Group seeking Ohio marijuana legalization making progress

COLUMBUS (AP) — Supporters of marijuana legalization in Ohio say they are about halfway to their goal of collecting the more than 305,000 signatures needed to get a proposal on the November ballot.

ResponsibleOhio, the group working toward the 2015 ballot, says it has collected more than 160,000 signatures on petitions to put the issue before voters, the Northeast Ohio Media Group is reporting.

The effort requires 305,591 signatures of registered voters — equal to 10 percent of the vote in the 2014 gubernatorial election. Names must be gathered from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties. Signatures must be submitted by July.

Organizers of two other efforts to get legalization on the ballot in Ohio say they are making progress, too.

Legal marijuana sales and growing would be taxed.