On the November ballot: Issue #1

image credit: freerepublic.com

Jeff Sanders at PJ Media reports:

Ohioans will soon be voting on Issue 1, a ballot initiative that is ostensibly about reforming drug laws, but actually is about giving "get out of jail free" cards to not only drug offenders, but dozens of other kinds of criminals in Ohio's prisons. The ballot initiative is known as "The Neighborhood Safety Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Amendment" and is a six-page amendment to the Ohio Constitution.

(You can read the actual language of the ballot, as well as pro and con arguments regarding the issue at the non-partisan voting information site, ivoters.com.)

The premise is that too many non-violent criminals are clogging up the courts and prison system and we need to get them out of prisons and back into society. Supposedly this will save the state of Ohio a ton of money. Prison expenditures should only be for violent offenders, proponents say.

Only that's not what will happen if Issue 1 passes. Here are three reasons Issue 1 is a terrible idea.

Then follows these bullet points, each one fully analyzed in the report [see the link below].

1.    Drug convictions will only count as misdemeanors

2.    It will let dangerous criminals out of prison

3.    The ballot initiative is funded by out-of-state leftists

The report concludes:

Through his Open Society Foundation, George Soros helps fund Tides, and Tides, in turn, sends money to things like this Issue 1 on the Ohio ballot. The Open Society Foundation sent $1 million to fund Issue 1. Soros knows what he's doing. He knows that his donation will allow him to own a piece of the Ohio Constitution — if Ohioans fall for it.

Why would these progressive billionaires — who won't have to live in Ohio and suffer the consequences of a bad constitutional amendment — want this in Ohio?

Issue 1 has received approximately $5 million — the vast majority of it from out of state. Now, $5 million is pocket change to Zuckerberg and Soros and their billionaire socialist pals. Is this a probe to see how well this kind of "under-the-radar" ballot initiative will do in a somewhat conservative Midwestern state? Ohio is a key swing state... wouldn't that be something if the leftists from California and New York could turn Ohio into a "forward operating base" or testing ground for their ideas about dealing with drugs?

If they are successful, it will cost them only pennies (comparatively speaking). But it will cost the citizens of Ohio plenty.

Read the rest here. And forward links to your family and friends.

(Note: The Columbus Dispatch reported on both gubernatorial candidates Mike DeWine's and Richard Cordray's positions on Issue #1 here .) 

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