WARREN — Customarily a politically neutral organization, the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber has stepped outside of tradition to oppose a state issue that if approved Tuesday legalizes adult-use cannabis in Ohio.

“We try to remain as apolitical as possible, but we don’t consider this a political issue,” Guy Coviello, chamber president / CEO, said. “We consider this a business or economic issue.”

Legalizing recreational marijuana is a “decision that has significant impacts on society, our residents’ personal lives and our businesses,” the organization stated in a release Wednesday that also details multiple reasons why the chamber’s board voted to unanimously oppose Issue 2.

The board, according to the release, believes the issue would “further exacerbate” an emerging workforce crisis in Ohio that is “plaguing employers everywhere,” and would cause a “great number of employers” to “spend millions of dollars to rewrite their personnel policy manuals, retrain HR professionals, stop enforcing their adopted drug-testing policies or, worse, stop drug testing altogether.”

Also, Issue 2 increases the probability of rising health care costs to combat addiction and treatment, the release states.

In addition, the release states more dispensaries and greater access to marijuana can “create discourse and barriers” for companies or people looking to invest or relocate in Ohio.

And, the ballot issue conflicts with U.S. law that bans cannabis use and will result in appeals and lawsuits, “further driving up costs for services and creating additional burdens on our already-overloaded court system,” the release states.

“We have heard clearly and loudly from our members that passage of this initiative would be detrimental to the Valley and have negative, far-reaching consequences for those who live and work here,” Coviello said. “The region is poised for great economic success, especially in manufacturing and transportation, in coming years. This legislation could diminish that success.”

With its stance, the chamber joins Gov. Mike DeWine, Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Ohio Manufacturers Coalition, Ohio Farm Bureau, Ohio Business Roundtable, Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board and other groups in opposition to Issue 2.

RESPONSE

Tom Haren is an attorney and spokesman for the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, the group supportive of Issue 2’s passage.

He said approval “will positively impact the entire state of Ohio.

“We now have data from other states that have been regulating the sale of marijuana for 10 years, and the facts are clear. Regulating the sale of marijuana to adults has no adverse impact on the workforce, and in fact, studies suggest that workers between the ages of 40 and 62 are more productive because they have other alternatives to manage chronic pain,” Haren said.

The issue and “the regulated market it would create presents the best path to protect public health, to protect our workforce, and to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax revenue that currently goes to Michigan or to the illicit market,” he said.

The proposal, he said, maintains the ability for employers to put into place “the best drug use policies for their particular workforce.”

“Employers are free to maintain zero-tolerance policies if desired, and can continue to prohibit marijuana consumption by their employees under our proposal,” he said.

DIFFERING PERSPECTIVE

Chamber board member Terrell Washington is director of operations for Leaf Relief, which operates a medical marijuana dispensary on Market Street in Boardman. The company also is readying another medical marijuana dispensary to open in the Columbus suburb of Reynoldsburg and an adult-use dispensary in Plainfield, New Jersey.

Washington said he’s “all in favor” of adult-use in Ohio, but he’s opposed to Issue 2, and not for the same reasons as set out by the chamber.

Rather, Washington said, Issue 2 would dilute the industry and harm independent dispensaries like his.

Under Issue 2, not only would existing medical marijuana dispensaries be allowed to apply for an adult-use retail license at their existing location, but, Washington said, cultivators with a license in Ohio also would be awarded dispensary licenses.

“That is my biggest issue. It unfairly enriches cultivators. If you’re a processor, you get nothing. If you’re a dispensary, you get one addition dispensary,” Washington said. “If you are going to argue that cultivators need dispensaries to be successful, why does that logic only apply to cultivators?”

Issue 2 also calls for 50 new social-equity dispensary licenses and 40 new social-equity cultivator licenses to be made available.

Washington said operators granted a social-equity license would immediately be at a disadvantage because it would be years before those dispensaries could open. Existing medical marijuana license holders would have a “three-year head start.”

“I’m fully committed to working to come up with a more reasonable program, because I have been 100% for adult-use. If you are an adult, you should be able to make your own decisions,” but the program has to fair and serve Ohioans first “before it serves out of state corporations,” Washington said.

Haren said Issue 2 builds off the existing medical marijuana infrastructure “because it’s really important to provide consumers with a quick alternative to the illicit market.”

He said the state’s medical program, created in legislation approved in June 2016, did not see its first sale until January 2019.

“We didn’t want to repeat that same sort of cadence of events,” he said.

As far as cultivators being given a dispensary license, “the goal there is, these companies already are licensed, they have already been background checked, they have all of the approvals required from the regulators to validate they are suitable for licensure and we want to provide a quick transition from an illicit market to a regulated market,” Haren said.

Prosecutors association against Issue 2

The Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association is recommending voters oppose Issue 2 on Election Day, Tuesday.

The organization, in a release Wednesday, states the alternative is “already stretched thin” county governments would face new burdens and costs.

The association states Issue 2 would not provide funding dedicated to the criminal system, human services or other agencies to deal with what it states would be increased criminal activity, traffic deaths and injuries, and abuse and addiction.

The association is an organization that represents Ohio’s 88 elected county prosecutors and nearly 2,100 assistant county prosecutors.