Robert Celt
New Member
More than a token, but something short of tokin': That's the Ohio General Assembly's task in trying to craft a bill legalizing Ohioans' use of medical marijuana.
The science may or may not be there, at least not entirely. But what looks like a public consensus seems to be. And that consensus is that marijuana's chemical components can help Ohioans fighting certain illnesses or enduring, say, chemotherapy.
Pending in a House committee is House Bill 523, a bipartisan medical marijuana plan sponsored by Reps. Stephen Huffman of Tipp City and Kirk Schuring of Canton, both Republicans, and Dan Ramos, a Lorain Democrat. Huffman's a physician. He earned his medical degree at the Medical College of Ohio (now the University of Toledo's College of Medicine and Life Sciences). Among those praising the House for taking up the medical marijuana issue: Sen. Kenny Yuko, a Richmond Heights Democrat, a longtime proponent of medical marijuana.
For details on HB 523, as the bill is now worded, see the explainer ("analysis") available at the Ohio Legislative Service Commission's website, lsc.ohio.gov.
Politically speaking, House Speaker Clifford A. Rosenberger, a Clarksville Republican, cleared the way for House debate on the issue. That is, Rosenberger did what a legislative leader should do: Lead.
For too long, Ohio legislators of both parties have ducked hot-button issues by leaving them to "consultants" and other hucksters who promote statewide ballot issues written to benefit a ballot issue's backers, not taxpayers. People's Exhibit No. 1: The 2009 ballot issue that authorized four gambling casinos in Ohio, a bonanza for Cavs' owner Dan Gilbert and suburban Philadelphia's Penn National Gaming Inc.
The 2009 ballot issue passed with 53 percent of those who voted statewide voting "yes." And that 2009 proposal was the fifth casino gambling issue in 19 years to be on Ohio's ballot.
That is, for almost a generation, the General Assembly could have written a taxpayer-friendly casino gambling law. But legislators wouldn't, possibly due to counterpressure from racetracks, which feared the competition.
Almost inevitably, voters signed off on the deal Gilbert and Penn National wrote themselves. Why not? It was the only thing on the table. But that also moved Ohio closer to "Californication" — writing laws not at the Statehouse but at the polls.
It appears that one or more medical marijuana ballot issues could qualify for this November's ballot.
True, last November, Ohio voters rejected, by 64 percent to 36 percent, a ballot issue to legalize marijuana for both medical and recreational uses.
But three of the first four casino issues on Ohio's statewide ballot only drew the "yes" votes of 38 percent of the Ohioans voting on them. Even so, Ohio today has casinos — precisely the kind of casinos, thanks to that 2009 ballot issue, that the casinos' owners want.
Stay in the presidential ring, Gov. Kasich
Funny: People who may not think much of some of Republican Gov. John Kasich's policies want him to end his presidential campaign, come home — and run Ohio.
But Kasich's gubernatorial staff, and the House's Rosenberger, and Republican Senate President Keith Faber of Celina, seem to be coping just fine.
Besides, why shouldn't the host-governor of the Republican National Convention stay in the ring for a title bout staged on his turf? And amid Republicans from 49 other states in Cleveland in July, the Republican best-positioned to know what's going on in downtown Cleveland, with countless pairs of Ohio eyes and ears at his disposal is ... the governor of Ohio.
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Ohio House Steps It Up On Medical Marijuana
Author: Thomas Suddes
Contact: Cleveland.com
Photo Credit: Robert F. Bukaty
Website: Cleveland.com
The science may or may not be there, at least not entirely. But what looks like a public consensus seems to be. And that consensus is that marijuana's chemical components can help Ohioans fighting certain illnesses or enduring, say, chemotherapy.
Pending in a House committee is House Bill 523, a bipartisan medical marijuana plan sponsored by Reps. Stephen Huffman of Tipp City and Kirk Schuring of Canton, both Republicans, and Dan Ramos, a Lorain Democrat. Huffman's a physician. He earned his medical degree at the Medical College of Ohio (now the University of Toledo's College of Medicine and Life Sciences). Among those praising the House for taking up the medical marijuana issue: Sen. Kenny Yuko, a Richmond Heights Democrat, a longtime proponent of medical marijuana.
For details on HB 523, as the bill is now worded, see the explainer ("analysis") available at the Ohio Legislative Service Commission's website, lsc.ohio.gov.
Politically speaking, House Speaker Clifford A. Rosenberger, a Clarksville Republican, cleared the way for House debate on the issue. That is, Rosenberger did what a legislative leader should do: Lead.
For too long, Ohio legislators of both parties have ducked hot-button issues by leaving them to "consultants" and other hucksters who promote statewide ballot issues written to benefit a ballot issue's backers, not taxpayers. People's Exhibit No. 1: The 2009 ballot issue that authorized four gambling casinos in Ohio, a bonanza for Cavs' owner Dan Gilbert and suburban Philadelphia's Penn National Gaming Inc.
The 2009 ballot issue passed with 53 percent of those who voted statewide voting "yes." And that 2009 proposal was the fifth casino gambling issue in 19 years to be on Ohio's ballot.
That is, for almost a generation, the General Assembly could have written a taxpayer-friendly casino gambling law. But legislators wouldn't, possibly due to counterpressure from racetracks, which feared the competition.
Almost inevitably, voters signed off on the deal Gilbert and Penn National wrote themselves. Why not? It was the only thing on the table. But that also moved Ohio closer to "Californication" — writing laws not at the Statehouse but at the polls.
It appears that one or more medical marijuana ballot issues could qualify for this November's ballot.
True, last November, Ohio voters rejected, by 64 percent to 36 percent, a ballot issue to legalize marijuana for both medical and recreational uses.
But three of the first four casino issues on Ohio's statewide ballot only drew the "yes" votes of 38 percent of the Ohioans voting on them. Even so, Ohio today has casinos — precisely the kind of casinos, thanks to that 2009 ballot issue, that the casinos' owners want.
Stay in the presidential ring, Gov. Kasich
Funny: People who may not think much of some of Republican Gov. John Kasich's policies want him to end his presidential campaign, come home — and run Ohio.
But Kasich's gubernatorial staff, and the House's Rosenberger, and Republican Senate President Keith Faber of Celina, seem to be coping just fine.
Besides, why shouldn't the host-governor of the Republican National Convention stay in the ring for a title bout staged on his turf? And amid Republicans from 49 other states in Cleveland in July, the Republican best-positioned to know what's going on in downtown Cleveland, with countless pairs of Ohio eyes and ears at his disposal is ... the governor of Ohio.
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Ohio House Steps It Up On Medical Marijuana
Author: Thomas Suddes
Contact: Cleveland.com
Photo Credit: Robert F. Bukaty
Website: Cleveland.com
