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MANSFIELD –Mansfield City Council will be voting Tuesday June 18th on whether to allow a marijuana dispensary to set up shop. At the last meeting, one Mansfield faith leader voiced his concerns with the prospects of The Cannabist Co. coming to town. For several decades the bi-vocational Pastor has seen families harmed by marijuana in his years as a minister and as an educator in public schools.
“In light of the business proposal and estimated revenue, City Council should not base its decision on money alone. What price do you put on our children?” asks Pastor David Parsons. “How do you quantify the ruined lives of people who get addicted to marijuana? I find it interesting that both the municipalities of Logan and Monroe have dispensaries owned by The Cannabist Co., and yet both voted to ban commercial weed after the dispensaries came to town. Maybe there are unintended consequences associated with this gateway drug this company is not talking about? Maybe the grass is not so green on the other side.”
Last week the Mansfield Christian School Board approved a non-binding resolution supporting prohibition of commercial marijuana. Mansfield Christian officially joins Clear Fork Valley Schools in supporting the prohibition to minimize student access to the drug and to “preserve and protect the community’s high quality of life, and the health and safety of school employees and students.” The resolution, signed by Superintendent Dr. Cy Smith and Board President Jason Guilliams, states “The increased availability of marijuana from legalization correlates with an alarming increase in emergency room visits for children due to marijuana ingestion, particularly by the youngest children.”
Not only are children impacted thru exposure to marijuana and THC products, the judgement of some parents appears to be impaired. Last year one dispensary customer at the Backroad Wellness in Lima, Ohio threatened to burn the dispensary down “if the business did not watch his children.” This past winter two Marietta parents were indicted on felony charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless homicide after their infant daughter was found deceased and malnourished in their apartment. The daughter and sibling, were both born with high levels of THC in their systems. One of The Cannabist Co.’s marijuana dispensaries is located in Marietta.
While it is more convenient for marijuana dispensaries not to report theft, there are police reports of theft occurring inside marijuana dispensaries. A security guard at the Dayton Strawberry Fields Dispensary, owned by The Cannabist Co., was arrested for stealing prescribed marijuana. The nearby Pure Ohio Wellness Dispensary has also seen several employees steal marijuana products. But breaking the rules may not be so bad after all.
“What price do you put on our children? How do you quantify the ruined lives of people who get addicted to marijuana? I find it interesting that the municipalities of Logan and Monroe both have dispensaries owned by The Cannabist Co., and yet both voted to ban commercial weed after the dispensaries came to town. Maybe there are unintended consequences associated with this gateway drug. Maybe the grass is not so greener on the other side.”
Pastor Dave Parsons
According to the updated Chapter 3780 of the Ohio Revised Code, 36% of taxpayer dollars goes to a cannabis Social Equity Program providing financial assistance and license application support to individuals guilty of breaking marijuana-related laws who are interested in starting or working in cannabis business entities.
One of the leading voices opposing legalizing recreational marijuana last fall was State Senator Mark Romanchuk (R-Ontario). He believes many Ohioans are not aware that the new law passed is not just about marijuana, it is also about dismantling the current system of law and justice to tilt in favor of the Cannabis Industry.
“Part of the taxpayer dollars supposedly ‘going back to the public’ includes giving tax breaks to convicted felons to help them start their own marijuana dispensary. And even more ludicrous, these taxpayer dollars are also being used for political action by the Cannabis Industry in local policing reform and in judicial reform that includes bail, parole, and sentencing. In other words, state taxes are paying for political lobbyists employed by ‘Big Cannabis’ to tilt the scales.”
Recently the founder of one marijuana company conducted a presentation in a Richland County jurisdiction proposing new jobs and tens of thousands of dollars of tax revenue. As a convicted felon who violated probation for domestic violence and abduction, their marijuana company was awarded licenses for several dispensaries. Products from these dispensaries include high THC potency products inaptly named, “High-Divorce Rate Resin” that has 68% THC, and “Problem- Child Solventless Ice Hash” which has 63% THC. Previously this co-owner was incarcerated for cocaine possession.
The crimes committed by dispensary owners are the very products they sell and the social impacts they bring. In addition to child abandonment and theft, violent crime and impaired driving seems to follow a national trend going hand in hand with Ohio dispensaries.
Local police reports include violent crime incidents at Dayton Strawberry Fields (owned by The Cannabist Co.) that involved a dispensary assault where a man attacked a woman resulting in a punctured lung. At the Dayton Ohio Wellness Dispensary, another incident involving aggravated menacing and criminal damaging when a large group targeted a woman by throwing a large rock thru her car window.
Clearly marijuana legalization brings more impaired drivers on the roadways. However, customers at Pure Ohio Wellness Dispensary in Dayton are technically not making it to the roadways. Instead, they are smashing into vehicles in the dispensary’s parking lot. At least one operating a vehicle while intoxicated (OVI) is known to have occurred in addition to a stolen car being found at the Dayton marijuana dispensary.
“If the Cannabis Industry is leading Ohioans off a cliff, I am not going to follow,” says Pastor Parsons. “We cannot let marijuana dispensaries harm our families and children. Christ left the ninety-nine to rescue the one lost sheep. I hope that City Council recognizes that even one life is precious in GOD’s eyes.”
The Bottom Line:
The Bible says in Matthew Twenty-Four, “Those who follow the distorted vision offered by false prophets will abandon truth. They will rebel against virtue or submitting to GOD. The ultimate result of that self-serving, self-following lawlessness will be the loss of love.”
View video newscast from Cincinnati-based WLWT reporting Poison Control calls in Cincinnati and Columbus are seeing a dramatic increase in calls pertaining to marijuana poisonings. (2 min.)
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