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Oklahoma Voters Will Decide Medical Marijuana Question, Eventually

Ryan Kiesel is executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma.
Brent Fuchs
/
The Journal Record
Ryan Kiesel is executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma.

Even though it won't be this fall, Oklahoma voters will decide whether or not to approve medical marijuana issue in a future election.

When the campaign for medical marijuana turned in its petition, they had more signatures than they needed, but only about 1,800 more.

So if someone challenged the signature count, it wouldn’t take much to invalidate the months of work. But Thursday was the last day to object and no one did.

In an interview before the deadline Thursday afternoon, ACLU Executive Director Ryan Kiesel told The Journal Record’s Dale Denwalt the signature margin is incredibly small:

“That doesn’t necessarily mean that any signature challenge wouldn’t be met with a vigorous defense, but it is an incredibly small margin,” said Kiesel, one of three lawyers representing Oklahomans for Health in court. “If you can go out and gather over 65,000 signatures with virtually an unpaid signature-gathering effort, then you’re on to something. You’ve seized the zeitgeist. We knew it was a matter of time before Oklahoma began to put some rationality into our drug laws, but what we’re seeing now is it’s very likely to happen a lot sooner than any of us thought whether it’s with this ballot question or another.”

The question will probably appear on the ballot in two years unless lawmakers or the governor call for a special, statewide election. Even though supporters can claim victory today, the legal fight isn’t over. Attorney General Scott Pruitt rewrote the language that will be put on the ballot.

Pruitt has not yet given a reason for rewriting the title, other than a claim that the original version did not comply with applicable laws. Kiesel said Pruitt’s version is misleading and biased. “The attorney general in his rewrite characterized this as something that looks a lot more like an all-out decriminalization or an adult recreational use marijuana program,” he said. “At the end of the day, what this program does is allow doctors and patients to make those decisions.”

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Brian Hardzinski is from Flower Mound, Texas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. He began his career at KGOU as a student intern, joining KGOU full time in 2009 as Operations and Public Service Announcement Director. He began regularly hosting Morning Edition in 2014, and became the station's first Digital News Editor in 2015-16. Brian’s work at KGOU has been honored by Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI), the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters, the Oklahoma Associated Press Broadcasters, and local and regional chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists. Brian enjoys competing in triathlons, distance running, playing tennis, and entertaining his rambunctious Boston Terrier, Bucky.
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