Summary: On November 3rd, Ohio voters will cast their ballots on Issue 3, which will legalize recreational marijuana use in the state.
Why is this noteworthy? In contrast with hippie Washington and Colorado, Ohio’s reputation is as a devastatingly “normal” state. Ohio people? They like red meat and potatoes. They watch football. Ohio is America’s Heartland, chock full of those amber fields of grain waving in the wind – or so this New Yorker imagines (not that there’s anything wrong with those things!).
But Ohio may become only the fifth state to make weed legal. According to a recent Kent State poll, 58% of registered voters support the legalization of “small amounts of marijuana for personal use,” and 56% plan to vote “Yes” on Issue 3.
Read more about some of the other states that have already legalized marijuana:
- Alaska the Third State to Legalize Marijuana
- Colorado and Washington Hot for Pot: Voters Approve Recreational Marijuana
- Recreational Marijuana Now Legal In Oregon
- Where is Marijuana Legal in the United States?
Much like alcohol, pot would be regulated, taxed, and limited to those 21 and older. Adults could carry up to an ounce of marijuana on their person, and could even grow up to eight ounces for “personal use.”
As the country is slowly realizing, there are a lot of convincing arguments for legalizing pot. Increased tax revenue is a nice benefit of making smoking weed legal, but – perhaps more importantly – it will also do away with small marijuana-related arrests. This means that literally hundreds of thousands of non-violent offenders (who are doing a drug that has widely been proven to be safer than alcohol or cigarettes) would be kept out of the prison system, in a given year.
So, will Ohio follow its predecessors Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and Alaska in legalizing the green stuff for recreational use? Keep an eye out – and, until then, check your state laws before toking up.
Source:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/02/next-pot-s-going-to-be-legal-in-ohio.html