Ohio’s leisurely trot toward legalized pot may not come as soon as some have wished.
The Ohio Attorney General’s office gave the OK last month for backers of the Ohio Alternative Treatment Amendment — who want to legalize pot for medicinal uses — to begin collecting the signatures needed to put it on the ballot. Exactly which ballot was unclear, though optimists were looking to 2012.
Now it appears such an amendment to Ohio’s constitution might not go before voters until 2014. The problem boils down to corralling free labor: The group will need to get about 385,000 valid signatures for the measure — and perhaps twice that number to offset mistakes and invalid signatures. Right now, the plan is to do it all with volunteers. So far, they’ve got 250 of them.
This article appears in Nov 9-15, 2011.
An appeal to Prohibitionists:
Most of us are aware by now that individuals who use illegal drugs are going to get high, ‘no matter what.’ So why do you not prefer they acquire them in stores that check IDs and pay taxes? Gifting the market in narcotics to ruthless criminals, foreign terrorists and corrupt law enforcement officials is seriously compromising our future. If you remotely believe that people will one day quit using any of these ‘at present’ illegal drugs, then you are exhibiting a degree of naivety parallel only with those poor wretches who voluntarily drank the poisoned Kool-Aid in Jonestown.
Even if you cannot stand the thought of people using drugs, there is absolutely nothing you, or any government, can do to stop them. We have spent 40 years and over a trillion dollars on this dangerous farce. Practically everybody is now aware that Prohibition will not suddenly and miraculously start showing different results. So why do you wish to continue with it? Do you actually think you may have something to lose If we were to start basing drug policy on science & logic instead of ignorance, hate and lies?
Maybe you’re a police officer, a prison guard, or a local politician who’s scared of losing employment, overtime-pay, kick-backs or those regular fat bribes? But what good will any of that do you once our society has followed Mexico over the dystopian abyss of dismembered bodies and marauding thugs brandishing gold-plated AK-47s?
Kindly allow us to forgo the next level of your ghastly prohibition-engendered mayhem!
Prohibition Prevents Regulation : Legalize, Regulate and Tax!