Police leaders oppose Issue 3

By ANDREW KING 

 

As is the case in many Ohio municipalities, Westerville police are firmly against Issue 3, which would legalize marijuana in Ohio.

Westerville Division of Police Chief Joe Morbitzer pointed to a report released by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a group of law enforcement agencies and analysts in Colorado.

The report details some issues that Morbitzer said would be detrimental to Ohio if Issue 3 were to pass.

"It goes over some of the things that are going on out in Colorado and some of the issues and obstacles that are now facing law enforcement," Morbitzer said. "The cases of crashes due to impaired driving have skyrocketed, injuries have skyrocketed, insurance claims have skyrocketed. Of course, when you introduce an altering substance into driving, you then have divided attention skills and that is cause for crashes."

Issue 3 would legalize the purchase and recreational use of marijuana by adults 21 or older as well as possession and use of medical marijuana for people with a qualifying medical condition, according to The Columbus Dispatch. The cultivation end of the for-profit business would be controlled by 10 investment groups that have bought into the business by making multimillion-dollar investments in the campaign.

Assistant Police Chief Jon Scowden said he is concerned about legal issues stemming from marijuana heading to surrounding states.

"Several of the states around Colorado have now sued Colorado because of this issue," he said. "There is a lot of marijuana coming across the border into those states and causing problems. ... That's not something that we want to get into here in Ohio."

Some have speculated that legalizing marijuana would save time and effort for police, who have grown accustomed to dealing with a plethora of low-level drug crimes.

But Morbitzer said it wouldn't eliminate much work from his department.

"In reality, it wouldn't save a lot of money," he said. "It would save time if it were legal, of course it would, because you wouldn't be enforcing those crimes. But for the amount you're talking about, it doesn't take any time to write a minor citation. It's not time-consuming. ... When you stop a person or write a minor misdemeanor, it's no different than a traffic violation."

Scowden said legalizing marijuana wouldn't eliminate drug dealers and other, illicit ways to obtain the drug.
"Regardless of whether it's legalized, you're still going to have a black market," he said. "That's not going to change. So really, all you're doing is lining someone else's pockets with it."

While Morbitzer and Scowden's stance is consistent with other local law enforcement opinions, the chief said he's simply analyzing the facts, which he said lie somewhere between the pro- and anti-marijuana groups.

"You've got to look at what's in the middle and objectively what we're talking about here," he said. "You get rid of those two groups -- because they're going to be biased anyhow -- and look at the facts and sit down and decide."