Ohio residents to vote Tuesday on legalizing recreational marijuana use

[JackLuis]

Ohio residents to vote Tuesday on legalizing recreational marijuana use

Ohio voters will decide Tuesday on whether to become the first Midwestern state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, though a rival ballot measure could kill the law before it takes effect.

Issue 3 would add an amendment to the state constitution that legalizes both personal and medical use of marijuana for those over 21 years old.

The ballot initiative was the result of a campaign that gathered more than 300,000 valid voter signatures from around the state.

If it passes, Ohio would become the fifth, and largest, state to legalize the recreational usage of marijuana, following Alaska, Colorado, Washington and Oregon, as well as the District of Columbia.

However there is a controversy!

But Issue 3 also grants exclusive rights for commercial marijuana growth and distribution to 10 facilities around the state. Those facilities are owned by investors in the legalization movement.

Critics of the measure say this creates a monopoly, and responded with a rival ballot measure called Issue 2. This ballot measure would nullify legalization if it creates “an economic monopoly or special privilege” for a private entity.

“We support marijuana legalization, but we cannot support Issue 3,” said Maurice Thompson, executive director of 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, a conservative legal rights organization. The Ohio Green Party also opposes Issue 3 over the monopoly issue.

Oh those capitalists!

 

[KingOrfeo]

What's high in the middle?

 

[BotanyBoy]

Fantastic democrat 'regulation' of a new emerging industry that needs 'tight controls' over it. For public safety of course!



Same story in every state....even CA's new regs are doing all they can to make sure it's a rich mans only club. I hope they vote that shit down.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Fantastic democrat 'regulation' of a new emerging industry that needs 'tight controls' over it. For public safety of course!



Same story in every state....even CA's new regs are doing all they can to make sure it's a rich mans only club. I hope they vote that shit down.

Look for the Union Label!

 

[JackLuis]

Legalize homegrown! It's the democratic solution!

Everybody Grow, your own and fuck the monopoly!

 

[KingOrfeo]

Legalize homegrown! It's the democratic solution!

Everybody Grow, your own and fuck the monopoly!

Yes, it is and always will be hard to control -- whether through law or through cartelization -- a drug that can be grown so easily in so many different climates. I recall a scene from Reefer Madness where a minister crusading against the Dread Killer Weed has a meeting with the head of the local FBI office, who tells him, "I appreciate your concern, sir, but you must understand, marijuana is not like other forms of dope. It grows wild in nearly every state of the Union! Consequently, there is practically no interstate traffic in it."

PHINEAS, WATCHING ON YOUTUBE: Guess what we're gonna do today, Ferb?!

 

[BotanyBoy]

Look for the Union Label!

LOL that's only allowed after the industry is in the pockets of the elite.

Legalize homegrown! It's the democratic solution!

Everybody Grow, your own and fuck the monopoly!

It's true....but it only fucks the monopoly if everyone can sell what they grow. And ya can't have that kind of unregulated madness happening!! That would be evil capitalism run amuck!!
https://boozyshoes.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/amok.gif
Only HIGHLY REGULATED professionals, botanist, should be allowed to grow cannabis.

 

[KingOrfeo]

It's true....but it only fucks the monopoly if everyone can sell what they grow. And ya can't have that kind of unregulated madness happening!! That would be evil capitalism run amuck!! Only HIGHLY REGULATED professionals should be allowed to grow cannabis.

I concur, if only for the sake of quality assurance. In a regulated market, no one can get away with selling regs as mids and mids as dro. Or Spanish moss as pot . . . not that that ever happened to me, but . . . (It shakes one's faith in human nature, truly it does -- if you can't trust a total stranger conducting a (purportedly) illegal business on a street corner at two in the morning, who can you trust?!)

 

[BotanyBoy]

I concur, if only for the sake of quality assurance. In a regulated market, no one can get away with selling regs as mids and mids as dro.

Considering regs and mids have nothing to do with dro I don't really see what you're getting at.

You can force it through a testing facility for toxic pesticides and mold but there is no reason to limit who's allowed to produce it anymore than any other crop.

It's a fucking flower.....not god damn weapons grade antimatter Ebola from outer space

 

[KingOrfeo]

It's a fucking flower.....not god damn weapons grade antimatter Ebola from outer space

More to the point, it's not alcohol. Deregulating the liquor industry would be dangerous. But nobody dies of bad pot.

 

[BotanyBoy]

More to the point, it's not alcohol. Deregulating the liquor industry would be dangerous. But nobody dies of bad pot.

That's because the way they are produced. If you deregulate booze there is literally nothing stopping someone from adding formaldehyde or some other nasty shit to the mix for a special zing.

Cannabis being a flower/fruit doesn't need to be specially regulated....we already have a MOUNTAIN of regulations over how consumable crops are produced. Nothing about Cannabis is so fucking special as a plant that it needs it's own alphabet agencies and regulations. That's just power play/money grubbing bull shit and both sides are ALL over it because money.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Ohio residents also will vote today on something that has been getting less attention but is perhaps more important:

Ohio Issue 1, a proposed constitutional amendment to ban partisan gerrymandering and establish a bipartisan Ohio Redistricting Commission to draw legislative district lines, is being pitched as a good-government reform. But that undersells its significance. This is a bold response to America’s broken political processes.

The vote on Issue 1 is one of a number of vital tests that are in the ballot in states across the country today, as Americans go to the polls for a classic off-year election in which:

•Voters in Kentucky will settle a hotly contested race for governor and other statewide posts, in elections that could send important signals regarding the popular mood as the country heads toward the 2016 presidential contest. The same goes for legislative races in New Jersey and Virginia. Mississippi will also elect a governor Tuesday, while a critical runoff for governor of Louisiana will be held November 21.

•Ohio voters will consider marijuana legalization, while Colorado voters will decide what to do with tax revenues from pot sales.

•Cities across the country will choose mayors and local officials while settling key referendum questions. The local races feature a number of bold progressives, such as Toledo mayoral hopeful Mike Ferner (a former city councilman and past national board president of Veterans for Peace) and Seattle Council member Kshama Sawant (the Socialist Alternative incumbent and $15-an-hour wage champion who is campaigning for rent control, public transportation and municipal broadband). In very conservative Utah (which gave President Obama less than 25 percent of the vote in 2012, his lowest percentage nationally), Salt Lake City may elect the first openly gay member of the Utah Legislature, Jackie Biskupski, as the mayor of the state’s largest municipality.

•Local referendums and races will provide perspectives on national issues. In San Francisco, for instance, voters will decide whether to restrict the operations of Airbnb—in a groundbreaking attempt to regulate the new economy—and a proposal to help San Francisco-based “legacy businesses” to survive rent hikes and lease terminations. They will also determine whether to keep Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, who has been the target of right-wing attacks for respecting the intent of San Francisco’s “sanctuary city” ordinance. In Houston, voters will determine whether to enact the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO), a measure that protects residents and visitors from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, race, and religion. The the city of Seattle and the state of Maine will vote on innovative campaign finance reform proposals.

What makes Ohio’s Issue 1 test stand out is the fact that voters are being given a chance to address a key source of the political dysfunction that influences so many other issues.

Nothing does more to deny democracy than gerrymandering—the process by which legislators draw districts that are so heavily weighted toward one party that election results are preordained. When whole states are gerrymandered, the will of the voters can and is thwarted—so that even if most voters cast their ballots for Democrats, Republicans might retain control of legislative chambers.

Gerrymandering is such a powerful tool for protecting incumbent politicians and parties—it is literally referred to as “representatives picking their voters rather than voters picking their representatives”—that in heavily gerrymandered states, many seats go uncontested in November elections. To the extent that there is competitive, it is often in primaries, with a narrow minority of ideological absolutists threatening incumbent who works across party lines. Thus, gerrymandering has the duo effect of reducing partisan competition while increasing partisan gridlock.

This is why former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner, a leading voting rights advocate, says, “Redistricting reform is one of the most important issues we can tackle.”

 

[Wrong Element]

The pro-marijuana people ran a good 90 percent of the TV advertising, but I suspect there's a very silent majority that will keep Issue 3 from passing. This isn't the Pacific Northwest, for better or worse. Ohioans prefer a different kind of Bud as their intoxicant of choice.

I did end up voting for it, though, despite my misgivings over the dumb-ass cartel. Lesser of two evils.

 

[Wrong Element]

The vote count is a little slow coming in, as the state board of elections is currently distracted.


http://sxh1b2g2g4f2w04gm2piih1u.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Potheads-How-Bad-is-Marijuana-Use-For-Teens-Really-Clapway.jpg

 

[NOIRTRASH]

uh oh, the pot heads lost.

 

[JackLuis]

The monopoly lost too.

 

[BotanyBoy]

uh oh, the pot heads lost.

Wrong-O champ...the pot heads WON.

Ohio still gonna buy Cali green by the truck load and home grown ain't going nowhere.

The monopoly lost too.

That's who really got fucked.


I couldn't be more happy for Ohio.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Did the redistricting amendment pass or fail?

 

[Wrong Element]

Did the redistricting amendment pass or fail?

Passed. Massive landslide.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Passed. Massive landslide.

May every state follow the example.

 

[patient1]

May every state follow the example.

Hear him! Hear him!

 

[JackLuis]

New evidence emerges of vote counting subterfuge in Ohio pot ballot initiative

Election manipulation in Ohio, I seem to remember that from few elections back.

 

[MrRandyWatson]

New evidence emerges of vote counting subterfuge in Ohio pot ballot initiative

Election manipulation in Ohio, I seem to remember that from few elections back.

A few thousand votes in an election that the potheads lost by six figures of votes? People just cannot accept this - Ohioans just do not want pot. They didn't want gay marriage. They didn't want casinos but for an economic collapse. And they don't want pot. Period.

 

[BotanyBoy]

New evidence emerges of vote counting subterfuge in Ohio pot ballot initiative

Election manipulation in Ohio, I seem to remember that from few elections back.

Sounds like the big 10 want a re-count LOL

A few thousand votes in an election that the potheads lost by six figures of votes? People just cannot accept this - Ohioans just do not want pot. They didn't want gay marriage. They didn't want casinos but for an economic collapse. And they don't want pot. Period.

They want pot, otherwise people from Ohio wouldn't be out here buying truck loads of weed right now as we speak.

They just dont' want the whole states industry in the pockets of 10 rich folks.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Sounds like the big 10 want a re-count LOL



They want pot, otherwise people from Ohio wouldn't be out here buying truck loads of weed right now as we speak.

They just dont' want the whole states industry in the pockets of 10 rich folks.

Let's hear it for the small businessman!