Ohio voters roundly rejected a proposed amendment to the Ohio constitution that would have downgraded low-level, nonviolent drug possession felonies to misdemeanors.
More than 63 percent of voters opposed Issue 1, while about 37 percent voted yes, according to the Ohio secretary of state’s website. Dennis Willard, a spokesman for the campaign, said backers of the proposal won’t give up, despite the defeat.
“We always knew that, win or lose, the Yes on Issue 1 campaign is the beginning, not the end,” he said. “The coalition of everyday Ohioans that make this campaign possible are just getting started. Our opponents may celebrate tonight, but tomorrow they will wake up with the same crisis on their hands, and not one step closer to real solutions.”
Passage of the issue would have removed prison time as a possible sentence for certain crimes. Opponents said Issue 1 would undermine the leverage drug court judges have to keep offenders in treatment. Supporters said the plan would free up funding previously used for incarcerating offenders and reroute it for such courts and treatment options.
It would have also required the government to fund treatment programs and allowed inmates to apply for sentence reduction of up to 25 percent.
Criticism of Issue 1 included that it was inappropriate to use the state’s constitution to make such a change. A handful of other states enacted similar measures but they did by statute as opposed to constitutional amendments that can be harder to revise later.
The proposal was opposed by criminal justice groups, such as law enforcement, judges, and prosecutors, as well as Republican leaders and business groups.
Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor of the Ohio Supreme Court praised the results.
“Their ‘no’ vote means that those before the court due to addiction can continue to take advantage of the programs, including drug court, that offer treatment, accountability and a road to recovery,” she said.
Former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer, now executive director of the Ohio Judicial Conference, said in a message to judges Tuesday before election returns were announced that judges should now make organized efforts to battle drug addiction.
“... We will not regard a defeat of Issue 1 as a time to just sit back and declare victory,” he wrote. “However the election unfolds, the epidemic of drug addiction requires judges to always be open to new approaches and leading rather than following. They will do just that in the months ahead.”
Issue 1 was, in general, supported by more left-leaning groups of officials, such as Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus. Locally, a group of clergy announced their support for the ballot issue.
Policy Matters Ohio, a liberal think tank, reported the state's prison population of 50,000 inmates would shrink by 10,000 if Issue 1 passed.
First Published November 7, 2018, 2:26 a.m.
