DEAR EDITOR:

There was a voter passed issue (Issue 2) on the ballot back in 2023 that legalized the recreational use of marijuana in Ohio. Ever since then, Ohio lawmakers have sought to tweak the law to suit their own interests or their own personal views about marijuana. It is OK that these lawmakers may have conflicting views about legal recreational marijuana or even the legal use of medical marijuana, but Senate Bill 56 clearly goes against the will of the citizens of Ohio.

I’m sure you have heard the arguments about misleading packaging which represents marijuana as “candy”, and that minors are able to purchase marijuana products freely. Last time I checked, a person seeking to purchase marijuana from a dispensary had to be 21 years of age and show a government-issued identity card just to enter a dispensary, much less purchase anything there. Knowing this to be a fact sort of disproves the politician’s claims of easy access for underage purchases and access to marijuana products.

IF there are, in fact, retailers who are not following the rules about packaging of marijuana products or are not following the state rules on dispensaries, then the state has every right to stop these individuals from breaking the law. However, the individual who wishes to grow their own marijuana are restricted to a small number of plants for their own personal use. Marijuana is a plant, a crop which needs other plants to insure pollination, and needs additional plants to breed new, improved strains, much like corn and other crops have been bred and improved over the years.

Lawmakers need to be realistic about their “demands” concerning marijuana cultivation by private citizens. I’m not saying that each individual should be able to grow an unlimited amount of marijuana plants, just like any private citizen that seeks to grow corn has to have the government’s blessing on how many corn plants said citizen can grow. Common sense should be applied to marijuana crops, just like it is for corn or other crops. Most politicians have never grown any type of crops, and are probably the least qualified people to be making rules and regulations on those citizens who do grow crops, especially marijuana.

JIM FLORENCE

Windham