A local lawyer has cut ties with the Ohio Rights Group after the group announced its support for ResponsibleOhio
After years of serving as general counsel for the Ohio Rights Group, local lawyer Don Wirtshafter officially resigned from the marijuana advocacy group last week.
Wirtshafter said he fell at odds with the group when it announced its support for Issue 3 — the ballot measure sponsored by ResponsibleOhio in the upcoming election that would legalize marijuana and allow it to be grown at ten investor-owned testing sites.
"I'm not at odds with their support for the measure," Wirtshafter said. "I'm at odds about the process that that decision was made under, and I’m at odds about what might happen."
The Ohio Rights Group, which was founded in 2013 and has its own petition slated for the 2016 elections, was opposed to Issue 3 until a few weeks ago.
According to a previous Post report, Nick Neely, the group's former vice president, claimed ResponsibleOhio's ballot measure was "driven primarily by economic interests."
"We fought against ResponsibleOhio," Alan Parker Reid, a volunteer for the Ohio Rights Group, said. "I fought against them fervently until we got to the point where we’re not going to make it and they're our only chance."
A recent post to the Ohio Rights Group's website said the group will work with any organization looking to advance medical marijuana use.
"Those who oppose Issue 3 have failed to demonstrate a viable alternative," the post read. "Their opposition exposes patients to the political whims of an intransigent legislature."
Reid said the group had been working with ResponsibleOhio since mid-summer to work out an agreement that would encourage the advancement of medical marijuana.
"Through the middle of the summer we pretty much switched over," he said. "We talked to ResponsibleOhio leadership and they assured us they're not just giving verbiage to this whole medical marijuana issue."
In exchange for its support, ResponsibleOhio agreed that their Licking County grow site would focus exclusively on growing marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes, and that an International Cannabinoid Institute would be built in the county to study medical uses for the drug.
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Wirtshafter said there had been accusations for months that the two groups were working together, but that neither organization publicly admitted to it at the time.
"(The organization's leaders are) running around making deals that the organization hasn’t been told about," Wirtshafter said.
He said he is willing to work with the Ohio Rights group — or another marijuana advocacy group — again after the Nov. 3 elections, but until then, he's more focused on opposing ResponsibleOhio.
"Advocacy against Issue 3 is my number one priority," Wirtshafter said "(If Issue 3 passes) we'll never get it out and we'll fall into the dark ages."
Mary Jane Borden, president of the Ohio Rights Group, said her group is also still working on its own petition, which has about 150,000 signatures and has been approved by the ballot board.
"We are still in the game with the Ohio Rights Amendment," she said. "It is still viable and valid."
But she also said that, for now, her main focus is offering support for patients who claim that they can't wait another year for marijuana legalization.
"We've heard from any number of patients saying please support (ResponsibleOhio)," she said. "These people don't have the luxury of time so on that basis we had to take a long hard look at who we are and what we stand for and we could not turn our backs on these people."
@wtperkins
wp198712@ohio.edu
