| A coalition led by the Ohio Licensed Beverage Assoc. and RJ Reynolds Tobacco filed for a constitutional amendment April 7 that would allow smoking to continue in most businesses and erase the smoke-free policies already employed in 21 Ohio counties—a direct challenge to the initiated process by SmokeFreeOhio (with the support of the AMC/NOMA) to get a statewide ban on workplace smoking on the November ballot. SmokeFreeOhio submitted more than 167,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office in November 2005. Once the petition was certified, the proposal was sent to the Ohio General Assembly in January 2006. The legislature then had four months to act on the proposal, with those four months expiring on May 2, 2006. Beginning May 3rd, SmokeFreeOhio will begin the second round of signature collection to place the Smoke-Free Workplace Act before voters this fall.
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