After much anticipation, voters finally filled out their ballots on Nov 3. Among many highly debated topics on the ballot, Issue 3 could be considered the most controversial.

With the passing of Issue 3, both medicinal and recreational usage of marijuana would be legalized throughout the state of Ohio. However, commercial growing would be limited to ten plots of land owned by a small group of investors.

Due to the fact that many voters did not agree with the monopoly to be placed on the drug, state legislatures proposed Issue 2.

This initiative would ban special interest groups from exclusively controlling the growth of marijuana and, consequently, limit the personal financial gain.
Secretary of State Jon Husted said that if both of the contradictory issues were passed, Issue 3 would be invalidated.

This is due to the fact that Issue 2 is a legislature-sponsored amendment, meaning it would take effect immediately, while Issue 3, a citizen-initiated amendment, would become law after 30 days.

Nevertheless, voters decided on Tuesday that neither would be made law.

Voter Patty Hogan said, “I believe that the proposed law should have been structured differently so that people would understand the intended use; legalizing the recreational use of a drug could succeed in making it more common.”

But not all supporters of Issue 3 intended to use marijuana for recreational purposes; those suffering from terminal illnesses see the drug as a key to a healthy, normal life.

Among the many success stories of marijuana is Charlotte Figi, a six-year-old girl who cured her epilepsy through the utilization of cannabis oil; Figi’s seizures were reduced from 300 per week to about three.

Figi’s mother Paige Figi said, “[Charlotte] is consistently eating and drinking on her own for the first time in years. She sleeps soundly through the night. Her severe autism-like behaviors…are a thing of the past.

“She is clear-headed, focused, and has no attention deficit. Charlotte rides horses, skis, paints, dances, hikes. She even has friends for the first time. Her brain is healing. She is healthy. She is happy.”

Now in order to receive the right to self-medicate with marijuana, patients will have to relocate to one of the four states in which the drug is legalized, or the District of Columbia; Ohio would have been the first state in the Midwest to permit medicinal or recreational use of marijuana..

Sophomore Kiri Wang said, “I think the legalization itself was fine, but the monopolization of it was not. Basically, I think issue 3 just wasn’t the right way to legalize and control marijuana.”