Empower Tusc hosts press conference on Issue 2

During an Empower Tusc meeting held Oct. 20 at the New Philadelphia Fire Department, Jodi Salvo, director of substance use prevention, gave opening remarks about opposing the legislation of marijuana for recreational use that will appear on the Nov. 7 ballot.

Salvo spoke about Issue 2, if it passes, and how marijuana products and potency change will occur with legalization. She expressed public safety concerns such as increases in traffic accidents and fatalities, illicit market, and crime if marijuana becomes legal in Ohio.

Salvo also spoke about the increase in youth access and availability to the drug and the effect it could have on them. She said research has found cannabis has lasting effects on an undeveloped brain of a young person. Also, she opposed legalizing marijuana for recreational use without sufficient research to inform the public of the consequences for youth and communities.

She said recreational marijuana is not the drug of the '60s, '70s and '80s.

“It is not the weed of the past, and all Ohioans (should) look at other states that have legalized the drug and what effects it has had,” Salvo said.

Corinne LaMarca, director of Jennifer Messengers, shared a story about her only daughter Jennifer, a college graduate who had just begun a new job. LaMarca said a marijuana-impaired driver came racing through an intersection at 82 mph, speeding through a red traffic light, hitting the side of the vehicle, and sending it over an embankment and into the front of a building, collapsing it on Jennifer’s vehicle. She died at the scene. The driver spent 15 months in jail. She expressed concerns about recreational marijuana legalization.

“I say vote no so there is no confusion on the ballot. Vote no,” Ohio Sen. Al Landis said. “We have a crisis in mental health and drug addiction in the work place, and this recreational marijuana is more dangerous. Ohio deserves better.”

Tuscarawas County Sheriff Orvis Campbell said he is against all drugs. He said the county jail was constructed in 1992 with 88 cells, 12 for women. He said most inmates are jailed due to addiction.

“I oppose the legalization of recreational marijuana because it will create more problems. It is important to keep kids' hands away from it,” Campbell said.

Dr. Lori Kuehne said there are potential risks associated with marijuana use. She said no parents want to see recreational marijuana legalized and made more available to the community.

“No one at Buckeye Career Center is legal to use drugs. Vaping and cartridges are leading youth to believe they are not smoking. Using drug-laced candy is easy to hide and conceal,” BCC Superintendent Bob Alsept said. “We have sent a message to students it is never legal to have drugs of any type in school, around machinery and equipment, in classrooms, or for gaining employment. I fear what I will see if recreational marijuana is legalized.”

“So many people are affected by drugs. Recreational marijuana is being increased in potency, and they want to make us dumb,” said Carson Norris, Tuscarawas Central Catholic Youth-to-Youth member. “All I can say to my peers, 'Stop it before it becomes a losing battle.'”

There were no remarks made by anyone in support of legalizing recreational marijuana during the meeting.