battles) spent more than $2.8 million on ads to oppose a local measure to increase regulation of short-term housing. Results of that contest were also not available at post time. _(_ **_Update, Nov. 5, 2015, 2:45 p.m_**_.: The measure_ [_failed_](http://www.sfelections.org/results/20151103/)_, with 55 percent of voters opposing the regulations and 45 percent supporting them, giving Airbnb and other short-term rental sites a victory.)_ **Correction:**An earlier version of this story reported the incorrect total for how much money pro-pot advocates spent on TV airtime supporting the measure to legalize pot in Ohio. The group spent an estimated $6.2 million on TV ads. _This story is from The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative media organization in Washington, D.C. Read more of its investigations on_ [_the influence of money in politics_](http://www.publicintegrity.org/) _or follow it on_ [_Twitter_](http://www.twitter.com/publici)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4099286/ohio-marijuana-legalization-rejected/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4099286/ohio-marijuana-legalization-rejected/"},"headline":"Ohio Voters Reject Marijuana Legalization Measure","datePublished":"2015-11-04T04:28:51.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T23:24:31.000Z","description":"Voters in Ohio rejected a ballot initiative that would have legalized marijuana Tuesday.","url":"https://time.com/4099286/ohio-marijuana-legalization-rejected/","keywords":["Marijuana","Ohio"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3794f09592b3d55f/69886f7bbc6cfc74e13da379/state-election-ohio-_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Center for Public Integrity / Liz Essley Whyte"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3794f09592b3d55f/69886f7bbc6cfc74e13da379/state-election-ohio-_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"State Election Ohio","caption":"State Election Ohio","creditText":"Tony Dejak—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4099286/ohio-marijuana-legalization-rejected/","name":"Ohio Voters Reject Marijuana Legalization Measure"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"You Can Now Buy Recreational Marijuana In Oregon","description":"Oregon now will allow the sale of recreational marijuana in limited quantities, but what benefits and challenges likely await the state?","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/q5cMgz1x/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-10-01T15:03:10.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/q5cMgz1x.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4099286/ohio-marijuana-legalization-rejected/","duration":"PT1M25S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4099286/ohio-marijuana-legalization-rejected/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```