“The people of Ohio have understandably rejected a deeply flawed, monopolistic approach to marijuana reform that failed to garner broad support from advocates or industry leaders,” added Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, a national trade group. “Now the foundation has been laid for a potential 2016 effort that would put forward a more common-sense initiative.”
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The industry itself acknowledges that it has a problem with class and color. “There are a host of reasons why the industry is not as racially diverse as it could be,” Taylor West of the National Cannabis Industry Association, told MSNBC. There are huge licensing fees, legal fees and taxes. Every legal weed state also has laws preventing people with a past drug conviction from working in the field.

It’s almost as if the existing models for legalization are designed, consciously or not, to exclude the little folks who might hope to start a pot business or work in a pot shop. Ohio’s initiative would have added to this unsavory impression. That’s why its failure may actually help the movement succeed.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/why-ohios-rejection-pot-measure-could-be-boon-legalization