Promising to reject the people's will, several Ohio Republican state lawmakers vow to revoke the voter-based measure if approved this coming Election Day.
There are many unique attributes of the American democratic system that still make it the envy of the world. While it has gone through a relatively rapid and extraordinary evolution over the past 247 years, the fundamental elements comprising that system are still intact. One of those critical pieces is the right to vote. At its founding, only white male property owners could vote. However, all American citizens over 18 now have the inalienable right to choose their elected officials via secret ballot.
Every Election Day, U.S. voters congregate at various locations nationwide to cast ballots for future presidents, governors, members of the House of Representatives and Senate, state assembly officials, local municipal positions and the all-important ballot initiatives. This year is no different. Even though 2023 is an odd-numbered year with no races for President or Congress to decide, it is a vital election year for many other important reasons, particularly concerning the issue of cannabis legalization.
One state that will be considering whether to legalize recreational marijuana for adults over 21 is Ohio. In July, an Ohio-based advocacy group known as the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CTRMLA) submitted 123,367 signatures for a petition to add a citizen-driven initiative to legalize cannabis cultivation, manufacturing, testing, and sales for residents over 21 to this November's ballot.
Initially coming up short by a mere 679 signatures, the group was granted an additional ten days to acquire the necessary number and ultimately turned in roughly 6,500 more names. As a result, Secretary of State Frank LaRose officially validated the petition and informed CTRMLA that his office would indeed add the initiative to the November 2023 ballot in Ohio.
However, according to multiple media outlets, some state lawmakers are not happy about it and are vowing to repeal the ballot measure if Ohioans do approve it on Nov. 7. This week, Senate President Matt Huffman gave a rousing, if not wholly authentic, speech on the Ohio State Senate floor expressing his intense opposition to Issue 2, proclaiming that, if it passes, the legislation will be "coming right back before this body" and will likely receive changes.
Huffman continued his rant by saying, "We're going to have a mental health crisis on our hands. If Issue 2 passes, there will be more teenagers in the state of Ohio committing suicide. We are going to pay for this for years and years and years, and it's only going to get worse."
"We're going to have a mental health crisis on our hands. If Issue 2 passes, there will be more teenagers in the state of Ohio committing suicide. We are going to pay for this for years and years and years, and it's only going to get worse."
- Ohio State Senate President Matt Huffman
In addition to Huffman's incendiary rhetoric, Republican Sen. Mark Romanchuk and Rep. Terry Johnson, along with 14 other cosponsors, introduced Senate Resolution 216, which makes a wide range of unsubstantiated claims concerning the potential harms that legalizing adult-use cannabis will inflict on Ohioans if voters approve Issue 2.
"…The proposed statute authored by the commercial marijuana industry does not serve the best interests of the people of Ohio, will bring unacceptable threats and risks to the health of all Ohioans, especially children, will create dangers in the workplace and unacceptable challenges and costs to employers, will make Ohio's roads more dangerous, will impose significant new, unfunded costs to Ohio's public social services, and serves only to advance the financial interests of the commercial marijuana industry and its investors…," the bill text stated.
"...The proposed statute authored by the commercial marijuana industry does not serve the best interests of the people of Ohio, will bring unacceptable threats and risks to the health of all Ohioans, especially children, will create dangers in the workplace and unacceptable challenges and costs to employers, will make Ohio's roads more dangerous, will impose significant new, unfunded costs to Ohio's public social services, and serves only to advance the financial interests of the commercial marijuana industry and its investors…"
- Selected Text from Senate Resolution 216
However, many of the stale and unproven arguments used in the resolution have long been part of the arsenal utilized by anti-marijuana advocates in the past to discredit the safety and efficacy of legalization reform initiatives like Issue 2, such as referring to cannabis as a gateway drug that causes 40% of users to try other more powerful and potentially deadly narcotics as well as claiming that marijuana leads to opioid use disorder.
The resolution also makes the wildly outrageous and easily disproven assertion that drug overdoses are the "leading cause of injury and death" in the state. And while it is true that an estimated 33,000 Ohioans died due to drug overdoses between 2011-2020, state records also show that 42,000 of them passed away as a result of COVID-19 alone between 2020 and 2021.
Along with state statistics, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention lists the top 10 leading causes of death in 2017 for Ohioans: heart disease, cancer, accidents, chronic lower respiratory disease, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, flu/pneumonia, kidney disease, and septicemia. The CDC does not mention drug overdoses or drug-related deaths anywhere near the top 10 reasons for Ohio deaths.
Republican lawmakers also include claims that regular marijuana use "can irreversibly reduce intelligence, memory, and learning ability," along with further unfounded assertions that underage cannabis use leads to poor academic performance, a lowering of IQ, erratic behavior, and can ultimately cause psychosis, leading to "distorted thinking and loss of touch with reality, as well as depression and suicide."
Proponents of Issue 2 and cannabis reform generally view the resolution and reasoning behind it as tone-deaf and irresponsible. For them, poll numbers and actual scientific and financial analysis are the factors that will ultimately decide the issue in Ohio.
A recent economic analysis by the Ohio State University found that the state could collect up to $403.6 million in annual tax revenue from recreational cannabis sales if voters approve the ballot measure.
An additional factor bolstering confidence in the initiative's passage is the voice of the citizenry in the Buckeye State. According to a USA TODAY Network/Suffolk University poll published in July, 59% of Ohioans support legalizing the possession and sale of marijuana for adults over 21, with only 35% opposed.
Many political insiders believe the measure should have no problem passing on Election Day. They also view this latest tactic by the anti-cannabis forces in Ohio as little more than a desperate attempt to gain political points with a significantly outnumbered and outcampaigned constituency regarding cannabis legalization.
The actions of Huffman and his small band of disgruntled legislators feel more like desperation than genuine aspiration. In the end, the voters will decide, and if Ohio wants to stay in the high-stakes game of legal marijuana, they will have to vote "yes" on Nov. 7.
