The Free Press recently spoke with several drug addicted community members near the sprawling Wedgewood Village apartment community not far from Westgate on Columbus’ west side. Within our community you can score a bag of “fenty” or illicit fentanyl for $10, they told us. Ten dollars is the price of death in Columbus and beyond.

Now comes the gut-punch revelation: the people sworn to protect us were the ones (allegedly) pumping massive amounts of illicit fentanyl into the community. Earlier this week, the FBI arrested two Columbus police narcotics officers assigned to the Division’s cartel unit – Marco Merino, 44, and John Kotchkoski, 33.

This past summer, Merino dealt roughly 7 kilograms of fentanyl into Columbus, which was first given to him by Kotchkoski – this according to U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Ohio. Also this summer and spring, Merino is alleged to have helped deal 27 kilograms of cocaine into the community.

Saturday, October 2, 2021, 12:00 PM
Location: Ohio Statehouse, 1 Capitol Square, Columbus. 

Exclusive for the Columbus Free Press

Thousands of angry protesters filled Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma boulevard, marching more than two miles to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the disappearance of 43 education students from a rural teacher’s college in 2014.

National anger over the forced disappearances revived days before the September 26th anniversary. Among President Manuel Andrés López Obrador’s most prominent campaign promises when he was a candidate in the 2018 elections was a swift solution to the disappearances and stern sentences for the guilty. Yet now, half way through the six year term, he announced a meager advance.

Moreover, the pledged commitments to education, youth, teachers, employment, and nearly all other social ills have gone unmet — most of them even suffering severe cutbacks. Most repulsive is the rising number of feminicides (murdered women) in an administration that flaunts itself as center-left, populist, progressive, etc.

Background

On September 17, three Ohio civic organizations and six individual Ohioans filed suit in the Supreme Court of Ohio, seeking to block the state general assembly plan adopted by the Ohio Redistricting Commission on September 16 and require the commission to draw new districts. The plaintiffs argue that the new plan’s maps violate the prohibition against partisan gerrymandering and voters’ equal protection and associational rights under the Ohio constitution. 

Ohio’s medical marijuana law and program are not perfect and there have been complaints – prices are too high, the state-mandated THC levels are too low, you can’t grow your own medicine, and the complaint heard most often, it’s illegal in Ohio to smoke your own medicine.

Nevertheless, the program has helped tens of thousands cope with AIDS, cancer and Parkinsons, among others, and also arthritis and chronic migraines, two new qualifying medical conditions.

The latest numbers provided by the state show just over 200,000 registered patients, with over 800 having a terminal diagnosis, 14,000 being veterans and 15,000 indigent status or not having the means to purchase their medicine.

The program has saved lives, in ways many may not believe is possible, but believe it.

“The program has saved my life as I’m a recovering heroin addict,” says 30-something Anthony Ballein, a single father who lives near Cincinnati. “I am happy with the program overall as it has helped me to stay sober.”