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| Yes | 59% | 1478 votes | Total: 2513 votes | |
| No | 41% | 1035 votes |
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Add to FavoritesThe economic downturn has hit Ohio like a ton of bricks. Ohio has a manufacturing economy, and the country has decided we should let the manufacturers go overseas. A lot of car plants that belong to Chrysler and GM pepper the state, and the layoffs are coming fast and hard on those towns depending on the steady work. Tax revenues are in a free fall, and the state's budget has been cut with a meat cleaver. Things are not going well.
So far, there have been numerous ballot initiatives crafted to allow casinos in various configurations that have all been turned down by the voters, but, thanks to the recession, slot machines will be at the racetracks soon. Like many other states without casino's, yet another statewide referendum to bring them in is up for voter approval. In the middle of this recession, the argument isn't about gaming anymore, it's about jobs..
Before Indiana or Kentucky steal this thunder, why not consider the incredible income stream that is marijuana. Not only does this seem to promise an incredible potential for tax revenue, think of the benefits farmers could see. And how about green industries like bio fuels. Cannabis plants are a natural for making bio-fuels.
Why doesn't Ohio consider this?
Is it so crazy? Already, a majority of Ohioans favor legalizing marijuana for medical use.* Who would really have a problem with giving people in pain a cheaper alternative to deal with it? There are hundreds of studies concerning the use of marijuana in conjunction with chemotherapy and clearly it works. So much so that pharmaceutical companies have created a pill to deliver THC. It just costs a heck of a lot more than buying a joint. And it's less effective, according to some studies.
Once it's legalized for medicine, it wouldn't be a stretch to allow over the counter sale of marijuana, or maybe even control it sort of like alcohol. Either way, it's a damn site easier to regulate a legal business than to chase drug gangs around, who are selling a plant that grows wild in Ohio anyway.
What is really hard to see is the downside. Will more people be ingesting marijuana? Maybe, but the argument isn't very convincing that it will. Even if they do, it's going to end up being a lot less harmful than alcohol consumption. Will more kids start smoking marijuana? Seems easier to keep it out of preteen hands if it's sold by the state with retailers who have something to lose if the don't follow the rules. Currently, dealers can sell to anyone they want and no one can stop them.
Consider this; each city could have its own "coffee shops" if you will, regulated down to their location, where the product must be produced, and the hours you can be open, skimming taxes off each and every sale. You can imagine the tourism this will generate. Taxes on everything from dinners out to hotels would have to increase from current levels, and probably increase a lot. State and Local governments would be able to patch some of the holes in their budgets. There would be more jobs to support the increase in tourism and related industries.
The arguments from those prohibitionists have trouble holding any water. Every study says that legalization will not increase crime. Let's face it; the crime generated from marijuana actually comes from the money that marijuana generates. Everyone knows someone who smoked marijuana as a kid and, overwhelmingly, those people just stopped doing it one day. They didn't degenerate into crazed killers or become addicts.
The impact to Ohio's economy can be massive if the state acts soon. But, like casinos, the last one in gets the least amount of money. If Ohio waits, and another state in the midwest acts first, then the profits may not be so "high" after all.
*http://www.toledofr eepress.com/2009/05/ 13/poll-boosts-push- for-medical-marijuan a-in-ohio/
Learn more about this author, Stu Wilson.
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No
The argument against legalization of marijuana use is simple - You only get one brain, and anything that alters your perceptions of and interactions with the world around you is dangerous, since such substances work primarily on the brain. If they didn't, people wouldn't ingest them.
To expand on that basic argument, let us consider the folklore from the East where marijuana originally came from. The folklore teaches, "if you use marijuana, your 'thing' will turn to pus, and if you should get any children, they will be monsters". That's pretty succinct. It will make men impotent, and it will cause defects in fetuses, resulting in defective babies. Notice it doesn't differentiate between men and women users in the last part of this statement. While the earth is far over-populated with humans, the last thing we and our relatives on this earth need is more obviously-defective ones. That isn't nature's way. It is interesting to note that the folklore also tells us that dealers in marijuana do not use it.
Now let us consider the folklore and practices related to marijuana use and the elderly there. Marijuana is The Drug of Choice when elderlies are to be euthanized, "because it takes away a person's desire to live and their drive to, as well. It hastens dying.". Once the elderly person is using marijuana, opiates are added to not only addict the elderly user, but also to hasten their death, since opium users don't care to eat. They only want more and more opium, and so die without pain, but also without knowing or caring about their families. Their minds are gone. What makes us 'real' is not our bodies - it is our minds and our perceptions. Marijuana takes these away.
Now jump forward to more modern times. Numerous studies have been done on marijuana users, but my favorites are these: (1) In the 1970's, airline pilots were tested. The group of volunteers were divided into those who had never used marijuana, those who were 'occasional' users (2-3 times / year), and those who were 'habitual' users. Every member of every test group missed the runway - every time - by 100 feet or more; and this effect was found more than 72 hours after the government-standard joint was smoked. These are people who hold our lives in their hands, who earn over $100,000 / year, from the earth to 30,000 ft. above it. (2) Now that we have MRI and CT scans, drug users of every kind have been scanned, to see if and how the brain changes over time and with different levels of use. Permanent changes have been found in the brain, and none of them has been for the better. For specifics, I direct you to JAMA, the Lancet, and similar medical journals.
As for the argument that marijuana use decreases nausea in cancer patients - as a Traditional healer, I know that there are safer treatments.
Then there is the matter of smoke and lung tissue. It is just common sense that if it is harmful to one's lungs to breath smoke of any kind, and since people die of smoke inhalation, we know that the brain is also affected by smoke inhalation. Moreover, recently studies have been published that show that the lungs are damaged as much by one marijuana cigarette as if 5 tobacco cigarettes were smoked. Since oxygen is taken from the air by our lungs, if our lungs are damaged this much by marijuana smoke, how much more is the brain? Hmm?
Lastly, if second-hand tobacco smoke is "more harmful than first-hand tobacco smoke", and we know it is, how much more harmful is second-hand marijuana smoke than first-hand marijuana smoke? Truly something to think about.
The Traditional Indn Teaching about tobacco smoking is that tobacco was created to take every thought, wish, and emotion to the spirits as a prayer, and the user's intent didn't matter. Because tobacco was created to carry prayers, it is holy. That which is holy is automatically to be shown respect. If a person smoked tobacco casually, our Teaching is that it will take over the smoker's will and eat their lungs out. Pretty well describes addiction and cancer...
Since marijuana was not here before the coming of Europeans, and since no perception-altering substances were used except in ceremonies with rigid taboos, there was no drug use here, and we originally had no Teachings about it. It wasn't long before our spiritual leaders and healers came to the belief from watching the Europeans who used it that "this plant is a coyote person; and so, is dangerous". There is no ceremonial use in any Indn Nation of this Turtle Island to this day. It is wise to listen to the Teachings of the Elders and avoid this plant. There is no reason to legalize the use of marijuana, and many good reasons not to.
Learn more about this author, Carel Two-Eagle.
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