The recreational weed crowd is blowing smoke again. I knew it was just a matter of time before the marijuana mania mob tried to legalize recreational cannabis in Ohio. Didn’t you? Voters in 2015 defeated a ballot issue to legalize marijuana in the state.
After the medical marijuana legislation passed in the Buckeye State, the puff people revealed their clandestine agenda—weed for pleasure in every Ohio home. Marijuana merriment for all. Pot parties in parks and on porches. If passed, please keep pot away from the playgrounds. Cannabis celebrations in backyards along with weekend barbeques. Smoke-outs on the 4thof July, but please keep joints and bongs away from the fireworks.
Backers of a measure called the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Amendment submitted the initial petition and 1,000 signatures to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office for review recently. By the way, alcohol is classified as a drug—but it’s a legal drug. And prohibition failed.
According to a March 11, 2020, article in the Dayton Daily News, “Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost rejected petitions submitted by a group that wants to put a marijuana legalization issue on the November 2020 ballot. The Campaign Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol disputed Yost’s assertions that the petition language isn’t fair and accurate and asked Yost to reconsider.”
The constitutional amendment would allow adults over the age of 21 to buy, possess and consume limited amounts of marijuana, including growing up to six marijuana plants. Is that six plants per person in each house? Do you count grandma if she lives with you?
If the pot petition addresses hurdles, organizers would need to collect 442,958 valid voter signatures from at least 44 of 88 counties by July 1 to qualify for the November 2020 ballot. Can they find 442, 958 Ohioans without common sense to sign?
The Ohio Medical Cannabis Industry Association, which represents 14 Ohio companies, is not supporting the measure. So, who are the funders? Interesting—the funders are not disclosing themselves. You can’t follow the money trail if you can’t find the funders.
In an interview on Jan. 8, 2020, Gov. DeWine said legalizing marijuana for adults would be a mistake. The governor told the Ohio Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau that today’s marijuana is more potent than in the past, and could pose a health risk for young people. What’s that sound? Oh, it’s me applauding Gov. DeWine.
On a wider scale (no pun intended), Bernie endorses a legal recreational buzz and so does Biden. Would potent pot in a pipe keep politicians from pugnacity and promote peace? I doubt it. Remember, Bill Clinton said he smoked it, but didn’t inhale. President Trump remains on the fence in pot patch policies.
Move over lung cancer from secondhand tobacco smoke, there will be more secondhand smoke in Ohio if marijuana is legalized. Cough it up for Cannabis. Pretend that pot smoke is pure. Like tobacco smoke, marijuana smoke is an irritant to the throat and lungs and can cause a heavy cough during use.
Recreational Weed and Secondhand Smoke
Who believes secondhand marijuana smoke is a health risk? Members of the American Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR) Foundation—that’s who. Some of the known carcinogens or toxins present in marijuana smoke include: acetaldehyde, ammonia arsenic, benzene, cadmium, chromium, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, isoprene, lead, mercury, nickel, and quinoline.
“Just one minute of exposure to secondhand smoke from marijuana diminishes blood-vessel function in rats to the same extent as exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke. Furthermore, the harmful cardiovascular effects of marijuana smoke last considerably longer – more than 90 minutes, compared to less than 30 in the case of tobacco smoke,” according to Matthew Springer, Ph.D., the senior author of a 2016 study on the subject in the Journal of the American Heart Association.www.campaign.ucsf.edu.
Read a 2018 study designed to evaluate secondhand marijuana smoke exposure among children in the December issue of Pediatrics.“What we found in this study is that secondhand marijuana smoke does get into the lungs and little bodies of young children,” says Karen Wilson, MD.
Secondhand marijuana smoke appears to have provoked a cannabis allergy and worsened the asthma of a 6-year-old child, researchers told the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology’s annual conference in 2018. They recommend that doctors should consider the possibility of cannabis allergy in any child with uncontrolled asthma who is being exposed to secondhand marijuana smoke. www.reuters.com.
If Ohio legalizes recreational weed, more laws will be necessary to protect our youth from vaping, smoking, eating it—and selling it illegally.
“Contrary to common belief, marijuana is addictive. Estimates from research suggest that about 9 percent of users become addicted to marijuana; this number increases among those who start young (to about 17 percent, or 1 in 6) and among daily users (to 25–50 percent). Thus, many of the nearly 7 percent of high-school seniors who (according to annual survey data) report smoking marijuana daily or almost daily are well on their way to addiction, if not already addicted, and may be functioning at a sub-optimal level in their schoolwork and in other areas of their lives… Marijuana use as a teen may harm the developing brain, lower IQ, and seriously impair the ability to drive safely, especially when combined with alcohol. Visit www.drugabuse.gov.
Stand with Gov. DeWine and oppose the legalization of recreational marijuana in Ohio. Residents of Scioto County, what do you say?
Melissa Martin, Ph.D., writes opinion editorial columns. She lives in Scioto County.
Melissa Martin is a Self-Syndicated Columnist from Wheelersburg, Ohio
Ohio Recreational Marijuana
