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f a group of former athletes, entrepreneurs, developers and other investors gets its way, a high-profile ballot initiative seeking to change Ohio’s constitution could make it legal to light up a joint in the state. But the details of the proposal are tricky, and both conservative politicians and other legalization advocates have cried foul.
Pro-marijuana group Responsible Ohio on Jan. 21 released details about the ballot initiative it is seeking to put before voters in November. The constitutional amendment would end legal prohibition on buying and selling marijuana in Ohio for those over the age of 21. But it would also limit the number of growers the state would recognize to 10. The group’s supporters, who have funded the multi-million dollar petition campaign to get the issue on the ballot, would be part of investment organizations that own those farms.
The group must collect more than 300,000 signatures by July. If they do, voters will approve or reject their proposal in November.
ResponsibleOhio says their proposal would boost Ohio’s economy, raise tax receipts, ensure safety for marijuana smokers and eradicate the black market for the drug, freeing up law enforcement resources.
“Let’s stop kidding ourselves: marijuana prohibition has failed,” said group spokeswoman Lydia Bolander in a Jan. 29 statement. “Ohioans are sick of wasting $120 million per year to enforce that failure and deny patients the medical marijuana that would ease their suffering. ResponsibleOhio’s plan will create a tightly regulated, safe, open and transparent market, bringing much-needed revenue to our communities and creating thousands of jobs.”
Recreational marijuana is legal in four states — Colorado and Washington legalized recreational use in 2012, and Oregon and Alaska passed ballot initiatives in 2014 that kicked in Jan. 1. In addition, the District of Columbia passed a ballot initiative legalizing recreational use, but it is still subject to congressional approval. It is unclear whether Congress will strike down that initiative. In addition, 19 other states have legalized medicinal marijuana, including Michigan and Illinois.
Critics from conservative statewide officials like Attorney General Mike DeWine and Auditor Dave Yost to other marijuana legalization advocates say ResponsibleOhio’s plan amounts to a monopoly. ResponsibleOhio’s 10 grower limit means that a very small group of people would control who is allowed to grow the crop.
“Responsible Ohio’s plan will benefit a few wealthy benefactors and allow the black market to continue to thrive, leaving the state with the same problems as before,” says Ohioans to End Prohibition Political Director Michael Revercomb-Hickman.
OTEP is working on its own ballot initiative for 2016 that it says will not limit the number of growers in the state. It will also allow for legal hemp farming and growing marijuana for personal use, provisions not found in ResponsibleOhio’s plan.
ResponsibleOhio’s proposal has also elicited predictable forecasts of ballooning drug use and crime by conservative state officials.
“I think it’s a stupid idea,” DeWine said during a Jan. 27 Rotary Club meeting in Newark, Ohio. Secretary of State Jon Husted went further, calling it the worst idea he’s ever heard.
Yost had perhaps the most colorful reaction: “What will we have next, 12 monopolies for whorehouses in the 12 largest counties? It’s outrageous.”
DeWine claimed legalizing the drug would make people more likely to use it, a common reaction from conservatives to legalization campaigns.
Studies in Colorado show that usage has gone up somewhat. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that in 2011-2012, about 10 percent of people in the state used the drug at least once a month. The same study in 2012-2013 found that rate had jumped to 12.5 percent. Data isn’t available for last year yet, however, so it is hard to tell if the increase is a one-time event or the beginning of a larger trend. Two other federally funded studies found that usage did not rise among teenagers, however, and at least some of the usage spike may have been from medicinal users.
Past efforts to put marijuana legalization on the ballot in Ohio have fallen short. A petition drive by Ohio Rights Group last year didn’t get the 385,000 valid signatures required to put on last November’s ballot their Ohio Cannabis Rights Act, which would have legalized marijuana and hemp farming and medicinal use of the drug, even by minors with parent permission. The group collected more than 100,000 signatures before it ran out of money, which it can use to qualify another ballot initiative in the future.
“Although all of the achievements cited are unprecedented in our state, we are not at the point we would need to be at to put this issue before the people of Ohio in this election year,” Ohio Rights Group President John Pardee said in a statement. Pardee subsequently stepped down as head of the organization, though it is gearing up to try again for the 2016 ballot.
If ResponsibleOhio’s 10 grower plan sounds like the state’s move to legalize a limited number of casinos in 2009, there’s a reason for that. ResponsibleOhio Executive Director Ian James was involved in the successful effort to pass a constitutional amendment allowing investors to build four casinos in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo and Columbus despite state laws against gambling. That amendment was brought about by a similar petition drive funded by casino investors.
James, who was in Cincinnati Jan. 26 touting ResponsibleOhio’s proposal, expresses confidence his group will succeed where others have failed. The group is in the process of setting up an office to help gather petitions downtown, perhaps on Court Street.
Money won’t be a concern for ResponsibleOhio. The group is funded by a number of deep-pocketed Ohioans. NBA basketball hall of famer Oscar Robertson; Frostee Rucker, who played for both the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns; Barbara Gould, a philanthropist from Cincinnati; Frank Wood, a Cincinnatian who owns venture capital company Secret Communications; and seven other well-heeled developers, high-level executives and investors will be supplying enough cash to get the group to its goal. Their reward: a regulatory system that will allow them to harvest the bumper crops of cash expected to come in from growing and selling legal marijuana.
Those growers would then supply marijuana to manufacturers, who could use the crop in food products and other marijuana-based items. Growers could also distribute directly to retailers and nonprofit clinics that would distribute marijuana for medicinal purposes. A seven-member Marijuana Control Commission would oversee and control the process.
Despite the restrictions on growers, ResponsibleOhio says their proposal will create plenty of room for entrepreneurs to make money. Anyone over the age of 21 without a criminal record could own a retail store, for example, through a process similar to getting a liquor license.
“There are opportunities up and down this stream of commerce to participate in the market and that participation is going to create jobs,” says Chris Stock, a Cincinnati lawyer involved with drawing up the group’s proposal.
States that have already legalized marijuana have seen something of a financial boon. According to the Colorado Department of Revenue, the state brought in $44 million in taxes from marijuana in 2014. Receipts for Ohio could be higher; the ResponsibleOhio plan would tax marijuana at 15 percent, much more than Colorado’s tax rate. ©
This article appears in Feb 4-10, 2015.