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  Marijuana Legalization Would Create 35,000 Jobs

Posted by CN Staff on June 11, 2015 at 13:11:15 PT
By Alan Johnson, The Columbus Dispatch  
Source: Columbus Dispatch 

Ohio -- A proposal to legalize marijuana that is likely headed toward Ohio’s fall ballot would create nearly 35,000 direct and indirect jobs in the state and generate an annual economic output of $7 billion, says a new report today coordinated by Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph T. Deters.“Legalization is coming to Ohio. We need to accept the reality is going to happen,” Deters said at a press conference at the Ohio State University Moritz School of Law where the report, “Marijuana & Ohio, Past Present and Potential” was unveiled.
“Why in the world, knowing this is coming, would we let the bad guys make all the money?” Deters asked.The report prepared by a task force appointed by Deters last month was funded exclusively by ResponsibleOhio, the organization pushing a constitutional amendment for the ballot that would legalize personal and medicinal use of marijuana.Deters has not endorsed the ResponsibleOhio plan, but he has business ties to Chris Stock, an attorney and prime architect of the proposal. Both Deters and Stock work for the same law Cincinnati firm, Waite, Schneider, Bayless & Chesley.While the task force report did not take a position on the ResponsibleOhio proposal, it views legalization as generally positive, dismissing many concerns voiced by critics.“Research suggests that legalization has not led to drastic increases in crime, adult or teen use, workplace injuries, or negatively impacted of aspects of public safety” the study said.In another section, the report downplays concerns about impaired driving by marijuana users, saying, “evidence indicates that the risks associated with driving under its influence are dramatically less than those that accompany driving under the influence of alcohol.”Using the IMPLAN economic forecasting model pioneered 30 years by the U.S. Forest Service, the task force projected a total of nearly 35,000 direct and indirect jobs would be created, the majority in the 1,000 retail marijuana sales locations ResponsibleOhio would permit. Other jobs would be created in cultivation (5,853), refinement and edibles production (3,393), and medical dispensaries (981).The report said the total economic output of marijuana would be nearly $7 billion annually, with about $1.6 billion paid in work-related wages.While the 187-page report had a largely positive view of legalization, not everyone was sold on its validity.“It lacked transparency through the process, community and expert input, and reads like a document filled with campaign propaganda that this monopoly hopes will dupe Ohio’s citizens into voting for the worst public policy to ever come before the Ohio voters,” said Marcie Seidel, executive director of the Drug Free Action Alliance. “There was nothing fair and balanced about it.”David Little, a Cincinnati public relations consultant hired by the task force, confirmed that ResponsibleOhio provided the only financial support for the report, including paying the services of some task force members. Deters and other members of the task force served with no pay.Ohio Auditor Dave Yost, who opposes the ResponsibleOhio plans, questioned the quick turnaround time for the lengthy report.“The marijuana debate has been raging for 50 years,” Yost said on Twitter. “The Deters marijuana commission did a ‘comprehensive’ study in 30 days?”Deters said he opposes the proposal advocated by Yost and other state officials to make it harder to get issues like the marijuana plan on the statewide ballot.“I personally think it’s offensive to take this out of the voters' hands,” he said.Supporters of marijuana legalization are not all behind the ResponsibleOhio plan. Sri Kavuru, president of Ohioans to End Prohibition, a competing group, said he finds it “offensive that the people of Ohio are being asked to vote for an amendment to the Constitution that gives the exclusive right to 10 investment groups to grow and manufacture marijuana for sale. It is simply un-American for corporations to manipulate our state's foundational document in this way.”Deters surprised many when he said for the first time last month that he supported legalization and tight regulation of marijuana, primarily because current laws forbidding its sale and use are “useless,” discriminatory to minorities, and enforcing them is a “major waste of resources for law enforcement.” He has not taken a position on the ResponsibleOhio proposal.ResponsibleOhio’s proposed constitutional amendment to legalize personal and medical use of marijuana appears likely to make it to the Nov. 3 general election ballot. The group has collected nearly double the required 305,591 signatures of registered Ohio voters needed to qualify for the ballot. The issue would permit 10 investment partnerships that contribute to the campaign to operate marijuana growing farms around the state. Sales of marijuana would be taxed at all whole and retail levels, with proceeds going primarily to local government. There is a provision for operation of dispensaries for medical marijuana for qualifying individuals.Deters, who served as state treasurer from 1999 to 2004, is at odds on the marijuana legalization issue with all non-judicial statewide officeholders, including Gov. John Kasich, who oppose it.Other members of the task for are William Breyer, former Hamilton County assistant prosecutor; Scott Greenwood, a civil rights attorney; Dan Margolis, former Cuyahoga County assistant prosecutor; Frank Morris, Canton Council member; James Pasch, Beachwood Council member; the Rev. Donald Perryman, Center of Hope Baptist Church, Cincinnati; Howard Rahtz, former Cincinnati police captain and addiction counselor; John Russo, professor at the Williamson College of Business Administration, Youngstown State University; Christopher Smitherman, Cincinnati City Council member; Thomas Streicher, former Cincinnati police chief, and Michael Thomas, former chairman of the Cuyahoga County Community Mental Health Board.The full report is available online at: http://www.mpotf.orgSource: Columbus Dispatch (OH)Author: Alan Johnson, The Columbus Dispatch Published: June 11, 2015Copyright: 2015 The Columbus DispatchContact: letters dispatch.comWebsite: http://www.dispatch.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/XlXADZU1CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 

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Comment #10 posted by Hope on June 15, 2015 at 09:14:05 PT
This is a disappointment.
Colorado Supreme Court: Employers can fire workers for off-duty marijuana use
Justices rule that employers can fire workers for marijuana useBy Alicia Wallacehttp://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_28315256/colorado-supreme-court-affirms-lower-court-rulings-medical
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #9 posted by FoM on June 14, 2015 at 18:43:37 PT
Afterburner
Thank you. I haven't bought the last few albums Neil has made but this might be a really good one. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #8 posted by afterburner on June 14, 2015 at 13:04:42 PT
Hope #7 & kaptinemo #6
Neil Young + Promise of The Real
http://www.neilyoung.com/monsanto/New studio album out June 29, 2015. Neil is also joining with Willie Nelson to promote the album. Neil describes the album as a reaction to "government walking hand in hand with business."
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Comment #7 posted by Hope on June 14, 2015 at 11:40:54 PT
"Nature's own diesel fuel"
And maybe, if the ignorant and greedy prohibitionists hadn't stopped hemp diesel development, our air today would be cleaner and less poisonous.I've heard a lot about diesel fumes being horribly carcinogenic. I believe it's the cause of a huge amount of the cancer people have been experiencing. Of course, something the media never brings up is the harm done by the nuclear disasters and tests we've subjected the people and the earth to. That and the huge amount of petroleum fumes we breathe are probably the main sources of the increases in cancer during the industrial age. Japan's nuclear disaster, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, bombing and nuclear testing.That stuff doesn't disappear and it drifts over the entire earth. Why, for the sake of humanity, has hemp based diesel been discouraged, banned even, by the powers of government and industry, and petroleum based fuels encouraged and promoted? You know the answer. Greed. Pure greed. The money is in one pocket... and the owners of that pocket want it to stay that way. And since the money is in their pocket... they have the money to sway all legislation that might change or improve things. They don't care if humanity lives or dies, or the future... as long as they have their personal wealth... to excess.. and right now. I've seen that attitude in action. They don't care about the future and breath of their own offspring, even. They don't. They may even lie and say they do... but they don't. They care only about right now, their money and keeping and growing it for the near future.
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Comment #6 posted by kaptinemo on June 13, 2015 at 19:28:07 PT:
It was said here long ago
The cannabis hemp plant is a botanical Swiss Army Knife; you can do almost anything with it. Around the world, countries are developing the industrial applications of hemp much faster than we are. The French make houses from it. The Aussies have just launched a major development program to explore the fullest limits of hemp's industrial potential.And what should we be doing? Exactly what we are not doing. And what really bites is that we developed the technology, here, in the US, first.Just think of it: farmers growing hemp, crushing the seed, running the oil through a processor to remove the glycerin, and you have Nature's own diesel fuel, the kind that Herr Rudolph meant his engines to run on for strategic reasons because Germany, then as now, has no native oil supplies. (His success was probably why he was 'suicided'.)The farmers could become energy self-sufficient, and if they ran their farms on diesel generators, they could power their entire operations independent of the grid, and reduce their costs by five-fold. They would become net producers on the grid, dropping electricity prices and also preventing brown-outs. Just that alone is worth going to a mainly-hemp economy.We gotta get off the stick, and fast, for whoever gets full industrialization of hemp first can corner the world market. A race is on, and we are deliberately wearing lead filled shoes thanks to the ignorance, stupidity and greed of the prohibitionists. They in their blind self-righteousness think their children will thank them, but their progeny are already cursing their short-sightedness. We may face an ecological disaster in the coming decades, and hemp could have been planted much earlier and possibly ameliorated it. Too much time has been lost, already.
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Comment #5 posted by John Tyler on June 13, 2015 at 07:48:30 PT
They call it wonderful
Here is the link to the National Geographic article on cannabis.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/marijuana/sides-textI would further like to add that the prohibitionist should not have a hand in legalization, or it could start looking like a religion designed by the devil. Cannabis is not some dangerous radioactive substance that needs to be kept in a vault lest it destroy all who come near it. It is plant that grows in the dirt. It takes in water, air and sunlight and produces something wonderful. What is it the prohibitionists don’t understand? Are they willfully ignorant?When I have seen TV shows lately about cannabis, and they interview people that study cannabis, and work cannabis, and use cannabis, their sense of awe and wonderment comes across on the TV screen. They have a smile when they talk about cannabis. They call it wonderful. 
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Comment #4 posted by The GCW on June 13, 2015 at 04:15:46 PT
Attempt to exterminate King of the Plant Kingdom
5 Incredible Breakthroughs in Pot Science That Mainstream Media Is Finally Paying Attention Tohttp://www.alternet.org/drugs/5-incredible-breakthroughs-pot-science-mainstream-media-finally-paying-attention-0-Jobs???Interesting, one of the jobs created is for journalists and authors to write about the king of the plant kingdom and how a terrorist government attempted to exterminate the king of the plant kingdom.
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Comment #3 posted by runruff on June 12, 2015 at 08:24:55 PT
This greedy amoral prosecutor.
He is looking to his enevitabe future. After Ohio legalize freedom , his case loads will drop to half or more. Oops, there goes that cushy budget and all the political posturing that made him a
ledgend in his own mind.
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Comment #1 posted by runruff on June 11, 2015 at 17:26:15 PT

The bad guys?
Why that slimy phrase twisting, educated wordsmith! He calls those who have fought and sacrificed their freedom even at their peril of being locked away this by this sociopath? Now he wants to capitalize on the plant and keep those who have earned the right to do so from it.Oh hell to the no! We will not settle with him. He is not in an intimidating chamber with power stacked against his defendants. He is bucking and tweaking the will of the people. It will be interesting to see if he can guide the profits from this industry into the pockets of his friends, the "good guys" or if the folks who won this war " the bad guys" will gain and maintain their freedoms?

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