As someone stated earlier, Ohio will be one of the last states to make marijuana legal for medical use. The Ohio House of Legislators is majority republican and to make matters worse, they are the "old timer" types that actually believe Marijuana is a highly addictive, highly destructive drug that should be destroyed. I contacted the Ohio NORML chapter and after speaking with them and e-mailing back and forth for a while I came to the conclusion that even 2014 will be a far reach of getting it put on a ballot for the people to vote on. The biggest thing that the Ohio NORML chapter kept bringing up was "money", that they needed "more money", and would love for me to donate to their cause. It's something that I don't get, if 75% of Ohioans are for the legalization of Medical Marijuana, then why has it been so hard to get it passed here. I also contacted two other groups who have been petitioning to get it on the ballot. Both of these groups failed in getting enough signatures to get it on the 2012 ballot and are now saying it "could" happen in 2014, but they are not sure yet because, "We just need more money so we can start collecting more signatures". I love the cause, I support the cause, but it just seems like these three groups are using this as a way to make money for themselves. I have been to a ton of different events all over Ohio this past year, and not one time have I seen anyone collecting signatures. I have to admit, I didn't go to the hemp fest in Columbus, and I was told that they were their getting signatures, but only collected a few hundred. I even asked a ton of my friends who smoke, and none of them has seen anyone collecting signatures. I talked to the workers in a few different hydro stores and they even said they haven't seen any petitions yet, as well as a few smoke shops, the biggest one being cloud nine, who told me that the Ohio NORML chapter meets up every now and then but they just go out to dinner at a Tee Jays and all they talk about is just smoking, how legalizing for medical use is a good idea, but never bring up any ideas of how to collect more signatures.
Sorry for this being so long, but it just gets under my skin that all these other states, and some are typical conservative controlled states have passed it for medical use, and two states has passed it for recreational use, but the people who are suppose to be out there collecting signatures are doing a very poor job of getting this done in Ohio.
For those who want to help, get in touch with the Ohio NORML chapter, Ohio Patient Network, Ohio Alternative Treatment Amendment, and they have links so you can download a petition with the rules so you can start collecting signatures as well, and just send them back to them. I downloaded the stuff and have been out plenty of times, and I get a really good response from people on this. We just don't have enough people who are willing to get out there and actually collect signatures. We don't have any representatives of Ohio who aren't dumb on this topic, so we have to do it the hard way.
http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2013/06/10/news/nh7069457.txt
http://www.ohiommjballot.org/
http://ohiopatientsnetwork.org/
We do have one politician in Ohio who is trying to get it legalized for medical use and his name is Rep. Hagan. Bad thing, he is retiring this year. Hagan has been trying to get this passed for years now, and each time he says the bills he has introduced dies almost immediately. He stated that it gets shot down without anyone being able to argue their side of it. That shows how conservative these politicians from Ohio really are, and thats why we need new ones. Also, the two bills Hagan just introduced in early May of this year, Hagan said that the bills will most likely "stall out", meaning that the Ohio House of Reps are going to be going on break, and there is some kind of stipulation that if a bill doesn't get a chance to be brought to the floor before this break, it automatically kills the bill and you can't introduce it again until the next year.
The republican politicians in Ohio are just too hard headed and staunch in their beliefs and will never change their minds no matter how much money it would bring to the state. I'm going to keep fighting for our rights here in Ohio, as I hope many others are. Even if we collect enough signatures, get it on the 2014 ballot, you already know these Rep's will just take their time for making it legit, so in reality, the earliest we could see medical marijuana become a real life thing in Ohio, with dispensaries and what not, will probably be more like the middle to end of 2015.....seems like it's sooo far away and such a loooong wait. I now know how the backers from the 60's and 70's feel; they too thought it was going to happen sooner rather than later.
It's a shame.
