Second Group Gets Go-Ahead to Gather Signatures for Ballot.

COLUMBUS - A second grassroots group got the go-ahead on Thursday to circulate petitions to put a medical marijuana question before voters in November while lawmakers released more details of their plan.

The Ohio Ballot Board certified the "Medicinal Cannabis and Industrial Hemp Amendment," clearing the way for GrassrootsOhioans to collect 305,591 valid voter signatures by July 6 to qualify for the November ballot.

Another group, Ohioans for Medical Marijuana, is already in the field collecting signatures to get its proposed constitutional amendment on the fall ballot.

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The Ohio Ballot Board recently certified Ohioans for Medical Marijuana's petition, allowing the group to begin collecting signatures.

The group, backed by the Washington D.C.-based Medical Policy Project, needs to collect 305,591 valid signatures from Ohio voters by early July in order for the proposed amendment to be added to the November ballot.

If passed, the amendment would allow physicians to prescribe medical marijuana for people with qualifying conditions such as cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, severe pain and post-traumatic stress disorder. The group has previously said residents would be allowed to petition the state government to add medical conditions to the list.

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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.

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Measure Could Appear Before Ohio Voters in November.

COLUMBUS - Backers of a medical marijuana legalization measure cleared the initial hurdle in the process of placing an issue on the statewide ballot.

National group Marijuana Policy Project and its Ohio political action committee Ohioans for Medical Marijuana want to legalize marijuana use for certain medical conditions, with approval from a physician, through a proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine on Friday certified the group's petition summary as a "fair and truthful" summary of the proposed law. DeWine rejected the group's initial petition language, and revised language included additional medical conditions that would qualify a person to use marijuana.

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I read that Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has disqualified one of the proposed medical-marijuana ballot issues for the fourth time ("DeWine cites multiple flaws in rejecting marijuana issue," Dispatch article, March 19).

There has to be a personal vendetta of some sort involved for him to pick apart the proposal four times. Does he not realize that there are many people who are in intense pain waiting for this amendment to become a reality. Does DeWine have no one else to answer to? Is there no one who can turn this around? Or are we at the mercy of DeWine to use his personal beliefs to overrule public opinion ?

Barbara Matteson

Richwood

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Ohio may once again debate the pros and cons of marijuana this year, but not in the same context as in 2015. This time around, many believe it will focus on the medicinal use of marijuana and that use only. Currently there is talk about two different groups that may bring the medical marijuana issue into play for Ohioans.

First the legislature, both House and Senate, is taking up this issue this spring and summer. Each is asking for both citizen and business input as to the merits of medical marijuana use in Ohio, and if there are any particular concerns either of those two constituencies have if our state's elected leaders should decide to pass some form of medical-related legislation.

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A report in Harper's magazine is getting attention for a theory on how the so-called war on drugs began during the Nixon administration.

Reporter Dan Baum looks at the origins of the policy, and offers a bizarre quote fromJohn Erlichman, Nixon's domestic policy adviser. Harper's editor, Ellen Rosenbush, writes that Erlichman told Baum the Nixon team cooked up the war on drugs to discredit groups who disagreed with it - African-Americans and young protestors:

"'Did we know we were lying about the drugs?' Ehrlichman told Baum in 1994. 'Of course we did.' The Nixon White House thought of the antiwar left and black people as enemies. 'But by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.'"

Hmmm. Your thoughts? Email rrollins@coxohio. com.

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Nancy Reagan's recent death was a reminder of the shallow moralizing of the Just Say No anti-drug campaign she once championed.

Thankfully, attitudes have changed. We're more attuned to the fact that untreated mental health issues often are a precursor to drug use. Nancy's slogan won't help much there.

Most people realize that the war on drugs, begun under President Richard Nixon, has failed.

And there's growing public awareness that we've let our jails and prisons become warehouses for people who need treatment - and who needed it long before they took a criminal turn.

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Attorney General Mike DeWine has, for a fourth time, rejected one group's effort to get a medical marijuana question on Ohio's ballot.

DeWine said Friday he found at least 11 defects in the latest constitutional amendment proposed by the group Ohio Medical Cannabis Care LLC.

He says the summary language states that persons over the age of 21 must obtain a registration card or certificate from the group to grow medical marijuana, sometimes called cannabis.

But the amendment itself says all patients over the age of 21 "possess the right to grow medical cannabis."

His office found the summary and full text contained other inconsistent statements.

DeWine's earlier rejections were in July, October and January.

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The number of people who died from heroin-related overdoses in Butler County reached a record level last year, but deaths from heroin and its more potent partner fentanyl leveled off in other parts of the region..

Butler County's record 189 overdose deaths (149 were attributed to heroin/fentanyl) were 52 more than the all-time high set in 2014.

"The scary thing for us is we had more overdose deaths than deaths by natural causes," said Martin Schneider, the Butler County Coroner's Office administrator. "The mixture of heroin and fentanyl is a particularly potent combination."

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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.

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Slowly but surely, like the proverbial aircraft carrier, the U.S. government is changing to a new and better course on the long-neglected issue of opioid abuse and addiction.

On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took an emphatic stand against the loose prescribing norms that have fueled the growth of opioid consumption for non-cancer pain, with the terrible result that 16,000 people a year die from overdoses.

Labeling the drugs "dangerous," and noting that evidence did not support their long-term efficacy for most cases of chronic pain, CDC Director Thomas Frieden urged physicians to follow more-cautious new CDC guidelines that emphasize alternative pain-management techniques. Dr. Frieden and his colleagues deserve credit for incorporating a range of views in the guidelines while resisting pressure to weaken them from interest groups that support the status quo.

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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.

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This week's arrests of nine alleged high-level drug dealers in Lorain and Elyria sends a clear message that law enforcement agencies in these cities are once again fed up with peddlers selling this poison on our streets.

It's also a message most of us should agree with that enough is enough.

Five deaths in the last two weeks from drug overdoses is too much for this community. One death is too many.

Authorities say there is no connection between the recent overdose deaths and the arrests in Lorain and Elyria.

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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.

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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.

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For the second time in two years, Ohio voters might see an issue on the November ballot to legalize marijuana under limited circumstances.

Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project is proposing an amendment to Ohio's constitution that would allow for medical use of marijuana by qualifying patients with debilitating medical conditions. The amendment also would permit the licensed and regulated cultivation, manufacturing, testing, distribution and dispensing of marijuana for medical use.

The group said its proposal is based on the medical marijuana laws that have been passed in 23 other states and Washington, D.C. MPP is aiming to put the issue in front of Ohio voters in the November election. In order to do so, the group needs to collect 305,591 signatures by July 6.

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COLUMBUS (AP) - Another group has announced it's working to get a measure to legalize medical marijuana on the Ohio ballot.

Cleveland.com reports that Grassroots Ohio said Thursday it will submit proposed ballot language to the state attorney general in the next week. The group's one-page constitutional amendment calls for Ohio to tax and regulate medical marijuana and allows those 21 and older to use it with a doctor's permission. A spokeswoman says the group is allowing for the possibility that the Ohio Legislature, which is examining the issue, will legalize medical marijuana.

The Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project on Tuesday announced it will send a detailed ballot initiative to the state that it wants on the November ballot. Medical marijuana is legal in 23 states and the District of Columbia.

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A former Mount Vernon Police Department detective pleaded guilty Friday to a federal extortion charge, admitting he used his position to steal money and narcotics from the department's property room.

Matthew L. Dailey could receive a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. U.S. District Court Judge Algenon L. Marbley did not set a sentencing date for Dailey, who is being held without bail in the Franklin County jail.

Dailey, 45, of Howard, a sergeant who was evidence custodian of the property room, has resigned from the police department where he worked for 10 years.

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Opponents Say It's Time to Focus on Recovery.

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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