Ohio is on the verge of making marijuana fully legal, but no surprise is the unlucky timing for proponents. Stuck in purgatory in the Ohio Statehouse is a proposed citizen-initiated statute which will make marijuana legal for adults 21 and over.

The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol (CTRMLA) and its canvassers gathered signatures at shopping plazas late last year gaining 136,729 valid signatures. Their goal is to force the Ohio legislature to consider their legislation for November’s ballot. An answer from the Statehouse is due in May.

CTRMLA’s law would give 36 percent of earned taxes to support social equity and jobs, and it also legalizes home grow with a limit of six plants per person and 12 plants per household. Ohio’s current Medical Marijuana Control Program forbidshome-based cultivation, a point of contention with many of the state’s patients. 

Here’s what happened at the March 2022 Free Press Second Saturday Cyber-Salon, Saturday March 12.

Watch video here.

Facilitated by Free Press Board member Mark Stansbery, the salon addressed “Peace in the World.”

Harvey Wasserman, anti-nuke activist and senior Free Press Editor, spoke first about the nukes in Ukraine. He told us five of the 12 nuclear reactors in Ukraine were built by Soviets and all are over 30 years old. Chernobyl is one of the smallest ones and is now under control of the Russians. The explosion at Chernobyl in April 1986 was the worst nuclear accident in the world, overshadowed later by the meltdown at Fukushima, which was the equivalent of 100 times the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the Chernobyl disaster, the the Russians seeded the clouds above Ukraine so that it would rain the radioactivity over them instead of Russia. Even a nuclear plant that is shut down is a radioactive threat.

Sunday, March 13, 12noon
Nationwide Plaza One
Join us to support Ukraine and peace. Hosted by Ukranian Cultural Association of Ohio.

Last week, Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine after a visceral speech laced with lies and threats of nuclear annihilation.Today, Russian nuclear forces are at a level of combat readiness unseen since some of the most dangerous moments of the Cold War. Any nuclear exchange between the United States and Russia could result in global death and the complete environmental devastation of our planet – a terrifying possibility. 

So far, the Biden administration has thankfully chosen not to respond to Putin’s nuclear threats. While we are encouraged by President Biden’s decision in choosing restraint, this is a moment to draw a clearer line and publicly affirm a policy of no first use. 

President Biden has the power to de-escalate and send a strong signal of leadership and restraint in this moment.