The new senate bill version of HB86 also known as the “Save Our Clueless Voters From Themselves” Bill and increasingly being known as “Big Government’s Chokehold” as traces of dictatorship plaster the walls of our capital, is social violence in its purest form. Representatives are attempting to dismantle everything well educated and well informed Ohio voters put into motion with their voices- A practice both democrats and republicans, at far opposite ends of any spectrum, should agree is a violation of basic democratic human rights.
Government officials should indeed help to keep people safe as they roll out large scale initiatives that the people put into motion. But, this bill isn’t about safety. It’s about retribution. It’s about punishment. In the simplest form of democratic violations, it’s about a war on a people who for all intents and purposes, won. In the foremost defilement of human rights, it’s about silencing the voices of the voters who disagreed with the politics of the politicians. The voters who rely on those politicians to do one thing….represent them.
Whether the vote succeeds or not, the audacity to put these sorts of foundations/proposals in writing and to state feverishly that “the voters didn’t know what they were voting on”, has already laid the foundation for a deeper mistrust in the hearts and minds of Ohioans. Eliminating social equity further creates barriers for poor White people, Black people, Brown people, vets, and anyone else who doesn’t directly share the image and thought processes of those who have the privilege (installed by “We, the People”) to lead. Raising the taxes encourages ongoing illegal activity. Jail minimums take us back to a modern form of the selective war on selective drugs. Reducing the licenses interrupts the possibility of socio-economic upward mobility by small business owners. Completely repelling home grow forces citizens to spend absurd amounts of money on the newly proposed violent tax increase. Finally, the ridiculous offensive threat of removing job programs, and mental health support is outright counterproductive to the construction of a healthy thriving workforce that so many representatives swagger about while they dance the campaign trail.
They say that strength is in numbers but in Ohio we are learning that the real strength is in the abusive power of those we ask to represent us. And that strength is polished, locked, loaded, aimed and fired at voters when those elected representatives begin to represent themselves.
Ohioans, reach out to your reps and tell them to vote against HB86. We should all agree that this effort to roll out the cannabis industry needs to be collaborative, innovative, beneficial and promising, but as this house bill is written and proposed, it is neither.