Smokescreen

Perhaps the most pervasive and clichéd image of the “War on
Drugs” is the pot-bust press conference, where law-enforcement
officials pat themselves on the back in front of a spread of cash, guns
and cannabis. State representative Kenny Yuko daydreams about a
different sort of press conference. There are no police, no guns and no
mind-boggling street-value estimates. There are only sick Ohioans,
telling people about the benefits of medical cannabis.

“You read about it all the time,” says Yuko. “You see the police
officers standing behind a table full of packages with marijuana and
they’re telling you: ‘Ten million dollar street value.’ I would much
rather have a bunch of elderly people standing around a table with a
couple of [cannabis] plants saying, ‘The value is not $10 million, it’s
not $ 5 million — it’s priceless. I can wake up in the morning
and eat breakfast, I can walk, I have a full day ahead of me and I can
make it.'” 

It’s a heady vision, one that seems far from reality in our staid,
conservative state. But it isn’t dissuading Yuko from asking: Why not
medical marijuana in Ohio?

Attitudes are changing. Michigan voters last year approved medical
marijuana, making it the first state in the Midwest to do so. Then,
last month, the U.S. Justice Department announced that it would not go
after medical marijuana users and suppliers if they complied with state
law. This had not been the case in the Bush years, when federal agents
commonly raided state-approved medical marijuana dispensaries in
California.

Yuko, a state representative from Richmond Heights, says he intends
to introduce legislation that would make Ohio the 14th state to allow
marijuana use for the treatment of ailments like chronic pain, nausea,
vomiting and muscle spasms. He says marijuana could offer relief to
Ohioans who can’t find it in pharmaceuticals.

Passing the bill will be a tough task. Yuko realizes he has heavy
opposition from lawmakers who don’t even want to discuss the subject.
He also has 72 years of marijuana prohibition working against him
— prohibition that last year enabled 847,864 marijuana arrests,
89 percent of those for possession alone.

“It’s really sexy image to be tough on crime, tough on criminals,”
says Yuko. “I’m sensing I’m going to get pointed opposition up until we
educate.”

Yuko’s announcement has earned the low-key politician face time on
CNN (the topic in general continues to get more attention in the
mainstream media). Yuko says it has also created a buzz among
pro-marijuana groups.

“There are people calling to offer their support, people asking how
they can help, people asking what they can do to expedite legalizing
[medical marijuana] in Ohio,” says Yuko. These supporters aren’t the
stereotypical stoners depicted in pop culture, he says. The support has
come from elderly women to middle-class dwellers in the bedroom
communities he represents. “They are residents of Ohio —
law-abiding, taxpaying people who want to contribute as much to the
state of Ohio as they want to contribute to their families. [Some] are
impaired due to the fact they’re in tremendous pain. It just so happens
that we may be on to something that could offer relief.

“Everything I have heard, everything I’ve seen, indicates that this
product has tremendous potential.”

A bill proposed last year by former state senator Tom Roberts, a
Dayton-area Democrat, died in the senate judiciary committee. Still, it
was the first time lawmakers heard testimony from a doctor on the
issue. Richard J. Wyderski, a physician and former professor at Wright
State University’s Department of Medicine, said in an article that
appeared in Scene earlier this year that scientific evidence
shows marijuana can be used for several medical purposes, including
treatment of multiple sclerosis and nausea in cancer patients receiving
chemotherapy. 

Other maladies approved for treatment by state medical marijuana
laws include HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, and conditions that cause severe or
persistent muscle spasms and seizures. Research projects into the
plant’s medicinal qualities have concluded that marijuana could also
have medical benefits for Lou Gehrig’s, Crohn’s and Alzheimer’s
diseases.

Medical marijuana users say cannabis does not produce the side
effects of pharmaceuticals for the same illnesses.

Thirteen states have already passed some type of medical-marijuana
legislation, amid polls showing growing public acceptance — even
in Ohio. Rob Ryan, with the Columbus-based Ohio Patient Network, points
to a poll conducted by the University of Cincinnati’s Institute for
Policy Research earlier this year, which concluded that 73 percent of
Ohioans support medical marijuana. The independent, nonpartisan poll
showed support even among socially and politically conservative
Ohioans.

But if public attitudes are changing, we’re not seeing much of a
difference in Columbus.

House Speaker Armond Budish has declined to speak publicly about the
topic. Republican Senate Leader Bill Harris, from Ashland, has already
announced that he would not support such legislation. Harris “is just
not convinced on the merits of the proposal,” says Tim Kelso, his
spokesman. “Law enforcement has expressed concerns about it, and if
they continue to express concerns, then he’ll continue to have
concerns.”

The Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association has already stated its
opposition to any medical-marijuana legislation, saying the drug is
“habit-forming” and “harmful.” “As far as pain relief, there are other
methods to address the issue,” says John Murphy, executive director of
the prosecutors association.

That attitude is echoed on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s
website, which devotes an entire section to “the facts” of medical
marijuana. The agency points out that Marinol is a pharmaceutical with
synthetic THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. But Marinol does not
have the same effects as natural cannabis, says Cher Neufer, a
spokeswoman for the Ohio branch of the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). Marinol provides only some relief
compared to natural marijuana and creates undesirable side effects.

Not every conservative-leaning politician is opposed to medical
marijuana. State senator Bill Seitz, a Republican from Cincinnati, says
he is willing to discuss the topic, but he has a problem with the
“terrible tension” he sees between federal and state laws on marijuana.
The Obama administration may ease up on medical-marijuana users and
distributors, but that doesn’t guarantee that a future administration
will do the same. So an Ohio medical- marijuana law would create a
“false sense of security at the state level for doctors and patients
who want to do this,” says Seitz.

While Seitz believes many of his colleagues would “recoil in horror”
at the prospect of legalizing medical cannabis, he says he’s “willing
to embark on what I think will be a lengthy educational process for
Ohio.”

Michigan voters, by 63 percent, approved medical marijuana in
2008. 

There, doctors can recommend marijuana for “debilitating medical
conditions,” which include cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis and
HIV, among others. Patients in Michigan may possess up to 2.5 ounces of
cured marijuana and 12 plants.  

Much of Michigan’s success can be attributed to a multimillion
dollar campaign led by the Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project,
says Ed Orlett of the Drug Policy Alliance Ohio. (One of the project’s
main money men is Peter B. Lewis, chairman of Progressive
Corp.) “Some people think Michigan rushed to judgment,” says
Orlett. “The law wasn’t perfect. The one thing they did do is agree on
a ballot initiative. It may not have been perfect, but it got more
votes than Obama did.”

The Michigan Department of Community Health, which administers the
state’s medical-marijuana program, has received more than 8,000
applications for registration cards that would allow applicants or
their caregivers to grow or possess limited amounts of marijuana for
personal medical use, according to James McCurtis, spokesman for the
department. Of those applications, about 1,000 were denied.
Patients have received 5,108 permits; caregivers, 2,092.

When asked if the program created any burden for the department,
McCurtis says no. “Maybe H1N1,” he adds, “but not this.”

The process in Michigan hasn’t been entirely smooth. Greg Francisco,
founder and executive of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association,
the state’s leading advocacy group, says the state’s attorney
general has not issued any guidelines. “He knows this is a hot
potato, politically,” explains Francisco. So police departments across
the state have had to come up with their own methods for handling cases
involving the cultivation or possession of medical marijuana.

For example, the law calls for plants to be grown in “an enclosed,
locked facility,” but does not elaborate. “The police have had to
educate themselves to what the limits of the law are,” says
Francisco.

Getting the ballot measure passed was much easier.

“There was virtually no campaign at all,” says Francisco. “Once we
got it on the ballot, we just sat back and kept our mouths shut … for
the simple reason that we knew from extensive polls and focus groups
that we had a virtually insurmountable majority on our side already.
Hence, the key issue was the public’s sense of compassion and common
sense. Having that in our favor, the actual win at the polls was a slam
dunk.”

In Ohio, however, state lawmakers seem unconvinced that
medical-marijuana reform is not just politically safe but popular.

“I think it’s a difficult subject for people to talk about because
of the false connotation that you must be a bad person, you must a drug
addict, you hang out with drug dealer, you’re not right and you’ll
never be right,” says Yuko. “We need to change that public
perception.”

Yuko has represented Euclid, South Euclid, Richmond Heights and
Cleveland’s Collinwood neighborhood since 2004. The former union
organizer has been lauded for advocacy on health issues, specifically
multiple sclerosis. He’s also been recognized for advocating for people
with disabilities and mental illnesses. In 2005, he pushed an ill-fated
bill on stem-cell research, which he felt would have helped multiple
sclerosis studies.

Yuko brings a personal perspective to the debate: The 57-year-old
suffers from multiple sclerosis. His symptoms are minor and controlled
with medication. He says he has never smoked marijuana and doesn’t plan
to. He’s pursuing this for the many citizens who could benefit and who
have been cheering him on. “The phone has been ringing off the
hook,” he says.

Yuko tells a story of a 67-year-old Ohio woman whose sister in
California found relief from cancer in medical marijuana. “She told
me, ‘You can’t look into [marijuana reform], you need to go do it,
because it’s the right thing to do.’ Now here’s a lady in her late 60s
— this is not your stereotype when you think of a ‘druggie.’ The
opponents will always want to paint that picture.”

Yuko is still drafting his bill, which he hopes will be considered
by his colleagues in 2010. The bill will include wording for limited
distribution and bureaucracy. Yuko’s idea includes making the drug
available through the mail. He envisions medical marijuana grown in
nurseries in Lake County, a suggestion made to him by a constituent.
“We can grow the marijuana in a very controlled environment with a
number of plants that will be counted and accounted for, so we know
where every plant is going and in what quantities,” says
Yuko. 

Drug Policy Alliance Ohio’s Orlett, a former Democratic legislator,
is helping Yuko. Orlett says Yuko’s bill has a good chance of passing
the house but faces a tough test in the senate, where Republicans
outnumber Democrats 2-1.

Orlett has been intimately involved in Ohio drug-reform efforts. In
2002, Orlett and the Drug Policy Alliance backed an initiative that
would have mandated treatment instead of jail for drug offenders. But
the $3-million campaign failed in the face of heavy resistance from
Republicans, including Hope Taft, the wife of former governor Bob Taft.
“She thought she was Carrie Nation incarnate,” says Orlett,
referring to the famed liquor prohibitionist. Taft and other
opponents “managed to line up the newspapers, law enforcement, county
prosecutors, sheriffs and judges [against the reform initiative],” says
Orlett. “It was a very concentrated effort.”

And even as public opinion has shifted dramatically, the attitude of
state lawmakers has not budged. Ryan, of Ohio Patients Network, notes
an irony here: Ohio has some of the most lenient laws on marijuana
possession. You can get caught with up to 100 grams and only get fined.
Ryan argues that this has kept Ohioans from becoming more involved in
the marijuana-legalization movement, compared to Michigan, which had
stricter laws. “It’s tough to get people active not because they
disagree, but because they don’t feel the pain other states do,” says
Ryan.

Orlett adds that Ohio isn’t on the radar for groups like the
Marijuana Policy Project, which has funded expensive ballot measures in
other states beside Michigan. “We just don’t have the resources to
attack this [in the same manner] as in Michigan,” says
Orlett. 

Yuko remains undeterred.

“Sometimes I wish we would move a bit faster in Ohio,” he says,
referring to the 13 states that already have some form of legalization.
“I don’t know why we always have to be playing catch up, why we always
have to be in the bottom half of the 50 states when moving an agenda
forward. Why can’t we be the leader of the pack?”

dguevara@clevescene.com

This article appears in Nov 11-17, 2009.