Pubdate: Wed, 08 Jul 2015
Source: Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH)
Copyright: 2015 The Plain Dealer
Contact: http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/letter-to-editor/
Website: http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/342
Note: priority given to local letter writers
Author: John Caniglia

LOSING THE BUZZ: PUSH TO LEGALIZE POT COULD SLICE INTO SOUTHEAST 
OHIO'S CASH CROP

ALBANY, OHIO - The farmer has grown marijuana for years near this 
small town in Southeast Ohio, nurturing and hiding his plots from 
police and poachers.

His plants and hundreds of thousands of others harvested in the 
fields of Appalachia have fueled an underground economy that 
authorities say has infused cash into Ohio's poorest counties since the 1960s.

That soon could change.

The region that grows some of the state's best pot has been all but 
overlooked in a plan to legalize marijuana for recreational and 
medicinal use in Ohio. The measure appears headed for the November 
ballot. If approved, its impact could devastate illegal growers. In 
fact, experts say legalizing marijuana could slice away as much as 70 
percent of the underground market.

"So much has been taken away from Appalachia already," the farmer 
said. "The strip miners came in and destroyed our farms. Marijuana 
has always been here. And now, this will be another thing taken away."

He laughed at the irony of the proposed plan to legalize the plant. 
For years, state agents in helicopters circled Southeast Ohio several 
times each summer and fall, looking to uproot marijuana plants and 
charge growers. If the plan were to pass, the state would reap 
millions in taxes from legal plants.

"That's pretty damned two-faced, isn't it?" he said.

It is impossible to determine the exact economic impact that 
marijuana brings Southeast Ohio. But consider that authorities have 
seized more than 119,000 plants in the region since 2008, according 
to state records. Overall, agents pulled more than 326,200 plants 
from across the state.

Law enforcement authorities estimate that each plant is valued at 
$1,000 when it matures. That would mean those plants, had they not 
been seized, would have brought in $119 million to Southeast Ohio. 
Authorities suspect that for every plant that is uprooted, 10 more 
exist that law enforcement will never find.

In Ohio, fully mature plants can yield several pounds of pot. The 
cost of a pound varies across the state, with some going for as low 
as $800 to $1,200.

Marijuana grown in Southeast Ohio often fetches much more, closer to 
$2,500 a pound.

The reason: Years of manipulation and experimentation have boosted 
the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, a key ingredient that 
causes the high. Growers also have learned to make the plant more 
resistant to mold, which strikes the plant and can seriously harm it 
because of the humidity of the region.

But any profits from pot are difficult to see in Southeast Ohio, as 
poverty has blanketed the region for decades. Seven of the state's 10 
poorest counties - based on median household income - are here, 
according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Take Athens County, for example. The county, home to Ohio University, 
has the lowest median household income in the state at $33,823. The 
state's median household income is $48,308. For comparison, Cuyahoga 
County is at $43,804.

Meigs County, the epicenter of marijuana in Ohio, has the third 
lowest median household income at $35,469. It also has the second in 
the highest unemployment rate in the state at 7.4 percent for the 
month of May. Monroe County had the highest at 9.4 percent. The state 
unemployment rate was 4.9 percent; Cuyahoga County's was 6.3 percent 
for the month.

"We don't have good statistics because of the illegal nature, but 
marijuana has been the best cash crop in some counties," said Richard 
Vedder, a professor emeritus of economics at Ohio University. "In 
some parts of Ohio, marijuana has played a moderately significant 
role in the economy . . . . You don't need to sell marijuana if you 
are making $70,000 a year."

Rick Matthews lectured for years at Ohio University as an assistant 
professor of criminal justice and sociology. He echoed Vedder's remarks.

"There is an underground economy from marijuana," said Matthews, now 
a professor at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis. "In disadvantaged 
areas, the underground economy can prop up the formal economy. It is 
definitely not the solution. But it can help."

Uprooting the market

ResponsibleOhio is pushing a plan that would allow residents 21 or 
older to buy marijuana through a system of stores that are taxed and 
regulated by the state, according to published reports. The plan 
calls for 10 grow sites across the state, including those in Lorain 
and Summit counties. None of the sites is in Southeast Ohio.

The plan also allows for residents 21 or older to possess four plants 
and 8 ounces of homegrown marijuana. A state commission would 
regulate the growth and sales of marijuana under the plan.

Legislators in Columbus and law enforcement oppose it. But whether it 
is ResponsibleOhio's measure or another proposal years in the near 
future, experts say legalized marijuana would pummel the underground 
market because of the quality of the product. It would have better 
ingredients, better growing conditions and stricter quality control, they say.

"The legal sellers do a much better job than the illicit grower," 
said Gary Potter, a professor of criminal justice at Eastern Kentucky 
University. "The only reason someone sells marijuana is for profit. 
But once the legal market comes in, the profit margin (for the 
illegal grower) will drop. The legal market produces better, higher 
quality stuff."

He estimated that the illegal market would decline 60 to 70 percent 
once the plant is legalized.

A farmer scoffs

The farmer, who lives near Albany and declined to give his name, said 
marijuana took off in Southeast Ohio in the late 1960s and sped up in 
the 1970s. He said a bond formed between local farmers and "the 
long-hairs," who grew the plant in farmers' fields. Soon, farmers 
realized that growing the plant could help pay off bills, he said.

"That's what marijuana is: It's cash," he said. "All of the local 
merchants around here did really well in the 1970s. People were 
buying things locally with money they made from growing."

By then, marijuana became a key part of Southeast Ohio's culture. The 
Athens News, an alternative newspaper, began printing columns called 
"Dope-A-Scope" and "The Dope Wizard," which tracked the cost and 
quality of marijuana and other drugs.

"The local crop is better than ever," the paper reported in the late 
summer of 1978. It also promised to pay $10 for the best picture of 
the year's crop.

The farmer, in his 60s, was part of that culture.

"Of course I did; every man my age around here did," he said. "I saw 
friends come back from Vietnam in body bags. Who are you to tell me 
what I can grow?"

The farmer and another marijuana grower who lives near Guysville, 
also in Athens County, are enraged that the plan would give a group 
of investors a monopoly over the commercial production of marijuana, 
leaving Southeast little.

The plan, however, would give Athens County a marijuana-testing site, 
one of five that would certify the potency of the plant across the state.

Legislators in Columbus have placed an issue on the fall ballot that 
would prevent monopolies in the Ohio constitution, a move that could 
scrap the marijuana legislation. But other plans have surfaced.

The group, Ohioans to End Prohibition, is pushing an amendment to the 
constitution that it hopes to bring to voters in November 2016. It 
would allow growers to cultivate as much as 25 acres of marijuana in 
a secured location. All they would need is a state license. That way, 
the plan would embrace smaller growers and "bring much of the black 
market into the light," said Jacob Wagner, the group's vice president.

ResponsibleOhio claims that marijuana prohibition in the state must 
end, claiming that marijuana that is sold across the state is 
unregulated, allowing street dealers to peddle anything to anyone, 
including children.

Would the underground market continue?

While growers and law enforcement officials agree that 
ResponsibleOhio's plan could slice deep into the underground market, 
they say they believe some growers would continue to grow their own 
and sell it.

But would it be widespread?

Consider what has happened to the illicit markets for alcohol and 
lotteries. Each has nosedived since legalization, though some 
moonshiners and numbers games stagger on.

In Colorado, where voters approved a 2012 amendment legalizing 
marijuana, the underground market continues. The extent of that 
market has been debated in newspapers and television newscasts.

In towns like Albany and Guysville in Athens County, there is little 
debate about what the plant has done for the region. Cash from the 
plant added to a community where many residents work $8- to $10-an-hour jobs.

Vern Castle, a longtime sheriff's deputy and former sheriff in Athens 
County, saw it firsthand. He spent summers chasing growers, uprooting 
their plants and listening to the howls of residents' dissatisfaction.

And he realized the plant's influence on the economy.

"Absolutely," Castle said. "As much as has been produced here in the 
past 30 years, it has to have had an effect."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom