I agree there are many better proposals than RO, there's OTEP, ROC and others..... but as you say, for any of these others to pass it is going to take a similar effort. In the mean time, RO will stop people from losing their license over possession of a joint, will stop police from the "I smell marijuana search", will allow you to grow your own plants. I have said from the beginning that this is the worst proposal of them all but do you wait for the perfect proposal to come along or do you take what you can get and then try to build on that. To me, voting against it is like wanting a new car and not being able too afford it, so instead of buying something to get you by till you can afford what you want, you wait and walk everywhere.....what happens if you can never afford it? I don't know, just my opinion homebrewer.
First off, I respect the fact that we can have differing opinions on this but understand that very, very few are losing their license over the possession of a joint (
http://norml.org/laws/item/ohio-penalties-2). If one is driving with a joint then they deserve to have their license taken away.
Secondly, home growers under issue 3 will need a license at $50/year and you best believe some of those growers will be inspected for compliance. How is that any better than an 'I smell marijuana search'. What makes you think the police still couldn't search your place or your car if they smelled weed?
What bugs me about issue 3 is that ResponsibleOhio could have written a mega-farm legalization bill making it an open market but instead they decided cut the citizens of Ohio out and reward the investors with the
exclusive cultivation rights for your entire state. If issue 3 passes, you'll never be able to break into the cannabis industry unless something else passes to repeal it.
Pass now, build on it later is wishful thinking and not at all realistic. After all, this is an amendment to your state's constitution.
So you're ok with handing over a billion dollar market to a select wealthy few just because it will make things just a little easier on people who weren't being very careful to being with? Come on, who gets busted with a joint?