Did you read some of the background articles and Ohioan reader comments linked to this cleveland.com story? Though the full list of investor names have not yet been published, those which have seem to indicate a rather diverse bunch of non-.001%ers. ResponsibleOhio has developed a sustainable business plan with the necessary startup funding and already identified the 10 land sites throughout Ohio to be farmed. Workers will have health care and other benefits.Taxes will be paid. This sounds capitalist to me.
Some readers comment that Oregon, Washington State and Colorado have struggled to find fewer supplyers for their programs than the 10 identified in the Ohio plan. Others more knowledgeable than I may speak about the truth of such claims. However, if they are true, then the anti-free market charge is spurious, because such free-market business plans that rely on the moon in the 7th house while Jupiter aligned with Mars havenāt and perhaps wonāt reliably deliver product to market.
Ohio has another constitutional ballot issue that would forbid authorizing monopolys in the Ohio constitution. If both ballot issues pass, the marijuana law would conform to the no monopolys law. Any over-21 adult Ohioan can legally have three budding marijuana plants and 8oz. of usable marijuana at any time. This adult Ohioan can legally share (but not sell) such marijuana with other over-21 adults.
If this ballot issue passes, then adult (over 21) Ohioans (and others) can buy and use marijuana legally for recreational and medical purposes without funding criminal activitys that sustain the present underground suppliers, many of whom also deal other products: meth, coke, opiates and prescription drugs. The hope is that breaking the marijuana-crime nexis, will remove many buyers and sellers and much money from the smaller, dangerous underworld of illicit drugs that remains.
NO it will not! This locks in the monopoly. There will be no discussion after legalization without another constitutional ammendment. On top of this, the whole thing is pointless; marijuana legalization is pretty much in the same inevitability mode that gay marriage was in. There is no point in giving away the store at this point.
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I did read the background articles. I donāt follow your logic that because some of the investors are non 0.001%ers it doesnāt make it a monopoly. These investors will surely be 0.01%rs after locking in this business. They are investing $20-40 million with the expectation of returns of hundreds of millions each. Locking in a supply chain in exactly the same manner that they did in Ohio for the Casinos is precisely the definition of non-capitalistic, non-free market. Workers for AT&T when it was a monopoly had benefits, taxes were paid, and it was still a monopoly.
The ballot issue for the 5 person board to screen ballot issues for monopolies has the potential to lock up the ResponsibleOhio issue for years if both pass. As well as the potential for massive misuse for serving as a gate keeper based for all future ballot issues based on the 5 person panelās views. Both pieces of legislation are disingenuous.
With regards to your last paragraphā¦ this is a beautiful example of the messed up position this legislation has put Ohio in. Choiceā¦ pass a monopolistic ballot issue that pours enormous wealth only into 10 investors hands and legalize marijuana (AND lock in a residual $50+/year fee for anyone growing at home that goes into ResponsibleOhioās pockets) or continue to ruin peopleās lives all across Ohio for another year. And to counter this monopoly, legislators are trying to put into place a 5 person panel to prevent monopolies, but which will also have the effect of screening all future ballot issues, another poisonous option.
This is a money grab, pure and simpleā¦ and since not voting for this has the potential to ruin lives in Ohio, this is a money grab at gun point.
And your practical recommendations to the Ohio government are ā¦?
