More state spending, legislation and debate on Ohio's drug crisis don't appear to have made a dent as the statewide death toll from accidental drug overdoses soared last year to 4,050, a 33-percent jump over 2015. Fentanyl, the deadly opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin, is increasingly to blame for overdose deaths, with fentanyl and its derivatives accounting for 58.2 percent of the deaths, up from 37.9 percent in 2015. There were 3,050 overdose deaths in 2015. [continues 171 words]
Heroin, cocaine and other illegal drugs remain widely available throughout Ohio, often at bargain prices, a new state report reveals. If that isn't bad enough, the quality of the drugs is "is really good, too good. We've lost 12 friends in the past year (to overdoses)," said one respondent in the just-released Ohio Substance Abuse Monitoring Network Report. The semi-annual statewide report of drug availability trends is done by the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. [continues 409 words]
Marijuana plants could be growing legally in Ohio soil in a year, predicts state Sen. Dave Burke, an architect of Ohio's newly minted medical marijuana law. "As soon as 16 months, you would have products tested and available," the Marysville Republican said. House Bill 523, the medical marijuana law, completed a rocky journey through the legislature Wednesday. It is now headed to Gov. John Kasich. Kasich has not indicated whether he will sign the bill into law. He also could veto it or allow it to take effect without his signature. [continues 515 words]
The Ohio House could make history Tuesday by approving legislation to legalize medical marijuana. While state lawmakers have considered marijuana legislation in the past, no proposal has ever made it out of committee and to the full House for a vote. House Bill 523 was approved by a special committee Thursday faster than you can say "tetrahydrocannabinol," the chemical in marijuana that produces the "high" when smoking or ingesting it. It also provides pain relief, soothes seizures and increases appetite. There were two minor amendments and no discussion. [continues 539 words]
Ohio Ballot Board Gives Go-Ahead to Secure Names Before Election. A skeptical Ohio Ballot Board on Thursday gave supporters of a medical marijuana constitutional amendment the go-ahead to begin collecting signatures for the fall election. The board, with only three members present, voted 3-0 to approve the proposal by the Marijuana Policy Project, a national organization working with Ohioans for Medical Marijuana, a state affiliate. The group must gather 305,591 valid signatures of registered Ohio voters to put the issue on the Nov. 8 general election ballot. [continues 239 words]
Citing 11 separate flaws, Attorney General Mike DeWine today rejected the wording for a proposed medical marijuana constitutional ballot issue. It was the fourth time DeWine rebuffed the proposed Ohio Medical Cannabis Amendment. The group backing the proposal, Ohio Medical Cannabis Care LLC, filed more than the minimum 1,000 signatures of registered voters needed to submit language for the proposal amendment, one of several in the works regarding medical marijuana. However, DeWine found numerous mistakes that caused him to disqualify the proposal as being a "fair and truthful" summary of the proposed amendment. [continues 133 words]
Attorney General Noted 3 Errors in the Proposal. A medical marijuana ballot proposal aiming for the November election was dealt a setback Friday when Attorney General Mike DeWine rejected the petition. The Marijuana Policy Project, based in Washington, D.C., submitted its petition March 3. The group would have to gather 305,291 signatures of registered voters to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot this fall. The national organization is working through an Ohio affiliate, Ohioans for Medical Marijuana. After examining the wording of the proposal, DeWine rejected it because of three errors, including a confusion about the number of medical marijuana cultivation facilities. He also found fault with a provision that would prevent marijuana users from being penalized for "operating a motor vehicle, aircraft, train, or motorboat while impaired by marijuana." There was also a mistake about the date for obtaining a valid medical marijuana registration card. [continues 97 words]
A medical marijuana ballot proposal aiming for the November election was dealt a setback Friday when Attorney General Mike DeWine rejected the petition. The Marijuana Policy Project, based in Washington, D.C., submitted its petition March 3. The group would have to gather 305,291 signatures of registered voters to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot this fall. The national organization is working through an Ohio affiliate, Ohioans for Medical Marijuana. After examining the wording of the proposal, DeWine rejected it because of three errors, including a confusion about the number of medical marijuana cultivation facilities. He also found fault with a provision that would prevent marijuana users from being penalized for "operating a motor vehicle, aircraft, train, or motorboat while impaired by marijuana." There was also a mistake about the date for obtaining a valid medical marijuana registration card. [continues 115 words]
Issues Proposed for Ballot; Legislative Study Underway. The push to legalize marijuana isn't going away in Ohio. Two medical-marijuana issues are proposed for the fall ballot, and the legislature is looking into legislation regarding potential medical uses for pot. While no one is pitching a for-profit plan for recreational marijuana, as ResponsibleOhio did before Ohio voters dumped it last fall, there might be openings in the new proposals to turn marijuana into cash. The Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington, D.C., group that has been instrumental in the passage of marijuana initiatives in other states, appears to have the proposal with the best organization and funding behind it. If approved, the initiative would allow about 215,000 patients with qualifying medical conditions to use marijuana as prescribed by a doctor; permit patients to grow marijuana for their own use, or buy it from retail dispensaries; restrict the use of marijuana in public places or while driving; and create a state Medical Marijuana Control Division to oversee the system. Ohio would join 23 other states with medical marijuana laws or amendments in place. [continues 494 words]
As Number of Female Inmates Has Spiked, State Plans to Get Some Back to Families Sooner More women than ever are going to prison in Ohio, with most serving short sentences for nonviolent drug crimes and struggling with mental-health and addiction issues. A provision tucked into the state budget could change that, however. It empowers Ohio Prisons Director Gary C. Mohr to move nonviolent, low-level felony drug offenders out of prisons and into community programs or electronically monitored house arrest if they have less than a year remaining of their sentence. The change applies to both genders, with 2,100 inmates likely to be eligible this year. [continues 708 words]
The big crowd at Donald Trump's presidential campaign rally in Columbus this week was dotted with people carrying clipboards with green marijuana leaves on the back, quietly collecting signatures for pot legalization. Ohio will ring in the New Year with a crop of renewed pot proposals, including two potential constitutional amendments and state medical-marijuana legislation. All of this is on tap during a heated presidential campaign year. The group gathering signatures at the Trump rally was LegalizeOhio, the name used by Ohioans to End Prohibition, which proposes legalizing marijuana and hemp, a plant from the same family that's used to produce oil, fiber and other products. [continues 536 words]
Claims About Registration Forms Sent to Prosecutor. Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted Friday sent details about potential voter registration fraud by ResponsibleOhio to the Delaware County prosecutor for possible legal action. Husted said in a letter to Delaware County Prosecutor Carol O'Brien that voter registration forms submitted by The Strategy Network, the company owned by Ian James, executive director of ResponsibleOhio, appear to include "potential violations of election laws." The action resulted from an independent inquiry started by the Delaware County Board of Elections of "petition and voter registration irregularities" in ResponsibleOhio's signature-gathering campaign to get the marijuana legalization amendment on the fall ballot. Voters will decide State Issue 3 on Tuesday. [continues 152 words]
The television commercials, direct-mail ads, endorsements and debates are over: It's time to decide whether marijuana will be legal in Ohio. Eyes across the country will be on the Buckeye State on Tuesday to see what voters decide on State Issue 3, the for-profit constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana in smokable and edible form for recreational use for those 18 or older, and for patients of any age with qualifying medical conditions. The warring campaigns - ResponsibleOhio and Ohioans Against Marijuana Monopolies - are as different as you can imagine. [continues 755 words]
The intense debate over State Issue 3, the marijuana-legalization amendment, has overshadowed State Issue 2, which aims to block monopoly interests from carving out a niche in the Ohio Constitution. A constitutional lawyer says the Issue 2 "cure" could be worse than the "disease" if Ohioans approve the measure in Tuesday's election. Maurice Thompson, executive director of the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, a conservative, nonprofit legal center, said Issue 2 would hamper future citizen-driven ballot initiatives, including those seeking tax reforms. [continues 408 words]
Powered by a small core of big-money investors, marijuana-legalization advocates outraised opponents 16-to-1 in the last campaign-finance reports filed before Election Day, Nov. 3. ResponsibleOhio, the group backing state Issue 3, the marijuana-legalization amendment, reported having spent $15.4 million on the campaign, $12 million of that in the past three months. The group has been waging an all-out campaign dominated by 30-second television commercials and directmail advertising. A report filed on Thursday with Secretary of State Jon Husted showed ResponsibleOhio receiving more than $11.9 million from July 1 to the Oct. 14 cutoff and spending about the same amount. [continues 610 words]
Sam Quinones says it took a crumbling community to feed the heroin problem and it will take a thriving community to beat it. The message from Quinones, an author and former journalist, at the Columbus Metropolitan Club on Tuesday underlined a painful lesson playing out every day around Ohio. Heroin kills, destroys lives, rips apart families and undermines community. "Heroin's natural habitat is struggling areas," he said. "The destruction of community paved the way for this. It happens when we isolate and fragment." [continues 324 words]
Joe Triscaro does not like the ResponsibleOhio marijuanalegalization amendment, but he will vote for it on Nov. 3. Dr. Anup D. Patel, a pediatric neurologist and director of the Complex Epilepsy Clinic at Nationwide Children's Hospital, says Issue 3 is not the way to make medical marijuana legal. Marijuana as medicine is a controversial and emotional topic. Although most medical experts say there is no incontrovertible scientific evidence supporting marijuana for medical purposes, numerous studies, reports and thousands of anecdotal cases seem to indicate otherwise. [continues 1179 words]
Ballot language for a new medical-marijuana issue was rejected for a second time on Friday by Attorney General Mike DeWine. DeWine cited "a number of discrepancies" between the ballot summary and the full constitutional amendment submitted by backers of the Ohio Medical Cannabis Amendment. DeWine, who provides legal signoff on the ballot language summary of proposed amendments, turned down a previous version of the proposal on July 29. DeWine said in a letter to Sandra Kay Riggs of Brice, Ohio, representing Ohio Medical Cannabis Care, that there were several discrepancies in the wording resubmitted on Sept. 24. [continues 79 words]
A new silent killer, addictive and lethal, is stalking Ohioans and killing them in massive numbers. Fentanyl,a synthetic, highly addictive opiate 50 times more potent than heroin, was involved in 502 fatal overdoses last year, pushing Ohio drug deaths to 2,482, a staggering 17.6 percent jump over 2013, the Ohio Department of Health reported on Thursday. It was another record year for death in a state that has lost more than 12,000 people to overdoses since 2002 and seen its drug death rate nearly quadruple. [continues 750 words]
Most people believe in second chances, but not everyone thinks marijuana should be legal. That was the message underlying Tuesday's announcement that marijuana legalization backers were filing 236,759 signatures for a "Fresh Start Act." It would give people with misdemeanor pot convictions a chance to have them erased. The Fresh Start Act would only work next year if Ohioans approve State Issue 3 this Nov. 3. The constitutional amendment would legalize recreational use for those 21 or older and for medicinal purposes. [continues 394 words]
