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And talk about what's happening in Columbus
with abortion, also with marijuana and more.

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And the man in charge of the
House of Representatives for the last quarter

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of a century. He's been a
Senator, a representative. He's hanging up

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his spurs. About a year from
now is Bill Sites of Western Hills in

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Green Township. Bill Sites, Welcome
again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And

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first of all, before we talk
about abortion and marijuana and getting drunk,

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I want to talk about Joe Burrow. What was your sense yesterday when Joe

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Burrow wasn't able to play? Oh, hell was breaking loose? What did

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Bill Sites go through? Well,
well, you know, my heart sank

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when I saw him go out,
and I actually turned it off at halftime

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when we're down twenty one to ten, I said, well, we've been

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bangalized again, born under a bad
time, and I just hope Joe was

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able to recover quickly because we need
him. We've got a real narrow path

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to get to the playoffs. And
this from a team that every buddy was

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talking about as a Super Bowl contender
two months ago. So it was really

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kind of a shame. And I
hope he gets better in a big hurry.

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I don't care if it's Kajana Carter
or any of the any Bengal players

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in the past. Simply cook all
the way back to Greg Cook, Greg

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Cook, who I listened him about. A week ago Matt Reese put him

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on about an interview between him and
Bob Trumpy. Great Cook, the greatest

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quarterback of all time, injures his
shoulder. From that point on, I

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just feel like we're in a portallet
and people keep sitting down. That's what

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I feel like, and no matter
what happens, and the glory is there.

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And I put out a month ago
as Joe Burrow Bengalized, and the

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answer might be yes, But I
say, keep hope alive. Let's go

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back into your Bailey Wick. Marijuana
smoking is something that I voted in favor

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of that assuming that the legislature would
actually change it around the edges. And

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the more I get into it,
the more I know there must be significant

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changes. But keep the will of
the people. Can you tell the American

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people what the House of Representatives is
going to do with marijuana? We need

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to do be according to Tony Bender, sure, I mean, look,

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the people voted to legalize a recreational
marijuana. They did that through something called

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an initiated statute. That statute becomes
part of the Ohio Revised Code, just

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like all the other laws that we
do as a legislature, and we call

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it the Revised Code for a reason, it can be revised. We are

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not, I don't think, going
to invalidate the statute or repeal it.

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The voters have spoken clearly. However, there's probably at least five issues that

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need to be grappled with as we
move forward that we're in this long statute

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that I think need to be corrected, starting with the idea that it permits

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folks to grow marijuana at home without
paying tax, without being inspected, without

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assurance that the product is tore.
Now they say, well, that's just

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for personal use. Well, let's
talk about that one plant I'm told produces

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one hundred and fifty joints. You're
allowed twelve plants a husband and wife in

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your home. One hundred and fifty
times twelve is one eight hundred joints,

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and you get four cops a year
out of marijuana. You can raise your

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twelve plants and basically a quarter,
So eighteen hundred times four is seven thousand,

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two hundred joints. Now, who
needs seven thousand, two hundred joints

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for your own personal use? Untack? And what worries me is that it

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will be pervaded on the black market
and risks being laced with monkey dust or

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fentanyl or something else that happens.
And so I really think we need to

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sharply restrict the homegrower provisions of this
statue Number one. Number two, the

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tax rate it will be when you
buy it legally through a dispensary, you'll

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pay sales tax, and you will
pay a ten percent excise tax on top

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of the sale tax. Is that
enough? Some people say no, we

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should have a higher excise tax.
I'm sort of indifferent about that, because

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if the tax is too high,
people will continue to just patronize the black

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market, and that's what we do
not want them to do. But that's

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an issue. The use of the
funds that we raise through the tax is

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another good question. Some of the
proposed uses are fine for like mental health

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and addiction services, but a big
chunk of it is for some vague and

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ambiguous social equity program for disadvantaged people, and nobody knows quite what that is.

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But many of us, on all
sides of the aisle, believe we

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could come up with a more pressing
need to fund than that police training,

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be it jail construction, be it
all kinds of great ideas for what we

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might do with the money other than
that. So that's an issue. Then

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we have this crazy issue in the
statute that the voters voted for. They

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voted for the THC content of recreational
marijuana, that's the active ingredient, as

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you know in pot, to be
higher than what we allow for the medical

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marijuana program that we've had for the
last six or seven years. And it

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seems to me that's precisely backwards.
The people that are really sick, racked

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with pain, have cancer, et
cetera, they should get the higher dosage

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of the active ingredient than the stone
as sitting around on the weekend smoking a

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joint. So I think that needs
attention to at least equalize the THC contents

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as between medical marijuana and recreational marijuana. Oh, there's that, And then

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finally bill the whole question of should
we really allow marijuana to be sold to

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be smoked. I mean, we've
had a fifty year war on cigarette smoking,

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pipe smoking, cigars, smoking,
Do we really want people smoking it

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when we've been saying that smoking is
harmful to your health. We can do

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it through vape, we can do
it through edimals, we can do it

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through oils, we can do it
through tinctures. All of that is how

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we do it in the medical program. And it seems to me that's a

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safer way to ingest marijuana than by
smoking it. So those are some of

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the issues that we may, as
you say, tinker around the edges,

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but we don't need to do it
immediately. And why is that. You're

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gonna tell me, Well, the
bill becomes effective December seventh, a day

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that we'll live an infamy. Yeah, it does become effective on December seventh,

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but it will be at least six
months to twelve months before they can

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stand up the whole recreational marijuana program
for the dispensaries. We'll start selling it,

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before the inspections are made, before
the purity tests are run, before

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the rules are written. All of
that will take six months to twelve months,

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So that the only two things that
will happen on December seventh are Number

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One, people can start their home
growth plant, the little seeds in the

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ground. And number two, the
possession of two and a half ounces of

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pot or left will be legal.
Currently that's a minor misdemeanor, but it

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will become outright legal on December seventh. So that's the only things that will

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really happen on December seventh. And
I believe we should take our time and

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look at these other issues that I've
mentioned to you and do have some hearings

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and find out what the right answer
is rather than rush something to judgment that

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may not be correct. That's my
view. Representative Bill Sitz, you're making

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a lot of sense, which is
unfortunate. Let's kind of break down where

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it is. When you talk about
THC higher for medical pot, why would

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someone buy marijuana medically in the state
of Ohio and this thing's operational when you

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get recreational, why would somebody?
Doesn't this eliminate completely medical marijuana because why

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get your card and go through the
process when you can get it recreationally anyway.

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Yeah, it is certainly going to
deal a blow to the existing medical

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marijuana program, but there is some
talk about adjusting tax rates, adjusting THC

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content to let medical marijuana still have
a space in the overall market by giving

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medical marijuana some competitive advantages compared to
recreational marijuana. That there is some talk

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about that, So that's one of
the things that needs to be looked at.

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Frankly, I voted for medical marijuana
back when we did it. That's

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seven years ago, and I was
working very assiduously on a great bill that

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was going to strengthen our medical marijuana
program Senate Bill nine, pending over in

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the set as we speak. But
you're right. When people can get the

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recreational marijuana without getting any kind of
doctor's recommendation, my guess is a lot

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of them are going to go that
route. I think that's true. Well,

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you got to saddle up next to
Governor Mike Dewan. I had them

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on a week ago and he said, like December seventh, we got to

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get this done by So I'm sure
you your adults can work that out.

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As far as smoking or edibles,
I'm told by the stoners at EBN that

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part of the process of smoking pot
is holding it in your hand, sucking

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it in, rolling around your nose
and your lungs, blowing it back out.

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That it's the glory of smoking marijuana. They enjoy that more than edibles.

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Can you comment on that the glories
of the stoners at EBN Well,

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as a farmer cigarette smoker, you
know, I quit smoking after fifty years

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on August the second of this year. And that's the same argument that people

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make about why they like cigarettes.
Something to do with your hands. We

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like the smoke, we like the
anail it. That's like to breathe it

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in it out. You've got a
argument, you know, now, twenty

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four states haven why don't you rely
upon what the other states are doing?

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That makes sense? You know,
a great constitutional lawyer told me that these

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states are laboratories and democracy and what
works in Minnesota. You can look at

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Minnesota, which is a terrible place
to live, I might end, but

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nonetheless and say, okay, and
take the best of the other twenty four

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states. How about that idea?
Well, that's that's a good idea.

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And I will say that some of
those ideas are already incorporated in what we

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voted on, because Michigan and Colorado, to name just two, have gone

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completely overboard in allowing so many dispensaries
on every street corner. Almost it's too

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many dispensaries. We're going to have
in Ohio. We're going to have a

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restricted number of dispensaries. It's still
going to be plenty of dispensaries. I

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believe the number is something like three
hundred dispensaries statewide, So it's not like

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you'll have to drive fifty miles to
find one. Still, in all you

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don't necessarily want this to be on
every single street corner. Localities will still

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be able to say they don't want
a dispensary in their community. They'll still

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be able to do that. That's
a good change. As I say,

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it will be inspected, it will
be grown in Ohio, it will be

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inspected in Ohio, it will be
tested for purity in Ohio. Those are

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all good attributes of a good marijuana
program, be it medical or recreational,

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and we're going to adhere to that. I just want to be sure that

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when the customer gets recreational pot in
Ohio, they know that it's been tested

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and it's not adulterated. Now,
we don't let we don't let people make

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bathtub gin for God's sake, all
right, you have to buy that at

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the state liquor store. Right.
A lot of Kentucky and so Tony bender

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tells me that bathtub gin is a
big item in Boone County. But I

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say, you live in Ohio,
don't live in Kentucky. You can't make

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your own boot. No. No. In the name of this group that

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put issue two on the palate,
it was called the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana

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like Alcohol. There you go,
Okay, regulate marijuana like alcohol. We

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don't let people make fast up jim
because you know, back in the day

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when they did, they sold it
and a lot of people went blind drinking

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that stuff. So we want to
make sure the product is safe. We

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want to make sure the product is
not adulterated with other drugs that are very,

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very much more serious than POTT.
I know. That's my principal goal.

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Now, lastly, this will work
out. We have a state representative

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named Gross in Butler County, the
home of our mutual good friend Richard K.

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Jones. You know, I sleep
with an Appella judge, and she

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has floated the idea of having the
legislature take away the court system in the

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state of Ohio so that the judges
cannot rule on constitutionality. Do you stand

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with Gross or do you oppose Gross? Well, Jennifer growth is a very

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ardent right to life person, but
she's not a lawyer, and the proposal

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that she floated last week is not
being taken seriously by anybody because it would

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upend the principle of judicial review,
which has been around since Chief Justice John

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Marshall first announced it in Marbury versus
Madison in eighteen o three. So,

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you know, some things you just
cannot do. I understand why Jennifer is

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upset about Issue one and the fact
that it passed. I understand that a

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lot of right to like people are
upset by that, But you don't just

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throw out the baby with the bathwater. We are going to have to respect

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the will of the voters on that
question, at least for a time,

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and then we'll all have to sit
back and see how far do the pro

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aborts want to take their new constitutional
right. Are they going to challenge our

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existing laws on parental notification, on
making the woman get an ultrasound so that

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she can see at the baby,
or the rules about informed consent to an

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abortion, the rules that require fetal
remains to be appropriately interred, the waiting

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periods that are involved before you can
get an abortion, and whether the state

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will be able to continue its policy
of not paying for abortion if the Left

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tries to invalidate those things because it's
an interference or a burden on the abortion

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right. At some point the public
might say, well, gee, maybe

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Issue one did go too far way
beyond row like many of us were saying

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it did so. But that's way
down the road. Bill, I don't

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see that happening anytime in twenty twenty
four. I'm not going to say when,

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if ever, we might revisit that
question constitutionally, but it certainly won't

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be soon. Well, sadly,
we got the government we deserve and that

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concerns me greatly. State Representative Bill
Sides, thanks for setting Jennifer Grossed straight.

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We got homegrown use of tax dollars, THC content smoked her edibles.

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Many issues, resolve them all.
And Bill Sitz, once again, you

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have another further comment to make.
No, No, I was gonna say,

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there's plenty of There's always plenty of
stuff to do up in Columbus.

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I bet for people that really want
to roll up their sleeves and get into

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the nitty gritty details. And that's
what I've been doing for a long time.

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And the stoners tell me. They
like to smoke it, they like

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to roll it, they like to
look at it, they like to light

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it, they like to smell.
That's what the stoners tell me, So

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kind of keep that whatever it is. The price of recreational has got to

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be close to the price of the
black market. Otherwise people are going to

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stay in the black market. And
just keep that in mind. You're right,

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and we got to make sure that
kids cannot get access by this.

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That's another confine. The Governor's raise. Nothing in this statute to allow kids

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to do it. Oh that's good, but there may be other restrictions on

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how it's advertised that we might look
at to be sure that we're not enticing

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children into a life of marijuana inhalation
and some sort of cheech and chong scene

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in the back of a car.
We don't want that. We don't want

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that, all right, great great
movie. Bill Sites once again, thank

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you for coming on the Bill Cunningham
Show. Thank you, Bill, Thank

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Bill. Let's continue, man,
and that guy's leaving office in about a

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year. We're going to miss him
greatly. I understand, Jennifer Gross well

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intended, but damn it, it's
illegal. But don't don't tell a lawmaker

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about the law. Let's continue with
more. Bill Cunningham, News Radio,

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seven hundred l. There are a
few things more wonderful in life than intimacy.

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But when a rectile dysfunction harms intimacy, it can