Who can ever forget Buddie, the cape-wearing, happy-go-lucky sentient mascot of the failed 2015 campaign to legalize cannabis in Ohio?
He went up in smoke, but the effort to legalize marijuana has a new, Ohio-based public face: John Boehner, the (presumably) cape-wearing, happy-go-lucky former speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
Boehner has recently joined the board of Acerage Holdings, a marijuana industry investment firm. After years of opposing marijuana legalization, Boehner is now saying medical cannabis can help people such as epilepsy patients, opioid addicts and veterans with PTSD.
Additionally, Boehner has called for an end to the federal government's ban on pot and has said that states should decide whether marijuana is legalized or not. He's even called out our justice system for the arrests and incarceration of people caught smoking or possessing marijuana.
Maybe Boehner really has "evolved," as he's said. Maybe he really sees the inherent problems of federal marijuana prohibition. Maybe he's just seeing green — the legal marijuana business did $9 billion in sales in 2017. Whatever the cause, Boehner's support for decriminalization shows how far the issue has come.
Kevin Necessary is the editorial cartoonist for WCPO. His views do not reflect those of WCPO.
