Northwood voters Tuesday approved an ordinance that would allow those found in possession of 20 grams or less of marijuana in the city to face no punishment.
The “Sensible Marijuana Ordinance” was approved by a margin of 344-315, according to final but unofficial results from the Wood County Board of Elections. The ordinance lowers the penalty for misdemeanor marijuana offenses to the lowest allowed by state law — in this case, to no punishment at all.
The ordinance pertains to possession of 20 grams of marijuana or less, according to the city of Northwood criminal ordinance 622.02, which talks about punishments for trafficking in controlled substances.
The measure was promoted by Edward Kleppinger, treasurer of the 632 Loves You political action committee. An identical ordinance passed by 53.8 percent of the votes in Oregon in 2018.
Sean Nestor, an organizer of the “Sensible Marijuana Ordinance” in Toledo, has told The Blade that Northwood’s proposed ordinance is a trimmed-down version of Toledo’s remaining ordinance language, which decriminalizes possession of 200 grams or less.
In Toledo, Issue 1, the citizen-proposed “Sensible Marijuana Ordinance” to decriminalize marijuana passed in September, 2015, by 11,663 to 4,911. After the election, the state attorney general came to town and filed a petition to have everything relating to the state criminal code in the ordinance thrown out, which the Lucas County Common Pleas Court promptly did.
For years, marijuana legalization supporters have tried to have Ohio join the likes of Colorado and Washington in legalizing marijuana for recreational use.
Ohio voted down a recreational marijuana proposal in 2015 that would have earmarked growing facilities to specific locations owned by certain investors. A new measure was expected to be back on the ballot in either 2019 or 2020, but efforts have fallen on the wayside to bring the question before voters.
First Published November 6, 2019, 4:29 a.m.
