Alan Darnowsky (D)

2020 Voter Guide Questionnaire

1. Do you support or oppose changing state law to allow adults 21 and older to possess limited amounts of marijuana and establishing a system in which marijuana is regulated and taxed similarly to alcohol? Under such a system, it would remain illegal to consume marijuana in public and drive under the influence of marijuana.

I agree that individuals should be allowed to possess limited amounts of marijuana for their personal use. The difficult question here is exactly what is a limited amount. Research would have to be done to establish this number. I strongly agree with the taxation of marijuana and regulating its use in public and especially when operating a motor vehicle. Essentially you want to treat marijuana as we treat alcohol now. Another point to consider is that the State of Ohio is spending a lot of money incarcerating people for low level marijuana possession. This is money that could be spent on helping to treat our fellow Ohioans caught up in the opioid epidemic.

2. Other states which legalized medical cannabis around the same time as Ohio have programs that are further ahead and functioning much better than Ohio’s. The patients of Ohio have expressed concerns and are generally dissatisfied with the program. Can the patients count on you to spend time on making improvements to the medical marijuana program?

As a member of the State Legislature I would be glad to take a look at improvements in the Medical Marijuana operation in the state.

3. If an amendment to H.B.523 were proposed that would allow patients and/or caregivers to grow a limited amount of plants in their home, would you support or oppose the amendment?

Again the question is what is a limited number. This number has to be low enough so that a grower can't be a distributor. To carry the analogy to alcohol further, we want people to be able to make their own wine and beer; we don't want them to become moonshiners.

4. If introduced, would you oppose a resolution that would make the citizen ballot initiative process more difficult than it already is?

I would oppose a resolution to make the citizen ballot initiative process harder. Citizen ballot initiatives are a well established part of our democratic process in Ohio. What happened with the harassment of people circulating petitions against HB6 was a disgrace. It shouldn't be necessary but I will introduce a bill making it a low level misdemeanor to harass circulators and a more serious crime to hire people to harass circulators.