Blought, Television
Brendan Whitt
Blought #42: The Wire Pt. 3

Here we are, the final installment of my The Wire Blought Series. I’ve dug into the issues that surround organized crime, family structures, education, and even public service workers. Today we take a look at the politics of the inner city and how the news media can play a small but impactful role.

Brendan Whitt
Just A Bird By Brendan Whitt (From When the ...

The intro to my book of poetry When the Crows Come Home (2015)

Just A Bird By Brendan Whitt (From When the Crows Come Home)

Ohio

'A man on a Mission with his Skateboard' by Brendan Whitt

“ In 2008 Ja'Ovvoni started providing skate lessons as a way to help build the Cleveland skate scene. He offered free lessons to youth at the Stella Walsh recreation center on Broadway on Cleveland's east side. Ja'Ovvoni credits Marty Piczazak who “fought to make it happen” as he put it.”

Blought #20: Responsible Ohio's Oligopoly

Yes on Issue #3 votes by county
Like Drake I’ll admit it, I’ll admit it . Young Langston enjoys smoking the herb. When legalization started to happen in various states around the country I was like “Hell Yeah! We have to be next up.” About a year or so later I heard about a proposition called Responsible Ohio. that would legalize weed in my home state. Sadly as more and more of the facts came out I found myself on the fence.

My pros were simple; legal weed, can’t get arrested for any amount under 10 grams and dispensaries which meant dabs and edibles. The con was all alone but it was a big one. A marijuana monopoly.

You can’t argue it. A group of investors who plan to control all of the production and distribution is a monopoly. Let’s look at John D. Rockefeller. Homeboy owned at one point 90% of the oil production in America during the latter part of the 19th century. His company Standard Oil Company had absorbed almost every one of it’s investors. After that he started buying up railroads to make it easier for him to transport his product.

Actually Issue 3 wasn’t a monopoly at all. It was an oligopoly. It’s the same as a monopoly but the wealth is distributed between a small number of people versus just one person. Experts say this was Responsible Ohio’s intent from the start.


A few other arguments citing race and class made their ways onto my social media feeds. I won’t refute them but I don’t support them either. Business and political insiders around the country realize the failing of Issue 3 had nothing to do with the idea of legalization but rather how we should legalize it. Not allowing a free market was for sure going to kill the bill. Not to mention if Issue 2 passed (which it did) Issue 3 would have been essentially killed had it been voted yes anyway.

Now the lobbyist group is threatening legal action. I don’t know what that would do since Issue 2 is on it’s way to becoming a law. It’ll be interesting to see how this shakes out over the next year. Will the lobbyists win in court, will we get legal weed how we want it or will we see a backroom deal happen behind our backs?

Sources:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/11/04/6-reasons-ohio-marijuana-legalization-failed/

http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2015/11/how_the_marijuana_vote_lost_ev.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/marijuana-legalization-initiative-fails-in-ohio-2015-11

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