The Wrong Way to Legalize Marijuana? #cannabis

Politico Magazine
November 01, 2015

The Wrong Way to Legalize Marijuana?
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/11/marijuana-legalization-monopoloy-213312#ixzz3qM335K9E

Ohio may be on the brink of creating America's first marijuana 'monopoly.'

By Josiah M. Hesse

On the surface, Ian James sounds like any other idealistic marijuana
advocate: He's critical of the war on drugs, he touts the economic and tax benefits of legalization and uses the familiar rebuttal against the "think of the children!" argument by pointing out that dealers are currently selling pot to kids and dispensaries will be carding customers. But James, the man behind this Tuesday's ballot measure to legalize marijuana in Ohio, is motivated by more than his political convictions.

James' controversial statewide ballot initiative, known as Issue 3, is designed to line the pockets of the investors he gathered to bankroll it—a brazen example of pay-to-play politics according to critics. But James is also unlike anyone in legalization who's come before him. He's the CEO of The Strategy Network, a political consultant group specializing in ballot measures. Unlike the marijuana activist color guard typically responsible for passing the country's prior legalization initiatives, James is a 30-year political operative who cut his teeth working for Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, not exactly an idealistic drug policy reformer.

Even though James' victory would mark a long list of marijuana legalization firsts—the first swing state to legalize, the first Midwestern state, the first privately organized legalization campaign—the Ohio measure's profit-driven nature has provoked resistance from a growing coalition of marijuana enthusiasts, who insist that the movement has long been about expanding individual freedom, not making profits. James, for his part, makes no apologies for his profit-driven brainchild in political economy; big money is what it takes, he argues, to upgrade the legalization map—to move beyond the weed-friendly states out West and make legalization a reality in the purple states of America's heartland.

"It's an incredibly daunting, detail-oriented process, and it requires funding," he says, noting previous attempts at marijuana reform via ballot measure in Ohio being underfunded and falling dismally short of gathering enough signatures. But James' bald-faced political calculations have left Issue 3 vulnerable to accusations of crony capitalism from his fellow legalization advocates. And from the usual anti-marijuana suspects.

"The values of Woodstock have been eclipsed by the values of Wall Street," says Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana and former senior adviser to President Barack Obama's Office of National Drug Control Policy. "This is the big industry nightmare that we've been worried about, and now it's becoming a reality in Ohio. For anyone who thinks legalization is about pot anymore, they need to look at Ohio and see it's not about pot, it's about money."

The Ohio legalization effort has been a godsend to anti-marijuana groups like Sabet's, fitting hand-in-glove into the Big Business narrative they've been crafting for years. Almost universal rejection of Ronald Reagan's claim that marijuana is "probably the most dangerous drug in America" has forced those who remain critical of the plant to distance themselves from the after-school-specials of yesteryear. The new talking point against pot is that the cannabis industry is "Big Tobacco 2.0."
And James is their favorite new boogeyman.

It's easy to see why he has become a lightning rod. Issue 3 expressly states that commercial cultivation of marijuana in Ohio will be limited to 10 separate properties, whose addresses have already been determined.
And just who owns the land that will be granted exclusive rights to what is projected to be a billion dollar industry? The same investment groups, organized by James, that are financing the ResponsibleOhio campaign to legalize marijuana in the state.

The investment groups are set to spend around $25 million. (Colorado, by contrast, spent a mere $3 million legalizing in 2012.) Investors include familiar names like 32-year-old NFL star Frostee Rucker, NBA Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson and former singer of the boy-band 98 Degrees Nick Lachey, among others. Though these celebrities apparently have no problem being known to the public as weed tycoons, many of the other investors have chosen to remain anonymous and hide behind LLCs.

As the man who gathered together the 10 Issue 3 investor groups—and as ResponsibleOhio's executive director—James has been fending off accusations that he seeks to create a monopoly of the burgeoning weed market in the vein of Rockefeller with oil and Hearst with newspapers.
(Technically "oligopoly" would be a more accurate accusation, since there will be 10 companies—but the popular board-game title rings a little clearer in campaign literature.)

James dismisses these accusations by pointing to the fact that residents would be allowed to grow four of their own plants for personal use and to a provision in Issue 3 that says if the 10 cultivation centers cannot keep up with demand after four years time, more cultivation licenses will be issued to other companies. (Though any of the original 10 companies also have the right to solicit neighboring landowners to sell them their property, allowing the cultivation centers to expand and better meet demand.)

Yet James has received tremendous pushback—from legalization proponents, many of whom now oppose Issue 3 with the fire-and-brimstone politics typically reserved for their Drug War nemeses. Many advocates in Ohio have openly argued voting against Issue 3, imploring fellow legalizers to wait a year for a more policy-oriented, less profit-minded ballot initiative. To a degree, their opposition is couched in economic policy:
repulsed by the specter of monopoly, many longtime legalization activists say they want low barriers to entry, safeguards for medical patients, looser possession limits and more grow-your-own plants at home. But only part of this typology is economic: many legalizers'
opposition to this form of legalization speaks less to policy then it does to culture—and the tidal shift in a movement increasingly transforming tie-dye into suit and tie.

As a result, many legalization advocates are finding themselves sleeping with the enemy in the prohibitionist camp. Sri Kavuru, president of the marijuana legalization group Ohioans to End Prohibition, is one legalization supporter who has found himself shoulder-to-shoulder with anti-pot groups in the No On Issue 3 campaign, "We know that we're going to be going up against them next year," says Kavuru regarding a ballot initiative his group has drafted for 2016 that would legalize cannabis in Ohio under a free-market system. (While marijuana measures often do better during presidential elections, James believes that this measure won't be able to raise the necessary funds to even collect enough signatures to get it on the ballot.)

Kavuru and his Ohioans to End Prohibition are enjoying support from other groups like The Libertarian Party of Ohio and The Green Party of Ohio (both of whom are typically in favor of legalization) in their fight against Issue 3. "This isn't a proposal to restore rights to Ohioans. It's a crony scheme to line the pockets of a few wealthy investors," Libertarian Party of Ohio Political Director Tricia Sprankle said in a statement. Yet two of the oldest and most powerful marijuana groups in the country, NORML and the Marijuana Policy Project, have both tepidly endorsed Issue 3, with strong qualifications and distancing language from the initiative wording and method of passage.

"The Marijuana Policy Project supports the initiative to the extent that it would end the failed policy of marijuana prohibition and replace it with a system in which marijuana is regulated and taxed," says Mason Tvert, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project and co-author of Colorado's legalization amendment. "Ultimately, marijuana laws are going to vary from state to state just like alcohol laws vary from state to state, and the people in each state decide what those laws should be. So it's going to be up to Ohio voters to decide whether the proposed system is the best step forward for Ohio right now."

"The big national groups that have come out for it, all they're saying is that they're for it but they don't like it," says Kavuru. "These groups have no influence in Ohio, they've never done very much to legalize in Ohio. Most of the advocates in Ohio are against it, and those who are for it have a stake in it passing."

Kavuru claims that medical marijuana group, The Ohio Rights Group, retracted its statements denouncing Issue 3 after it was promised a percentage of one of the future cultivation centers.

"Mr. Kavuru is without question wrong. There is not now, nor was there ever been such a promise made to any board member, from the president on down," says Mary Jane Borden, president of the Ohio Rights Group. As for why she retracted her earlier criticism, Borden says, "We decided to set aside any differences we might have had with ResponsibleOhio and advocate for our real constituency, which are the sick, dying and disabled in Ohio."

"I can't stand with the prohibitionists just to make political points to defeat this so-called monopoly," she continues, criticizing Kavuru for joining forces with groups like The Fraternal Order of Police, Drug-Free Action Alliance, Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association and Dayton Regional Employers Against Marijuana, in the effort to defeat Issue 3.

Kavuru shrugs this off this criticism by saying this is simply "how politics works. Politics makes strange bedfellows, and I'm not certainly not sorry for it."

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