Jacob Redmond
Well-Known Member
The argument over legalizing marijuana in Ohio has two parts. One is over legalization itself. The other argument, if Ohio legalizes, is how to regulate growing and selling.
The General Assembly almost certainly won't legalize marijuana, maybe not even for medical use. So the most likely way to legalize marijuana, if voters want to, is through a statewide ballot issue proposed by petition. One such ballot issue, backed by an outfit named ResponsibleOhio, appears likely to reach November's ballot.
The amendment would limit (legal) marijuana production to 10 Ohio sites listed in the ballot issue. One site each would be in Greater Cleveland's Hudson and Lorain; in Stark County's Alliance; in Franklin County's Jackson Township and Licking County's Pataskala; in the Miami Valley's Moraine and Middletown; in Toledo; and in suburban Cincinnati's Anderson and Union townships. The amendment would also let Ohioans age 21 or older, after they get a state license, grow and possess homegrown marijuana - up to 8 ounces at a time, plus four flowering plants.
The 10-site marijuana production monopoly is what riles a number of Statehouse bystanders of both parties, thanks to Ohio's 2009 casino issue. Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and Penn National Gaming Inc., using a voter-petitioned ballot issue, cinched a sweet business deal for themselves: A monopoly, entrenched in the Ohio Constitution, which allows four casinos, and only four, in Ohio: two owned by Gilbert, two by Penn National.
So sometime soon, the General Assembly will almost certainly send voters a bipartisan ballot issue to forbid the use of "constitutional initiatives" – petition-proposed amendments to the Ohio Constitution -- that create more business monopolies.
Among officeholders leading the anti-monopoly charge is State Auditor Dave Yost, a Columbus Republican. Yost's two-step plan would forbid voter-initiated constitutional amendments granting monopolies. The only way around Yost's ban would be, first, for voters to pass an amendment to suspend it. If they did, then, at a separate, later election, voters would have to approve or reject the proposed monopoly itself.
Another possible roadblock to ResponsibleOhio's plan, crafted by legislators, would flat-out ban monopoly amendments. If voters OK'd that this November, and ResponsibleOhio's marijuana plan also passed, the legislative plan's wording would cancel passage of Responsible Ohio's.
Thursday, in testimony before the Ohio Constitutional Revision Commission, ResponsibleOhio Executive Director Ian James said he finds it "interesting and odd that politicians trusted the voters enough to elect them, but now they don't trust them to do what's right." Fair point.
James also said "the [current] system of amending the Ohio Constitution has worked incredibly well to expand rights for Ohioans." That's an open question.
The initiative process did indeed work incredibly well – for Dan Gilbert and Penn National. It also worked for backers of an initiative that produced the 2004 constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriage in Ohio and forbids Ohio to recognize same-sex marriages solemnized elsewhere.
The initiative process was created to help Ohio voters bypass special interests who had chokeholds on state government.
With religious zeal, reformers at Ohio's 1912 constitutional convention praised the initiative and referendum concepts.
The convention president, Herbert S. Bigelow, a Cincinnati minister, emphatically hailed the two concepts: "Oh! My friends, we are striking down tyranny," Bigelow told delegates. "We are forging the greatest tools democracy ever had. We are building grander institutions for freedom and for humanity than the world has ever known."
That was a reach. This isn't: The last thing Ohio reformers wanted was an Ohio Constitution that could be manipulated to favor the few at the expense of the many.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: ResponsibleOhio's marijuana monopoly doesn't belong in the Ohio Constitution: Thomas Suddes | cleveland.com
Author: Thomas Suddes
Contact: tsuddes@gmail.co
Photo Credit: St. Paul Pioneer Press
Website: Cleveland OH Local News, Breaking News, Sports & Weather - cleveland.com
The General Assembly almost certainly won't legalize marijuana, maybe not even for medical use. So the most likely way to legalize marijuana, if voters want to, is through a statewide ballot issue proposed by petition. One such ballot issue, backed by an outfit named ResponsibleOhio, appears likely to reach November's ballot.
The amendment would limit (legal) marijuana production to 10 Ohio sites listed in the ballot issue. One site each would be in Greater Cleveland's Hudson and Lorain; in Stark County's Alliance; in Franklin County's Jackson Township and Licking County's Pataskala; in the Miami Valley's Moraine and Middletown; in Toledo; and in suburban Cincinnati's Anderson and Union townships. The amendment would also let Ohioans age 21 or older, after they get a state license, grow and possess homegrown marijuana - up to 8 ounces at a time, plus four flowering plants.
The 10-site marijuana production monopoly is what riles a number of Statehouse bystanders of both parties, thanks to Ohio's 2009 casino issue. Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and Penn National Gaming Inc., using a voter-petitioned ballot issue, cinched a sweet business deal for themselves: A monopoly, entrenched in the Ohio Constitution, which allows four casinos, and only four, in Ohio: two owned by Gilbert, two by Penn National.
So sometime soon, the General Assembly will almost certainly send voters a bipartisan ballot issue to forbid the use of "constitutional initiatives" – petition-proposed amendments to the Ohio Constitution -- that create more business monopolies.
Among officeholders leading the anti-monopoly charge is State Auditor Dave Yost, a Columbus Republican. Yost's two-step plan would forbid voter-initiated constitutional amendments granting monopolies. The only way around Yost's ban would be, first, for voters to pass an amendment to suspend it. If they did, then, at a separate, later election, voters would have to approve or reject the proposed monopoly itself.
Another possible roadblock to ResponsibleOhio's plan, crafted by legislators, would flat-out ban monopoly amendments. If voters OK'd that this November, and ResponsibleOhio's marijuana plan also passed, the legislative plan's wording would cancel passage of Responsible Ohio's.
Thursday, in testimony before the Ohio Constitutional Revision Commission, ResponsibleOhio Executive Director Ian James said he finds it "interesting and odd that politicians trusted the voters enough to elect them, but now they don't trust them to do what's right." Fair point.
James also said "the [current] system of amending the Ohio Constitution has worked incredibly well to expand rights for Ohioans." That's an open question.
The initiative process did indeed work incredibly well – for Dan Gilbert and Penn National. It also worked for backers of an initiative that produced the 2004 constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriage in Ohio and forbids Ohio to recognize same-sex marriages solemnized elsewhere.
The initiative process was created to help Ohio voters bypass special interests who had chokeholds on state government.
With religious zeal, reformers at Ohio's 1912 constitutional convention praised the initiative and referendum concepts.
The convention president, Herbert S. Bigelow, a Cincinnati minister, emphatically hailed the two concepts: "Oh! My friends, we are striking down tyranny," Bigelow told delegates. "We are forging the greatest tools democracy ever had. We are building grander institutions for freedom and for humanity than the world has ever known."
That was a reach. This isn't: The last thing Ohio reformers wanted was an Ohio Constitution that could be manipulated to favor the few at the expense of the many.
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: ResponsibleOhio's marijuana monopoly doesn't belong in the Ohio Constitution: Thomas Suddes | cleveland.com
Author: Thomas Suddes
Contact: tsuddes@gmail.co
Photo Credit: St. Paul Pioneer Press
Website: Cleveland OH Local News, Breaking News, Sports & Weather - cleveland.com
