Pubdate: Wed, 29 May 2013
Source: Cleveland Scene (OH)
Website: http://www.clevescene.com/
Copyright: 2013 Cleveland Scene
Author: Eric Sandy
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?197 (Marijuana - Medicinal - Ohio)

GREEN, GREEN GRASS

John Pardee Promises Medical Marijuana will be on the Ohio Ballot in
2014 and It Will Pass

The Ohio Rights Group has been given the green light to pursue some
385,253 signatures in an effort to put the Ohio Cannabis Rights
Amendment on the ballot. Just last week, Attorney General Mike DeWine
certified the group's first 1,000 signatures, prompting a busy
campaign ahead. There's a lot of work involved - and a lot of
grassroots education needed before the vote. John Pardee, executive
president of the group's board of directors, casts a hopeful eye
toward the near future and discusses the important aspects of
therapeutic cannabis and industrial hemp.

Eric Sandy: So the recent news out of the attorney general's office is 
pretty great. What's next?

John Pardee: The Ohio Ballot Board is going to review our proposed 
amendment, like they would any other one. Their function is to determine 
that any proposed amendment is a single issue. (Note: The board convened 
and confirmed that matter on May 23.) Some people were wondering if this 
was two issues, because of the inclusion of industrial hemp.

Eric Sandy: Obviously, medical marijuana gets the headlines. Could you 
elaborate on the inclusion of industrial hemp here? What sort of uses 
are there?

John Pardee: Before I got involved with this, I was a novice on the 
subject myself. I didn't get involved with this thing until my son was 
nearly killed in a car accident. With his subsequent pain management 
needs, he ended up finding cannabis to be effective. As a father, I did 
my own research because I wasn't sure. We found therapeutic cannabis to 
be safe and effective, especially as a long-term pain management thing. 
That led me to becoming an advocate and that dovetailed into learning 
about the vast economic potential of industrial hemp. What I've learned 
is that the entirety of the hemp plant has economic value. You have the 
fibers-and those can be made into very strong, very durable building 
materials. They can be made into textiles and space-age plastics. Then 
you have a pulp inside the plant that has a lot of interesting uses. And 
there's food product that you can get from different parts of the plant, 
including from the seeds. There's literally 50,000 uses of the he!
  mp plant, and probably thousands more left to be discovered if you 
were to give entrepreneurial people access to the plant.

Eric Sandy: Sounds like "jobs, jobs, jobs."

John Pardee: The industrial side of this is, to me, the most important 
part of our amendment. The state of Ohio is actually uniquely positioned 
to become a leader in the hemp industry. We're a solid agricultural 
state. We're also a transportation hub. We have millions of square feet 
of unused factory floor space. We have one of the strongest research and 
development sectors in the country-not only for medical research, but 
also materials research at NASA and whatnot. All these opportunities are 
right here in Ohio if we have the common sense to pass this measure.

Eric Sandy: So what kind of work goes into preparing an amendment for 
all of this?

John Pardee: Well, what we have going on right now is the most 
up-to-date generation of a lifetime of work for a number of our members. 
Mary Jane Borden-she's the founder of not only the Ohio Rights Group, 
but also the Ohio Medical Cannabis Association, which was the previous 
incarnation of our organization-she's been at this thing for literally 
decades. She and Donny Wirtshafter-he's kind of our hemp expert. He had 
a hemp business in Ohio back in the 70s. What MJ-Mary Jane-what she's 
realized is the fact that all these other states that have passed 
initiatives have been passing laws. They write really long, really 
complicated laws-30-, 60-, 80-page laws. When you write a law, and it's 
regarding a controversial subject, that opens the door for legislators 
to write trap laws and communities to write home-rule exemptions and 
courts to strike down certain language. Every Ohioan has the right to 
life, to liberty, to enjoy happiness, to pursue safety. When you look at 
everything !
  relative to the cannabis plant, there's nothing there that flies in 
the face of our constitution. What we believe is that our amendment is 
actually restoring rights that were taking away by prohibition.

Eric Sandy: Let's say the amendment is in effect and these rights are 
restored. What would be the process in terms of acquiring medical and/or 
therapeutic cannabis?

John Pardee: Well, it establishes within the amendment the time-frame to 
seat the Ohio Cannabis Control Commission. Initially, the Ohio Rights 
Group will actually seat a small number of commissioners, then the 
governor will pick the rest of them. We spell out in the language who is 
being represented-health care professionals, someone in agriculture, and 
more. We try to make sure that any interest group that has skin in the 
game is represented on the commission. From there, it's up to the 
commission to establish the rules. One thing we're doing differently 
than, say, California is we're not requiring people to get a physician's 
authorization. We're establishing the right for citizens to become 
"qualifying citizens." Look at health care forms: If someone has Crohn's 
Disease, like myself, there's a certain code on your health insurance 
forms that identifies a particular ailment. We would basically use that 
code to determine who is a qualifying citizen and who isn't. You're not !
  going to see people setting up "doc shops," where people basically go 
to these storefront doctors and get these permissions. It's going to be 
a lot more professional in the state of Ohio - I can promise you that.

Eric Sandy: Inevitably, this thing will be put to a vote. In your 
conversations in Ohio, have you seen any trends regarding more 
widespread acceptance of this issue?

John Pardee: Absolutely. The Columbus Dispatch commissioned a mayor's 
poll recently and that really showed us we were on the right track. 
Therapeutic cannabis was polled at 67 percent or so. Full-legal was in 
the mid-30s, as far as support. There's popular support for what we're 
trying to do. Nationally, the majority of Americans also support 
legalizing marijuana. They realize the drug war has been an absolute, 
abject failure. The only thing it produced was convicts. It did nothing 
to curb drug use in general. Prohibition is the exact wrong thing to do 
when you're concerned about public safety. The best thing to do is to 
take this huge industry that's currently underground and bring it into 
the daylight.

Eric Sandy: So are you looking at this fall, or more toward 2014 for the 
ballot?

John Pardee: Well, we had some ambitions for 2013. Our whole goal is 
ASAP. But there are a lot of steps involved in crafting the language and 
having it vetted and then gathering the signatures and getting them 
verified. What we would have is roughly a month to get several hundred 
thousand signatures to qualify for 2013. On top of that, we have a lot 
of coalitions to build. We need to develop fundraising mechanisms, 
because we'll be running a statewide campaign. We're laser-focused on 
2014, though. I promise that we will be on the ballot in 2014 and we 
will win.
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MAP posted-by: Matt