Coming Sunday
Much about ResponsibleOhio’s effort to legalize marijuana remains hidden, including who exactly is bankrolling the political campaign to collect 306,000 valid signatures from Ohio voters. But what is becoming abundantly clear is the potential for profit should a majority of voters say yes to the constitutional amendment, and investors are clamoring to get in on the action. Read more in Sunday’s newspaper.
Local municipalities and treatment centers would benefit financially if a proposed effort to legalize marijuana in Ohio is successful.
ResponsibleOhio has released new details of its proposal to legalize the production, sale and use of marijuana in Ohio, including tax revenue distribution.
Cities and townships would receive 55 percent of the tax revenue, counties would receive 30 percent and 15 percent would go to fund research, addiction services, medical marijuana dispensaries and the control commission.
Counties, cities and townships have seen cuts in local government funding in recent years, but area leaders say they don’t support legalizing marijuana.
Clark County Commissioner Rick Lohnes said research shows medical marijuana has benefits for patients with certain illnesses, but said he does not support recreational use.
“The data does tell us that its terribly harmful to the brain. I don’t think that needs to be legalized. I don’t want my kids, my grandkids, anybody to ever smoke marijuana for fun. I have never touched an illegal drug in my life. I can’t support it,” Lohnes said. “I don’t care about the money. The money is just to sucker people in. We have no business legalizing marijuana.”
Springfield Mayor Warren Copeland wants to wait and see how marijuana legalization affects Colorado before forming an opinion on the issue, he said.
While he said the city wouldn’t turn down the tax revenue if approved, he believes it’s being used to convince voters to approve the proposed amendment.
“People should vote for it on whether or not they believe it’s a good idea,” Copeland said.
ResponsibleOhio, which is backed by deep-pocketed investors and a team of political veterans, is seeking to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would ask voters to legalize marijuana for recreational and medicinal purposes.
The campaign identified 10 locations for indoor growing facilities, including Middletown and Moraine, but ResponsibleOhio released new ballot language Thursday that drops Moraine.
Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia allow for medical marijuana and four states also include recreational pot. If ResponsibleOhio is successful, Ohio will become the first state in the country to go from a complete ban to full legalization.
ResponsibleOhio will re-circulate the new ballot language. Once it has 1,000 valid voter signatures, the summary language must win approval from DeWine and then get the nod from the Ohio Ballot Board, which Husted chairs.
Then the campaign needs to collect 305,600 valid signatures from registered Ohio voters by July 1 to get on the November 2015 statewide ballot.
Clark County Commissioner John Detrick said, he too, does not support the effort or recreational marijuana use. But he said if the issue passed, the county would have to adapt.
“If it’s there and we’ve got an equitable plan, I think we should try to utilize (tax revenues) fairly among all government agencies,” Detrick said.
He said if it passes, it will be taxed and the revenues will benefit the community instead of people using and selling it illegally, enabling the substance to go untaxed.
McKinley Hall CEO Wendy Doolittle said marijuana should not be legalized for recreational use and that tax revenue likely will not cover the increased numbers who will need drug addiction treatment.
“People tend to think that marijuana is not that harmful,” Doolittle said. “When you compare it to heroin, no it doesn’t look that harmful. But people didn’t start using with heroin. They started with legal alcohol and then moved to marijuana, legal prescriptions and then to heroin.
“If its for medicinal purposes I totally understand it… But for recreational use I think it’s a bad idea.”
Doolittle said Clark County has seen an increase in use of marijuana, according to a risk assessment conducted by the Clark County Combined Health Department. She said legalizing marijuana will only increase access to it.
“While it’s nice that they want to take the tax dollars that could create more addicts and give it to us to treat folks who become ill from it, the bottom line is money is not the only thing that’s going to resolve this problem we have, this epidemic. It’s not just about money,” Doolittle said.
“It’s about relationships,” she continued. “It’s about creating a community where certain behaviors are not accessible. If we … don’t want a bunch of our residents strung out on drugs then we certainly shouldn’t start making it legal.”
ResponsibleOhio’s proposal calls for:
•A seven member Marijuana Control Commission to regulate manufacture, sale, distribution, licensing and taxing.
•A 15 percent flat tax on revenues at the growth and manufacturing levels for all but medical marijuana and a 5 percent tax at the retail level.
•Distributing tax revenues — 55 percent to cities and townships, 30 percent to counties, 15 percent to fund research, addiction services, medical marijuana dispensaries and the control commission.
•Establishing five testing facilities to check potency and safety.
•Allowing for manufacturers to produce edibles and other pot products.
•After four years, if 10 grow sites can’t meet demand, the commission may add one license per year.
•Allowing for up to 1,140 retail stores and requiring precinct voter approval before a store can open.
•Banning marijuana use in public places, schools and day care centers, prisons, vehicles, boats, airplanes and trains.
•Allowing adults ages 21 and older to grow up to four plants per household for personal use.
•Limiting sales to consumers aged 21 and older and allowing employers to ban marijuana use in the workplace.
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