Legalization of pot in Ohio

[Malcolm]

Think the feds will ever just blanket legalize it, like they did with gay marriage?

Even if they do ... fucking state dickhead laws.

[Alhazad]

My wife has never put an ounce of thought into it, just didn't like it because obviously drugs are bad. I gave her about 5 good reasons in 20 seconds why she should have voted for it, and none of them were "so we can get high."

"Oh," she says.

Chicks, man. Repeal suffrage.

I'm interested in the reasons.

[GORDON]

I opened and closed with, "Because I like freedom/so why do you hate freedom?"

She said, "Well I don't want our son to be able to buy pot." I said, "Is he able to buy beer or cigarettes, now?"

Then she said, "I don't want drug dealers all over the place." I said, "Legalizing it makes it sold in stores, and there are fewer drug dealers, and less crime associated with them."

Then she said, "Well why stop there, do you think that people should be able to buy heroin or meth?" Me: "Pretty much. I believe in letting adults make their own decisions, and I don't like the jails being filled with nonviolent offenders, and I don't like the police having the power to say 'I think I smell pot' when you're pulled over and then you lose your 4th Amendment protection. Legalizing it reduces their power. And besides, I can provide tons of stats (thanks Malcolm) suggesting that alcohol is magnitudes more dangerous to society than is weed."

"Well I don't want to see pot stores all over the place like we saw in Canada." I said, "We saw one store, in an entertainment district. Did you really have a problem with it?" "Well.... no."

Why do you hate freedom, woman.

So, that was our 30 second conversation.

I guess these midterm elections are just all grayhairs. Thanks, lazy liberals who hate freedom.

Again, I'm 99% sure I'd never smoke it anyway, because I don't hang with that kind of crowd. But I think it should be legal, and I'd grow a few plants for the local teens to pillage as a show of goodwill (so they stay out of my fucking yard).



Edited By GORDON on 1446642023

[Stranger]

I think in the end this issue didn't pass because of the "monopoly" factor. You say that word in the USA and people get pissed, for good reason too. It said right on the ballot "create a monopoly for marijuana growers" that alone, if nobody knew a thing about the situation would cause every red blooded American to vote down. I listened to radio shows with pot smokers calling in saying they were voting this down because of the monopoly factor and they will still get their smoke regardless.

Legalization is immanent, but it will have to be under the right terms. I guess ohioans voted right even if that makes me on the wrong side of things. I just liked that Ohio could have gotten a head start on surrounding states on this and had a huge tax influx. Since this would have been the only state this side of the Mississippi to legalize, people from surrounding states would surely come here to buy some. Yeah, it would have lined the pockets of the already rich, but I guess that didn't bother me as much as most people. Also, for my own selfish reason, I just liked the thought of going to a shop and picking out a nice bud for the weekend and enjoying it legally.

[Leisher]

I don't live in Ohio so I couldn't vote on it, but I would have voted against it.

I say that while agreeing with basically everything Gordon and Stranger said.

It is the monopoly part that was bullshit and why most people shot it down. All you have to do is go back a few years when Ohio legalized casinos to see why last night's issue failed. The casino thing is one of the most corrupt pieces of legislation I've ever seen. Only ONE company is allowed to open casinos in Ohio, AND those casinos can only be located at specific street addresses in the 4 big cities, further enforcing their monopoly. People realized what they had voted in and were pissed. All the locations suck, and it's not what people wanted.

I think they saw issue 3 as the same bullshit.

I actually work with a stage 4 cancer patient who told me yesterday, "I could really use legal marijuana for my condition, but I can't get past what bullshit is contained in that issue."

Pot will be back on the ballot in the next election, but hopefully with less monopoly attached to it.

[Malcolm]

Pot will be back on the ballot in the next election, but hopefully with less monopoly attached to it.

I'd like to believe that. But that'd require me to believe it's the one magical issue the gov't would treat properly. They will gouge you for your chems one way or the other.



Edited By Malcolm on 1446651630