The ACLU of Ohio offers its full support for Issue One, the initiative to decriminalize cannabis in the city of Toledo.

For decades, federal, state, and local governments have fought to keep cannabis illegal. By any objective measure, that fight has been a failure. Billions of dollars of taxpayers’  money have been wasted, our courts and jails have been overburdened, and law enforcement has been distracted from addressing more serious matters.

As a result of this prohibition, untold numbers of Toledo residents have been severely impacted. These friends and neighbors include those who have been denied employment, turned away from housing, disqualified from receiving student loans, stopped and cited by police, and made to pay costly fines and fees to their local courts. For many, a minor infraction becomes a living nightmare.

All for a substance now legal in four states and the District of Columbia—and counting. All for a substance 50 percent of Americans have tried.

Toledo voters will have the chance to end the ineffective and counterproductive ways of the past and vote for true, meaningful reform by decriminalizing marijuana right here.

When Issue One passes on September 15, it will reverberate across not only Toledo but the rest of Ohio, and the rest of the nation.  Toledo will be a model for how citizens can change their government for the better by voting for common sense and against an  ineffective, biased and counterproductive system that helps no one and affects everyone.

The old way does not work and never did.  It is long past time for a change and those of us here today, our supporters throughout Toledo, and voters on September 15 are  ready.

The ACLU of Ohio asks that you please vote “yes” on Issue One.

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