Medical Marijuana Backers Sue State Attorney General

Medical marijuana backers in Oklahoma are suing the state attorney general, and said the attorney general is intentionally trying to mislead voters. 

For three months, backers gathered 67,000 signatures to allow voters to decide whether medical marijuana should be legalized in Oklahoma.  

But the measure won’t be on the ballot in November. 

Lawyers for the group Oklahomans for Health filed the suit Tuesday. 

They said attorney general Scott Pruitt reworded the ballot initiative in a way that would lead voters to believe a yes vote would legalize all pot, not just medical marijuana.

"Thousands and thousands of signatures were collected by voters of Oklahoma,” said attorney David Slane. “No elected official has the right to rewrite these ballots in such a way that he would try to unfairly try to influence voters."

Pruitt removed language that specifically said the vote would legalize medical marijuana only and replaced it with a statement that reads: “This measure legalizes the licensed use, sale, and growth of marijuana in Oklahoma. There are no qualifying medical conditions identified.”

"We’re considering asking that he be removed from this case because we knew he sued other states that had medical marijuana, and so we know that he has a bias against it," Slane said.

The attorney general’s office also added language that said the state law would not change federal law which makes the sale use and growing of marijuana illegal. 

"Nobody’s asking his opinion about federal law,” Slane said. “That's not what his role is. The law specifically says the grounds that he can rewrite it. We believe he goes above and beyond that."

A spokesman for the attorney general’s office released a statement that reads, “The Attorney General’s Office received the lawsuit late Tuesday afternoon and will begin the process of reviewing the challenge.”