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How to make a good woman steel. I'm an old woman, bless to

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make a see I want to be
I'm hit a that I'm bad of the

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bowl, bad the b bad the
bowl by Billy Cunningham, The Great America.

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Of course, about a month ago
we had State Issues one and two.

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State Issue one was allowing abortion up
through pregnancy ut the termination of the

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pregnancy at nine months, and of
course State Issue two dealt with uh marijuana

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and making it similarly to alcohol.
One was a constitutional amendment that the lawmakers

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could not effectuate. The second one, which was recreational pot is something subject

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to amendment. Joining you and I
now are State Senator Steve Huffman of District

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five, which is tends to be
north of Dayton. He's also for thirty

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two years a practicing physician, and
he's been a corner so he knows where

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the bodies are buried. And Senator
Huffman, welcome to the Bill Cunningham Show.

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And first of all, can you
make the argument that I hear some

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say in talk radio that we voted
on this thing. How come those Republicans

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want to change it? Can you
tell the American people why it is proper

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to change it in fact, why
it was anticipated it would be changed.

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Yeah, it was an initiated ballot
initiative, and so it's in the revised

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code. So that gave us the
opportunity, and many of us in Columbus

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field that that is why they chose
that and not a constitutional amendment, so

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that we can look at it at
the taxation and the homegrown and other things

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like that to what's best for the
people in Ohio. So when I'm looking

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at these articles and some of the
materials you sent to me, one of

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the main things would be to eliminate
growing marijuana at home. That it appears

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the people wanted to have home grow, yes, in a sense. But

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then I had on the Great Bill
Sites about a week or two ago,

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and he mentioned that under the current
law which was passed and to become effective

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December seventh, which is Thursday,
that there could be as many as seven

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thousand joints grown at home. And
that wasn't the intent. So can you

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address yourself to what you're proposing relative
to growing marijuana at home? You know,

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the bill that we just introduced,
or it was a sub bill in

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a House bill that was introduced this
morning, is to eliminate all home grown

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and we're going to have a great
discussion on that and committee tomorrow and hopefully

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pass the bill out on Wednesday.
But that's something still up for discussion.

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But right now, it looks like
the substitute bill has no homegrown because just

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as Bill sites, that Bill sites
a very very smart man. You know,

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seven thousand joints a year and one
household just seems to be a lot.

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I'm not sure that's for personal use. I have my doubts. Plus,

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we don't all I don't think we
allow bathroom gin anymore. I don't

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think I don't think you can have
your own intoxicans at home because purity,

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how much, what's the THC content? Those issues come into play, and

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so growing. Does your crystal ball
tell you that the bill coming out of

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the Senate in the next day or
two will have no homegrown in it at

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all? I can say that we're
going to look at that issue very hard

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in the next few days. I'm
not sure exactly how it's going to come

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out, and maybe we reduce it
to one plant in a certain area in

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a certain way. But you know, some of the things that I you

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know in this bill that I'm sure
I'll stay in there. Is that you're

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not allowed to if you have a
daycare at your home, you would not

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be able to have a home growth
there because we don't want to want it

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around children. Right, Well,
what if what if a mom and a

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dad has four kids under the age
of eighteen, say they're of tender years.

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Under the law passed by the electorate, couldn't they have up to seven

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thousand marijuana joints in their home with
children present? That is correct, And

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you know a lot of things that
we're trying to do in this substitute bill

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is protect the children to you know, no smoking and automobiles, no public

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smoking because you know you don't want
you know, one parent driving, one

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parent smoking, you've got two kids
in the back seat. You know that's

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not a proper It's not safe for
the children. And a lot of these

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things are going to protect the children. You may be aware, of course

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you're up north of Dayton, but
when you walk around downtown Cincinnati on a

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summer's eve, you're often will smell
marijuana everywhere. And right now, that's

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it's been that case the last couple
of years because the mayor and the city

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Council have told the Police Division and
said Cincinnati to not enforce that law.

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Now, that is ridiculous because you
can have cops picking and choosing which laws

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to uh to enforce and which ones
not to enforce. But practically the employer

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says, don't do it. And
so on one hand, you're going to

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have parts of Ohio in which people
may be cited for improper marijuana use.

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In other urban areas there won't be
any violation at all. And you know,

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is that fair? It doesn't seem
fair to me. But one thing

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that uh, you know, I'm
sure that we'll stay in here is about

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the employer. The employers in the
state of Ohio have to have the ability

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to have a drug free workplace and
to be able to decide if they want

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to drug test for marijuana or not
drug tests for marijuana to protect themselves and

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protect their fellow employees. What about
the tax rate, because we all know

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that if the if the if the
dark market, the the underground has a

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lot lower prices than legal marijuana,
that the market's not going to shift.

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Do you understand, is the Senate
understand you have to keep the legal rate

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of marijuana somewhat close to the illegal
rate, so that users will use illegal

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and not the illegal. You know, I've dealt with the medical marijuana in

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that sense, and it's true for
they're about you know, forty fifty thousand

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people that have a medical marijuana in
the state of Ohio have never bought the

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product. In most likely it's because
they're getting a cheaper on the street.

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So we've addressed the taxation. You
know, the ten percent that was an

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in initiated ballot was low compared to
other states, and on our proposal today

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is it's up to fifteen percent on
gross sales, with also fifteen percent on

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the cultivators. Senator Huffman, what
happens to the to the medical marijuana those

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that have the car and those dispensaries
dedicated to medical marijuana. Why would somebody

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want a medical marijuana card if you
can easily access recreational marijuana. Well,

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you know, and I've said for
a long time when this started, was

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many people will drop that because they
want don't want to go to a physician

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to get the recommendations. They don't
want to go through the hassle to get

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to get the card. Because a
lot of what we're doing in the sub

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bill is streamlining the process. We
don't need to two government uh marijuana commissions

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out there, one for medical,
one for recreational. We don't need culture

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two different set of cultivators or dispensaries. We're going to you know, streamline

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the system so that each one participates
in any other one. And you're right,

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many people will will go away from
the medical program because they can get

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it also in the recreational or adult
use. I would note that Fairfield and

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other communities want to pass a long
quickly by Thursday declaring that no one can

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sell marijuana. There'll be no dispensaries
in their city. What survives was so

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called home rule in cities and townships
and villages or maybe counties decide for itself

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to have no dispensaries at all.
Yes, So I mean part of the

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medical marijuana program we had that was
home rule that they can pass in the

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ordinance that say we do not want
dispensaries or cultivators in their jurisdiction. And

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you know, I go back to
the casinos, because you know, twenty

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years ago, all we heard was
if you have a casino, all the

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drugs and prostitutes will be right outside
your door. Doesn't seem to have happened.

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It seems that they're legitimate businesses and
they're all regulated. In all the

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drug addict dealers are not going to
be outside your medical marijuana. But as

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the state, I think we should
respect that and let the local jurisdictions make

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their own dec so we could have
a circumstance whether the entire county in a

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sense, could be a dry county, because that's the way it is.

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Would you be comfortable if county wide, some county commissioners said no dispensaries,

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no cultivation in our county. Are
you comfortable with that? I'm comfortable with

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that, but I'm not sure you
can do it county wide because the local

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control goes to the local city or
the local township. But if the whole

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county wanted to do that, that's
what and if they don't, people don't

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like it, you shouldvote out those
county commissioners. And that's why we are

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system the way it is. When
I had on Senator, I'm sorry,

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when I had on Governor Mike Dwine, I don't know about four or five

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weeks ago, just I think it
was the day after it passed. He

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said, look, there's no need
to run to hurry or rush this thing.

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Others are saying December seventh is like
a drop down date. That's Thursday.

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It's in the law. Can you
speak of the what's going to change

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on December the seventh, Assuming you
and the Senate and the House and the

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Governor can't get together in the next
forty eight hours to pass something, what's

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the status of this marijuana law come
Friday morning. Well, that's up for

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the legal people like yourself to finally
look at that. But what I'm told

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is that in there are some provisions
that go into effect thirty days after the

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election, which is on the seventh, and that would be that cultivators would

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get so many dispensaries, and if
you have a dispensary, you get so

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many more of these, and also
you're allowed to start home going on the

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seventh. So that's why we have
some urgency on some things, and we

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also have some time on others because
the Department will can take up to a

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year to make the rules. So
we're really looking at the things that we

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really need to get done by the
seventh, but also going to get those

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other things done that we have a
little more time on and you have a

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provision here about how to use the
money, and you talk about hundreds of

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millions of dollars. It seems like
a bullload of cash, and it is,

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but on a state budget of fifty
billion dollars, it's not really I

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mean, it's significant, of course, but it's not do or die.

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What is the new proposal you have
for dividing up the money coming in That

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might be in the range of three
to five hundred million dollars, who knows

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what that number is, But what's
your idea about chopping up the profits enforcement

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fifteen the marijuana, substance abuse in
drug abuse, and ten percent to the

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safe driver program, and then the
rest goes back to the general fund that

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we can distribute at any time for
more law enforcement or more substance abuse,

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whatever's needed at the time. Rather
than put it in code, we're going

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to let the General Assembly and the
governor make that decision every two years on

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what's best to use that money for. So the idea is to walk before

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you run, to see let's put
this where. I think we're about the

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twenty third or twenty fourth state to
approve recreational marijuana. Some have had great

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success, some have not. In
California, the legal headshops as they're called,

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have little or no business because the
market is still a dark market,

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and so that would be a problem. But maybe the home grow operations in

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California might be different than Ohio.
But for those who want to grow marijuana

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beginning December seventh, would that be
legal? It would if we don't do

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anything. And the one thing about
home grown, it's my understanding, is

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a very difficult plant to grow one
that you know bugs and a few use

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pesticides on the plant. You don't
want to be smoking these toxic pesticides.

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And the other thing is is mold
from when you're drying it out. These

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mold spores get on there that can
also be talked. That can be very

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dangerous to the individual that's using it. And so really you want to you

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want to have a product if it's
sold under the auspices of the state of

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Ohio, that that is wholesome,
as used as intended, and it doesn't

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have unintended fentanel or something else or
mold in it. And that's the idea

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of prohibiting home growth, correct.
I think that's a bit big part of

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it. Is is that, you
know, we want people to have safe

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product. It's now that the initiative
valid, initiative passed, but we want

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it to be safe for everybody.
So the law we passed will not be

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the law that takes effect. Well, that is what the Senate is trying

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to do. Well, we'll see
in a couple of days how successful we

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are and if we can get to
our fellows, members of the General Assembly

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and the House to agree. That
doesn't sound likely to me. I'm used

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to having nothing happening in anywhere.
I can't conceive of all that happened hapening

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in the next two days. But
you're saying, Senator Huffman, you're saying

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that's possible. I think. I
think it's possible. I think the hard

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work of Senator McCaulay to get all
these things together. Well, we'll listen

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to what people have to say on
Tuesday and most likely come back with the

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sub bill on on Wednesday, and
you know the plan of the President is

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to pass it out and see what
We'll see what the thoughts of the House

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members say, and then if you've
got to tweak it down the road,

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you'll do that too. But that's
that's to be determined. But unless something

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changes, there could be thousands of
Ohioans having homegrown marijuana in their uh in

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their basements come Thursday and Friday,
and at this point it would not be

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illegal. Well I'll tell you Willie, there are already thousands of people in

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the state of Ohio already doing that, but it would just be a little

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a little more legal. All right, Senator Huffman, thank you, and

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we'll see what happens. But you're
cautiously optimistic something can be done before Friday.

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Yes, I am. I think
on the leadership of the President and

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Senator McCauley and others, well,
I think we can get it done.

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All right, Senator, thank you
very much, Thank you, take care,

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have a good done. Thank you
all. Let's continue with more.

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And so what you passed, what
you voted for, is not what's going

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to happen. And then hopefully the
Senate, the House, when he talks

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about the President, it means the
president of the Senate in Columbus and all

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of them need to get on the
same page very quickly. Let's continue.

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Two twenty four. Home of Your
Bengals ten point Dogs tonight on News Radio

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seven hundred wlw Hey Rock