Ohio Makes Another Move to get Marijuana on the Ballot
COLUMBUS, — Ohio’s attorney general has certified a petition for another proposed ballot initiative to legalize recreational cannabis.The initiative would allow legal residents of Ohio age 21 or older to possess, grow, use, sell and share cannabis in the state. The petition language certified by Republican Attorney General Mike DeWine on May 10, 2018, would preserve the state’s medicinal marijuana program in place.
The petition now goes to the bipartisan Ohio Ballot Board, which must decide if the measure contains one or multiple ballot issues.
Supporters would then need to collect at least 305,591 signatures of registered Ohio voters to put the issue on the ballot. Organizers are aiming for the 2019 ballot.
Constituencies defeated a recreational marijuana initiative in 2015. Issue 3, the Ohio Marijuana Legalization Initiative, would have permitted adult-use cannabis for Ohioans 21 and older, but it would have approved only 10 franchises to grow and sell cannabis in Ohio. More than 63 percent of voters rejected Issue 3, according to Ballotpedia.
In reply to the corporate monopoly threat posed by Issue 3, Ohio lawmakers placed Issue 2, a constitutional amendment, before voters in the same Nov. 3, 2015 election. Issue 2 would prevent Ohio’s initiative process from being used by individuals or organizations for financial gain. The Ohio Ballot Board would determine whether an initiative would lead to financial gain, then draft a competing issue that would ask voters to grant the petitioner an exemption from the law. Issue 2 was narrowly approved with 51.33 percent of the vote, according to Ballotpedia.
Wisconsin Next to go Green for Weed?
MILWAUKEE — A Milwaukee County supervisor wants to ask voters if they want Wisconsin to legalize cannabis for adults 21 and older.
Authorization of the plant is gaining momentum across the country, and voters in Wisconsin’s most populous county should have a chance to weigh in on the matter, according to County Supervisor John Weishan.
“It’s time that the state of Wisconsin got with the 21st century,” he said, adding that legal cannabis also could boost tax revenue.
Under Weishan’s proposal, Milwaukee County constituencies would be asked whether they think Wisconsin should regulate the commercial supply of pot and tax it. The proposal passed the county’s judiciary committee on May 10, 2018, and now goes to the full county board. If approved it would go on the Nov. 6, 2018, general election ballot as an advisory referendum.
State lawmakers have not acted on legislative proposals to remove criminal penalties for personal cannabis use.
A Pew Research Center survey says six out of 10 Americans now support legalizing the drug. Eight states and the District of Columbia have legalized possession of small amounts of marijuana for adult recreational use, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Marijuana Industrialist Wants to Blaze Trail for Marginalized People
The story behind GFIVE Cultivation is how this company stands out from the competition. Larry Smith may be the only African-American that owns his license outright.
“First off, in this industry, especially in Vegas, there’s not a lot of minorities that actually own their buildings or their facilities or their licenses,” Larry told Culture Magazine. “Because most African-Americans and Hispanics are targeted for jail time for this, and it’s kind of fucked up to be honest with you, to walk in a room of 300 people and you’re one of the only people there of color. Where we grew up, we were harassed for the plant.”
Aclip on Instagram of a deaf woman working in the GFIVE building means the company hiresthe marginalized can be inspiring. With regards to the hiring process at GFIVE, Larry makes it a point to take in those who are unable to work elsewhere.
“They actually worked in California in the underground market back in the day,” said Larry. “But when they came to apply for jobs here in Vegas, they were getting shut out. I didn’t think that was cool at all. They work hard. They’re human beings just like we are.
This isn’t Larry’s first successful business in Nevada, as he also runs Square Management, Center Mass Brass, and Lein. Talking to others in the music industry about investing in the cannabis company, no one seemed to understand the vision of GFIVE except Damon. King Dusko, Damon’s very own strain, is made At GFIVE.
“I just want a really high-end brand and I want to be able to take GFIVE and come to LA,” Larry said. “I want to go to Atlanta. I want to go to Memphis. We want to be able to grow and take it to another level and be one of the premier companies in the country. […] We’re trying to take it to another level.”
“Not to bash anybody, because there is good cannabis out there, but a lot of those growers are in such a rush to get to market,” Larry said. “They’re not flushing all the remedies and pesticides. We want to make sure we put the best product out there. We’re still learning, we’re still getting there, so it’s just a matter of time before we really dial in. We have some of the best growers.”
“It’s a medicine for us. No matter what they say about recreational, it’s still a medicine for us,” Larry said. “The goal for us is to give people good, clean medicine that hopefully can help them live a better quality of life. That’s what the goal is for Shawn and I, that’s what we try to understand. For example, someone has lupus and they’re having a bad day and their level of pain is a 10. If they can get our cannabis and it can make their level of pain a two — and gives them a better quality of life — then that’s what we want to do. That’s the goal for us.”
Medical Marijuana for the Mormon State?
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill says using medical cannabis should be a decision between a patient and a doctor, rather than a criminal matter. He spoke at a news conference May 8 as supporters of a medical-marijuana ballot initiative fend off opponents’ increasing efforts to keep them off the ballot.
The Utah Patients Coalition has submitted enough signatures to qualify for the ballot by a comfortable margin, but opponents of the initiative are now going back to those voters and asking them to remove their signatures.
Medical cannabis supporters say opponents like the Utah Medical Association are using deceptive tactics to flip voters. The physicians’ group denies misleading anyone and says people should know about their concerns.
Republican Gov. Gary Herbert and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have also come out against legalizing medical cannabis in the predominantly Mormon state. About 55 percent of Utahns identified as Mormon, according to the 2014 Religious Landscape Study by the Pew Research Center.
The “Other” Sessions Faces Opposition
TEXAS- The chair of the House Rules Committee, Texas Republican Rep. Pete Sessions, may face an uphill re-election battle this November in his bid to retain his influential position, partly because of one cannabis reform activist and his new super PAC. 
Rob Kampia, a co-founder and prior executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, is leading an effort to unseat Sessions. As chair of the Rules Committee, Pete Sessions (no relation to AG Jefferey Beauregard Sessions) has systematically blocked bipartisan legislation intended to provide safe harbor for medical cannabis states, their businesses, and patients who use cannabis medicinally.
“[Sessions] is in fact what I call a sphincter who is constipating the process,” Kampia told the Washington Examiner.
The super PAC, Texans Removing Outdated and Unresponsive Politicians, was initially started by Kampia after he left the Marijuana Policy Project in 2017. The new super PAC hopes to raise roughly a half-million dollars in support of candidates representing the Democratic and Libertarian parties.
“I am going to bundle a whole bunch of checks and send them to the Democrat without talking to the Democrat. You are going to see a bunch of $2,700 checks flowing from the same people who you’re going to see on our [super PAC] reports,” Kampia
told reporters.
While current polls have repeatedly established that Americans and their elected officials support legalization, as chair of the Rules Committee, Rep. Sessions has continually blocked all less-restrictive cannabis legislation from progressing for the past two years.
In backing of a fellow libertarian, Kampia has contributed funds to the Texas Libertarian Party’s Treasurer, Melina Baker, for representative in Sessions’ 32nd District, covering the
Dallas area.
Kampia “plans to target only a small part of the electorate, particularly students at the University of Texas at Dallas and libertarian-leaning Republicans,” according to the Washington Examiner.
After noting that Sessions had “an easy name to hate,” Kampia conjectured that medical cannabis would now be legalized if not for Sessions. Kampia and his new super PAC hope to elect a representative that will put aside his or her personal beliefs and cast their vote based on the will of their constituents and scientific evidence.
