The postmortem is in now for Ohio Issue 3 (legalizing marijuana possession and limited cultivation), and the findings are pretty unanimous: The cause of death was greed. My own observation is that this finding is mostly accurate, but not in the way the popular narrative has it. The popular narrative is that 10 greedy investors would make all the profit from marijuana cultivation and sales via a constitutionally protected monopoly. My interpretation of the chatter on the subject is that it was killed by an unwitting confederacy of the Religious Right; people who think legalized pot would be the downfall of Western Civilization, and even more greedy pot users who were basically Jorge Cervantes wannabes; people who had the wet dream of making a living from growing and selling pot. Politics certainly makes for strange bedfellows!
Why do I call the pot users who opposed the "monopoly" greedy? Because of the decades of human suffering that are the product of illegal pot. Marijuana is an excellent treatment for several illnesses and disorders...so much so that the US government holds a patent on the the medical application of cannabis. US Government Patent for Cannabis Legalization would have allowed Ohio residents to cultivate and use marijuana without the necessity of jumping through all the hoops involved with getting a prescription, and finding a medical marijuana vendor. Also, the private prison monopoly feeds off the illegal status of marijuana. The very smell of marijuana in your car at a routine traffic stop could cause your vehicle to be "forfeited", and growing marijuana at your home could cost you your house. So many lives have been ruined over this absurdity, but rather than stop it, these greedy voters elected to allow this pain and suffering to continue because they want more. It's not enough to be allowed to use pot, or grow enough to suit your needs...they all figured that they'd become the Ohio Connection, or Walter White.
The stupidity of this would be laughable if the outcome weren't so devastating. Think about it: If everyone goes into the business of selling weed, who are they going have as customers? Not that there was ever any danger of that happening, as good pot isn't that easy to grow. And then there's the irony of the poll numbers on Issue 2 and Issue 3. More people voted against Issue 2 (which forbade constitutionally protected monopolies) than voted in favor of Issue 3. So what does that mean? It means that more people were in favor of monopolies than were in favor of legalizing pot. Am I the only one scratching my head over that one? Meanwhile, the private prison industrial complex will continue to profit from the illegal status of pot. More civil "forfeitures" will rob the pot users of property. More patients will have to run the gauntlet to get a very effective and inexpensive medicine. That's why I think that these little assholes were the greedy ones. They spend too much time watching Breaking Bad, and no time watching the real life suffering around them,