“Mr. Kim may be partly motivated by an intense need to roll back sanctions that, by all accounts, have begun to bite.”

Whoa and ouch. This was my wakeup paragraph. I was sitting at Starbucks, reading the New York Times, feeling confusing old emotions wash over me on the first day of the New Year, when suddenly these words hit me like a sucker punch: The sanctions against North Korea “have begun to bite”?

The announcement by US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions that he'll pursue federal pot prosecutions has two age-old motivations: power and money.

Financially, of course, the Republican party is vested in America's vast private prison system. Every new arrestee means money in the pockets of the investors who own and operate them. Keeping those cells and beds occupied is the essence of the industry"and of Pot Prohibition.

The Drug War is a giant cash cow, not only for the prison owners, but for the cops, guards, lawyers, judges, bailiffs and all the other operatives whose livelihood depends on destroying those of the nation's tens of millions cannabis customers.

Medical legalization in about half the country, and full legalization in California, Colorado and other states, represents a serious threat to this multi-billion-dollar incarceration scam. Sessions has risen to its defense.

Then there's the power.

Welcome to the anniversary of the Great Cannabis Comeback. 20 years ago it seemed industrial hemp’s eminence here in the state with the heart of it all seemed not so far away. A few years tops, advocates thought. The subject was in the news regularly, pop culture was catching on and products ranging from textiles to food and cosmetics were becoming mainstream. It wasn’t just a fad.

There was a big problem with the poll numbers though, with Ohio voters being a walloping 40 percent undecided. This resulted in the funding plan for the industrial hemp and medical use initiative going up in smoke. The ball had to be handed off to the people to whom it would matter the most: The farmers. This is what the politicians were asking for with any hopes of a legslative bill.  

Considering all plastics can be made from the cellulose and its seed more nutritious than a soybean, it shouldn’t be that hard of a position for them to advocate. It’s not marijuana.

As I write this article, the total number of homicides in Columbus has reached a record breaking number of 140, breaking the previously held record of 139 in 1991. The latest victims range in age from 37 to 57 years old.  Columbus is the 14thlargest city in America with at least 860,000 residents living in this rapidly growing city.

According to the HUD’s 2017 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, Columbus has about 1,691 homeless residents, which includes veterans, families, youth, sheltered and unsheltered and chronic homeless people. The total number for Ohio is 10,095 homeless residents. The good news for Columbus is that 2017 saw a decrease by three percent from 2016.

According to the Ohio Department of Education 2016-2017 Report Card Resources, Columbus, Ohio received D’s and F’s in all categories in education. The city schools earned an F in the Graduation Component Grade, a D in the K-3 Literacy Component Grade and an F in the Prepared for Success Grade.

Once upon a time, every medical marijuana ballot issue and legislative bill contained a provision to permit personal cultivation. In 2007, introduced, but long forgotten Ohio House Bill 343 would have allowed patients to possess 12 mature plants. Limits in the Marijuana Policy Project’s 2012 model bill were set at 12 plants AND 12 seedlings. Why then was home growing omitted from Ohio’s new law?

In June 2016, Ohio became a “legal state” with the passage of Ohio House Bill 523. The legislation established a Medical Marijuana Control Program with cultivators, processors and dispensaries, but forbade “home growing,” well, sort of. The bill itself makes just one vague reference, “cultivator license holder shall not cultivate medical marijuana for personal, family, or household use.” I guess the rest of us can? Ah no, for that one must to defer to the Ohio Revised Code where growing marijuana carries the same penalties as possessing equivalent amounts: small means minor misdemeanors, large can lead to felonies and even mandatory minimum sentences.