As seizure rates and heroin-related deaths spike in Ohio, some lawmakers want stricter punishments for drug dealers.

But others argue that focusing on dealers simply perpetuates a failed 40-year-long War on Drugs policy, and it's time to focus on recovery for addicts.

House Bill 171 would allow an individual to be labeled a "major drug offender" for carrying 100 grams of heroin - down from the current 250 grams. The bill passed the House last year 82-16 and is now in Senate committee hearings.

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COLUMBUS (AP) - Authorities say a central Ohio police detective who was arrested last week on federal drug charges killed himself in jail.

The Delaware County Sheriff's Office says 43-year-old Tye Downard hanged himself in his one-person cell early Monday. Downard had been an officer in the Columbus suburb of Reynoldsburg.

He was found dead during hourly inmate checks. He had not been on suicide watch. Other details weren't available, but the sheriff's office says there was no negligence by employees.

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Prosecutors dismissed the first of what could be many more drug cases tossed because they involved a police detective accused of selling seized drugs who hanged himself in jail early Monday.

Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien said his office was auditing the cases in which Reynoldsburg Officer Tye L. Downard participated as a Reynoldsburg officer or as a member of the county's drug task force from 2013 until now. So far, investigators have found 50 cases, O'Brien said.

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Reynoldsburg Cop Worked With Drug Task Force.

A Reynoldsburg police detective who has worked for years with the county's drug task force was arrested on federal charges that he used his connections to deal drugs, including drugs that might have been taken from what was seized by his police division.

The arrest, officials say, could affect nearly 50 cases that now must be reviewed.

Tye L. Downard, 43, of Westerville, was taken into custody on Thursday on charges that accuse him of carrying out more than 20 drug deliveries to another person since October, involving heroin, cocaine, marijuana and Percocet pills. He is charged with possession with intent to distribute and distribution of controlled substances. He was in the Delaware County jail Thursday night.

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In January, ResponsibleOhio co-founder Jimmy Gould said in a news conference that the group would not return this year with another proposed constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana.

ResponsibleOhio was the private group backing Issue 3, which would have legalized the limited sale and use of recreational and medicinal marijuana in Ohio.

Despite Issue 3's failure at the polls last November, the debate over marijuana legalization in Ohio is far from over.

Ohio would have become the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational and medical purposes simultaneously had Issue 3 passed last November.

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Group Has Trouble Raising Funds to Get Measure on Ballot.

COLUMBUS (AP) - A group that had gathered signatures to put a marijuana legalization proposal before Ohio voters this year said that effort is on hold after it had trouble fundraising for the campaign.

The Legalize Ohio 2016 campaign instead plans to partner with other advocates on efforts to legalize medical marijuana and to reduce criminal penalties for having marijuana, Cleveland.com reported.

Its political action committee, Ohioans to End Prohibition, reported having only $268 at the end of last month. The roughly 80,000 signatures it had collected don't expire and could be used to qualify for a future ballot.

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A Reynoldsburg police detective who has worked for years with the county's drug task force was arrested on federal charges that he used his connections to deal drugs, including drugs that might have been taken from what was seized by his police division.

The arrest, officials say, could affect nearly 50 cases that now must be reviewed.

Tye L. Downard, 43, of Westerville, was taken into custody on Thursday on charges that accuse him of carrying out more than 20 drug deliveries to another person since October, involving heroin, cocaine, marijuana and Percocet pills. He is charged with possession with intent to distribute and distribution of controlled substances. He was in the Delaware County jail Thursday night.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Marijuana Policy Project has unveiled more details about the medical marijuana amendment planned for Ohio this year. And it has named three Ohioans who will co-chair the campaign.

Language for the constitutional amendment, planned for the November ballot, has not yet been drafted, the president of the national nonprofit said in questions and answers posted on Facebook and sent to cleveland.com Tuesday night. The language will be based off laws in the 23 states where medical marijuana is legal.

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Goal Is to Get Funds to Collect Valid Voter Signatures.

A team of veteran political operatives put out a 22-page proposal that offers up its political talent to help weed business interests with deep pockets take a run at putting a medical marijuana question before Ohio voters in November.

Calling itself ARC Reaction, the group includes Democrat Aaron Pickrell, who was a senior policy adviser in the Strickland administration, Republican Mike Hartley, who served as a senior staffer in the Kasich administration, and Democrat Steven Stenberg, a Washington, D.C.-based direct mail and political strategist.

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Ohio Group Faces Spring Deadline to Complete Work.

COLUMBUS (AP) - Members of a task force charged with exploring medical marijuana legalization in Ohio expressed a willingness to learn more about the issue as the panel met briefly for the first time on Thursday.

Many task force participants at the Statehouse meeting said they would keep an open mind, though some acknowledged their biases.

"I do come to this room with the very strong feeling that we need a very well thought-out medical marijuana program," said Jimmy Gould, a founding member of a marijuana legalization initiative that voters rejected last fall.

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We are in the midst of a heroin epidemic started when we cracked down on the use of legal use of pain medicine as well as the illegal usage as by restricting a doctor's ability to prescribe pain medicines.

Forcing patients into the illegal market has resulted in soaring opioid use and overdose deaths with our legislators scrambling to get a hold on this self-created disaster.

Overdose deaths are still in the thousands here in Kentucky, and a drop of a single death brings stories of possibly getting a drop of two deaths if we only try harder. Our lawmakers are ignoring legislation that can eliminate as much as 33 percent of these deaths.

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The start of 2016 brought some changes to the landscape of Ohio's marijuana legalization efforts - including the arrival of a national organization that wants Ohio to be the 24th "medical marijuana state."

That group, The Marijuana Policy Project, announced this week that they are working on an initiative to legalize the drug in Ohio, and looking for an organizer to head up operations in the state. "The 2016 campaign ... is focusing only on medical marijuana, which enjoys a high level of support among Ohio voters," according to the D.C. group's website.

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Not long ago, majority Statehouse Republicans barely uttered a peep about marijuana legalization.

Now both chambers have appointed special panels to explore the pros and cons of medical marijuana.

Sens. Dave Burke, R-Marysville, and Kenny Yuko, D-Richmond Heights, announced Tuesday they are going on a "listening tour" with stops in Cleveland, Toledo and Cincinnati.

Yuko has advocated for medical marijuana for more than a decade, while Burke said he remains skeptical.

As a pharmacist, Burke said he knows that "All chemicals can cause both harm and benefits, depending on the use." He said he will remain open minded.

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As a lawyer for more than 37 years, I feel qualified to make some observations about the state of the criminal-justice system and the manner it has been administered by the General Assembly, police and prosecutors. This is brought about most recently by law enforcement complaining about proposed restrictions to forfeiture laws.

I have witnessed four decades of the war on drugs, which continues to be a complete and utter failure. We arrest 14 million people each year; we have 70 million people with criminal records; and we subject these folks to more than 500,000 collateral consequences that make them second-class citizens.

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Group Wants Issue on Fall Ballot. Push Won't Wait to See What State Lawmakers Do.

COLUMBUS (AP) - A group hoping to put a marijuana legalization issue on Ohio's ballot this fall says it won't wait to see if state lawmakers act on medical marijuana and will push ahead with its proposal despite the failure of a separate effort in November.

Jacob Wagner, the cofounder of Ohioans to End Prohibition, said in an interview Friday that his organization remains focused on gathering the more than 305,000 valid signatures needed by July to get its "Cannabis Control Amendment" before voters in the presidential election year.

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Ohio House GOP Announces 14-Member Marijuana Task Force.

COLUMBUS - Doctors, lawmakers, business owners, cops and advocates for legal pot will serve together on a medical marijuana task force and report back to the Ohio House later this year.

House Republicans announced the 14-member task force on Thursday at the Ohio Statehouse. State Rep. J. Kirk Schuring, R-Canton, will serve as chairman of the effort. Included on the panel are attorney Chris Stock and businessman Jimmy Gould, who were major players in the failed Issue 3 campaign last year.

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GOP legislators generally opposed legalization, but some now see support growing for medical marijuana.

Two former top leaders of the ResponsibleOhio group that unsuccessfully pushed to legalize marijuana in Ohio in November have now decided to team up with Ohio House leaders to seek a more modest medical-marijuana initiative.

Jimmy Gould, co-founder of ResponsibleOhio, knows his group took the kind of shellacking at the ballot last fall that makes it difficult to just regroup and try again. Instead, he and Chris Stock, a fellow attorney who worked on ResponsibleOhio, joined Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, to attempt to implement a level of regulated legalization.

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Hearings Across the State to Gauge Ohioans' Feelings.

COLUMBUS - Ohio voters convincingly rejected the marijuana-legalization proposal on November's ballot, but state lawmakers will explore the possibility of allowing the use of pot for medical purposes only.

Multiple polls have shown strong support for the concept of medical marijuana. The Ohio Senate and House will announce as early as this week a series of bipartisan hearings across the state to gauge Ohioans' feelings on what that system might look like.

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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.

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Before medical-marijuana legalization comes to the ballot again, some facts need to be highlighted.

The active ingredient in marijuana, THC or tetrahydrocannabinol, is already available. The prescription drug known as dronabinol - brand name Marinol - contains THC in a standardized, tested and FDAapproved pill form.

It has little demand. Why? Because there are better prescription drugs available for the indicated health problems. In other words, patients have not shown significant benefits from Marinol, especially when taking into account its side effects, which include dizziness, drowsiness, confusion, hallucinations, mood and mental changes, rapid heartbeat, anxiety, paranoia, an exaggerated sense of well-being, nausea, vomiting and stomach and abdominal pain.

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