Ohio Legislature and Cincinnati City Council enact unreasonable marijuana legislation; Randy Brush sentenced to 3 years in prison

Published: April 12, 2006

Last week, the Ohio Legislature passed S.B. 8, which imposes criminal penalties for drivers who are found to have THC or THC metabolites in their blood or urine while operating a vehicle. S.B. 8 punishes Ohioans for driving completely sober, and the bill is now only awaiting Gov. Taft’s signature. We need you to act right away to prevent this bad bill from becoming law.

Please call Gov. Taft — at (614) 466-3555 — and urge him to veto this bill. When you call him, you can politely say something along these lines:

“Please veto S.B. 8, the drugged driving bill. The bill imposes criminal penalties without using scientific standards and will lead to many innocent, sober drivers being criminalized. I oppose this bill, and I urge you to veto it.”

S.B. 8 presumes that completely sober drivers are intoxicated for having 2 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood in their systems or 10 nanograms of THC per milliliter of urine, both of which constitute trace amounts below the scientifically supported standard for proving intoxication. In addition, S.B. 8 imposes criminal penalties for those found to have 50 nanograms of marijuana metabolites per milliliter of blood or 35 nanograms per milliliter of urine. These metabolites can stay in a person’s blood and urine for up to 30 days, meaning that drivers who have not used marijuana for up to a month may still be arrested and prosecuted for driving under the influence of drugs.

Although S.B. 8 is at its final stage, you can still stop it. Click here to visit the governor’s contact page. At the bottom of this alert is a pre-written letter that you can copy into the governor’s contact form.

In other news, last week, the Cincinnati City Council passed an emergency ordinance that overrides Ohio state law and makes simple possession of marijuana a criminal, rather than a civil, offense.

The ordinance, which was introduced by Councilman Cecil Thomas, makes possession of less than 100 grams of marijuana a criminal offense, punishable with up to one month in jail. Ohio state law — and what used to be Cincinnati law — treats the same offense as a civil citation with a maximum $100 fine.

Although the ordinance has been enacted, there is still something you can do to preserve marijuana policy reform in Cincinnati. Write to the council and urge them to adopt a motion that requires the city to report on the effects of ordinance on the city’s criminal justice system. Our automated system will deliver the message for you. The council members rejected this ordinance numerous times before finally passing it, and we need your help to ensure that the citizens of Cincinnati truly understand the effects of ignorantly criminalizing marijuana.

As elected officials around the state enacted laws that will imprison innocent and harmless Ohioans, an Ohio judge took an even greater step by sentencing medical marijuana patient and father of three Randy Brush to more than three years in prison for two felony charges of possession and cultivation of marijuana. Randy’s plight underscores the need to fight for marijuana policy reform in Ohio and to ensure that more citizens do not suffer the injustices of the law in order to avoid suffering the pain of their illnesses.

Thank you for supporting the Marijuana Policy Project. Please pass this on so that even more Ohioans can participate in reform.

Sample letter to Governor Taft:

I am writing to express my deep disappointment that Ohio enacted Sen. Austria’s legislation, S.B. 8, which creates arbitrary standards for “drugged driving.” Sen. Austria’s bill imposes scientifically unsubstantiated standards that put innocent drivers at risk of unlawful arrest and prosecution. This legislation will significantly penalize innocent drivers and alter the lives of unassuming Ohio residents for no reason. The best scientific research is undecided about what level of THC constitutes impairment; currently, the National Transportation Safety Board is commissioning a study to better inform DUID laws, and I urge you to reconsider enacting a law we will later regret.

Making our streets safer and improving drug policy in Ohio does not mean creating knee-jerk policy and penalties so harsh that they are unreasonable and hurt Ohioans. The people of Ohio need you to develop sensible and informed drug policy to keep us all safer.

Please veto S.B. 8 and protect Ohioans. It is time for Ohio to embrace sensible drug policy. Thank you.