cannabisnews.com: For-Profit Marijuana Ballot Initiative Details
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For-Profit Marijuana Ballot Initiative Details
Posted by CN Staff on January 20, 2015 at 06:44:53 PT
By Alan Johnson, The Columbus Dispatch 
Source: Columbus Dispatch
Ohio -- Ohioans may be asked this fall to legalize -- and tax -- personal use of marijuana for those 21 and older, and to make medical marijuana available to people with qualifying illnesses. ResponsibleOhio leaders said today they will mount a well-funded campaign to gather signatures to place the issue on the November ballot as an Ohio constitutional amendment. The wording of the issue is expected to be submitted to Attorney General Mike DeWine by early February.
Unlike other marijuana issues being circulated, ResponsibleOhio’s plan differs because it is a for-profit model. Ten individuals who invest in the campaign would, if the issues passes, have exclusive rights to operate one of 10 “tightly regulated” businesses in the “growth and cultivation of marijuana and the extraction of cannabinoids.” Christopher D. Stock, 39, a Cincinnati attorney and lead drafter of the proposal, said the proposal will “give voters a chance in November to legalize marijuana for medical and personal use for adults 21 and older. “Marijuana in Ohio will be safe, controlled, tested and clearly labeled for medical and personal use. Our plan will also create opportunities for Ohioans to own and operate retail stores and manufacturing facilities, which will create thousands of new jobs in an emerging market.” Stock said the plan would regulate the now illegal marijuana market, provide assurances the product receive is safe and unadulterated, help curb suffering by making medicinal marijuana available, create jobs in a new industry, and provide needed money for government. The proposal calls for creation of a seven-member Ohio Marijuana Control Commission appointed by the governor. Growers would pay a flat 15-percent tax on revenue, as would marijuana manufacturing and retail sales operations, under the proposal. Tax revenue, projected to be tens of millions of dollars annually, would be distributed on a per-capita basis. It would allocate 55 percent to an “Municipal and Township Government Stabilization Fund,” 30 percent to a “Strong County Fund” for law enforcement, economic development, and infrastructure, and 15 percent to a “Compassionate Care Fund” to pay for operation of the state commission, non-profit medical marijuana dispensaries, addiction and treatment programs, and marijuana research at Ohio public universities. Only one or two of the investors have been made public. James Gould is a Cincinnati sports agent, businessman, and member of the board of directors of numerous organizations. Gould's sister, Barbara, who served on the Ohio Arts Council Board and other arts organizations, also will invest. Opponents are blasting the proposal. “ResponsibleOhio will ask voters to approve 10 constitutionally protected marijuana cartels,” said Jon Allison, a Columbus attorney representing the Drug Free Action Alliance. “What is strangely missing is the actual wording of their proposed amendment. As with all proposed constitutional amendments, the devil will be in the details ... Makes you wonder what there is to hide here.”Source: Columbus Dispatch (OH)Author: Alan Johnson, The Columbus Dispatch Published: Tuesday, January 20, 2015Copyright: 2015 The Columbus DispatchContact: letters dispatch.comWebsite: http://www.dispatch.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/TUMM8e9ZCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #20 posted by Hope on January 23, 2015 at 12:34:34 PT
The crazy curse started with crazy lies.
and people believing them.At first, I wasn't aware of the insidiousness of the drug fear and all the hullabaloo behind it. I wasn't against it, if not all for it. Then I started seeing the hideous, propaganda driven social manipulation for what it really is. Well. The prohibitionists and evil or ignorant enforcers have made a lot of money. They've killed and harmed a lot of people. They've ruined a lot of people's lives. They need to stop. They've done enough harm. They've stolen and conned enough money out of and from citizens. They've killed enough people. They've imprisoned enough people. They've lied and foisted way more than enough scare mongering on the people. They need to stop. We need a new age. A new time. A new freedom from oppression. In general, humanity needs a greater compassion and way more respect for our fellow humans. The oppression in the name of prohibition of cannabis has been God awful. It's time to stop it.You are a strong believer, Garry Minor. There are many very weak believers though. They don't trust much and they don't love much. They are very weak in their faith in God to believe that consuming a plant is sinful or wrong. The only way it could be if it was stolen. Stolen anything is tainted. And prohibitionists are thieves. Big time. They obviously can't truly discern between true right and true wrong. How can they tell themselves that it is right to do such harm to people over use of a plant? They don't know God. They don't know that God does not hate or fear the plant or his children that make use of it. They are weak and controlled by "The Accuser". It's sad. It's hard to bear with them. But they are dangerous and must be steered away from doing their greatest harms.Interesting, from Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome at that time. http://biblehub.com/romans/14-17.htm
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Comment #19 posted by Garry Minor on January 23, 2015 at 04:54:52 PT:
Hope - FoM
It's almost as if there were some sort of crazy curse on this Magnificent Mystical Plant?Kaneh Bosm
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Comment #18 posted by Hope on January 22, 2015 at 22:07:07 PT
So true.
But it is, apparently, important that the busybodies willing to kill ... for our own good of course, over the cannabis plant, have plenty of rules and regulations to reassure them that they still get to be all up in everyone's business enough to keep them satiated... without having to kill, persecute, and imprison. Hate, fear, and then there is, of course, greed. I guess that's why it's got to be complicated to get them to stop persecuting people over the plant.
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Comment #17 posted by FoM on January 22, 2015 at 15:18:26 PT
Hope
I feel that we need to simplified marijuana legalization not make it more complicated.
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Comment #16 posted by FoM on January 22, 2015 at 15:16:50 PT
Arresting People For MJ Never Was Productive
D.C. Police Chief: Arresting People For Marijuana Possession ‘Never Was Productive To Begin With’January 22, 2015URL: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/01/22/3614244/dc-police-chief-on-pot-legalization/
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Comment #15 posted by Hope on January 22, 2015 at 14:41:35 PT
Wait!
It's just the cabinet.... a way to go for Jamaica to be free yet."The Cabinet has approved the bill, meaning that the country's Rastafarians could have the legal right to smoke the drug if it gets the Senate's approval later this week."
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Comment #14 posted by Hope on January 22, 2015 at 14:38:30 PT
Way to go Jamaica!
Jamaica Cabinet approves bill legalising marijuanahttp://www.ibtimes.co.uk/jamaica-cabinet-approves-bill-legalising-marijuana-1484591
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Comment #13 posted by Hope on January 22, 2015 at 14:28:24 PT
The authors of this initiative are catering to 
Botanophobics. It's so dang dangerous. It must be so tightly controlled so it doesn't fall into the hands of the common people.They don't even know what this is about.
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Comment #12 posted by Hope on January 22, 2015 at 14:22:15 PT
I think that someone in Ohio needs to get busy
with an initiative that pleases more of you.
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Comment #11 posted by Oleg the Tumor on January 22, 2015 at 09:27:04 PT
These are the times that try men's souls…
Here is one area where all of us could appreciate some "leadership", but when it comes to cannabis there is none to be found – leadership that is – for there is plenty of cannabis to be sure.Last night, the president of the United States made a speech regarding the state of the union. Strange name for a speech that never mentioned how so many states can just openly defy the Feds Schedule 1, as if the re-legalization of cannabis was not worth the mention. The state of the union is a divided one. It was that way from before any of us were born. He should at least be honest and say so.Like Billy Joel sings, "… We didn't start the fire, it was always burnin' since the world's been turnin'…"What is it about Ohio? (Where I am still alive, amazingly enough). Is it the air? What is it about this place that brings out the likes of the Rockefellers? The Steinbrenner's? How about Warren G Harding, whose biggest problem was not "my enemies, but my g-damn friends!" Ask anyone about "Teapot Dome", not that many will remember forgotten history in time to exempt themselves from paying for it again.A guy finds a way to make a buck selling, in John Rockefeller's case, oil. He cuts the retail price of lamp oil in half and proclaims, "Competition Is Sin!" Eventually his business methods would be exposed as criminal (but never he himself), and his huge company broken up into a bunch of smaller ones.
He would retire a billionaire, content to hand out dimes.We, in Ohio and elsewhere, can do better than this "crony capitalism", but without a breakthrough at the federal level, exactly what are we talking about? Why can't there be nonprofit participation?Why can't I grow my own?
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on January 22, 2015 at 09:19:35 PT
Jamaica Considers Marijuana Legalisation
January 21, 2015URL: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-30926714
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Comment #9 posted by The GCW on January 22, 2015 at 00:21:06 PT
How's Your Aspen?
Related to FoM's post:Legal marijuana comes out to play at Aspen's "stoniest" X Gameshttp://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_27368610/legal-marijuana-is-out-play-at-aspens-stoniest?source=infinite
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on January 21, 2015 at 18:12:48 PT
MJ's Surprising Effects On Athletic Performance
January 21, 2015URL: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-marijuana-affects-working-out-2015-1
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on January 21, 2015 at 13:55:51 PT
My Thoughts
I have tried to watch the series Pot Barons of Colorado but I haven't made very far. I think it amazing how sophisticated growing marijuana has become but the cost and controls would be hard to handle. Once the market is flooded with quality marijuana the price will drop just like flat screen TV prices did.
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Comment #6 posted by Hope on January 21, 2015 at 13:47:28 PT
So....
I'm thinking this won't pass. Not because people don't want to legalize. The "Exclusivity" of this one will strike many as quite off putting.
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Comment #5 posted by schmeff on January 21, 2015 at 13:13:51 PT
This Doesn't Free the Weed
It merely sells cannabis into slavery, forever forced to enrich selected well-heeled cronies of the one percent.Free. Free to own, free to share and free to grow. Never surrender what the Creator gave you.
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Comment #4 posted by JohnOBonno on January 21, 2015 at 12:08:14 PT:
Government and business leaders conspiring
To preemptively strike at the heart of liberty by creating a monopoly for 10 select companies. How much would you bet against the government continuing to raid your private grow just because it undercuts their revenue flow?
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on January 21, 2015 at 11:17:49 PT
Hope
I want to see it legal and to allow people to grow their own so they wouldn't have to pay the high prices. I am not saying there isn't a place for shops but it only seems fair to allow people to grow and at least share their marijuana with a friend. It's just a plant.
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on January 21, 2015 at 11:14:20 PT
Hope
I don't know. 
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Comment #1 posted by Hope on January 21, 2015 at 10:22:17 PT
FoM
What do you think of this one?
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