Rob Ryan

Rob Ryan is president of Ohio NORML, the Ohio chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, and a retired GE aerospace engineer.

When it comes to Ohio’s marijuana policy, almost everyone – left, right, or center – agrees on one drug-war law reform that is long overdue in Ohio: driver’s license suspension. Decades ago, Ohio accepted a 1992 federal mandate requiring a mandatory six-month license suspension for anyone convicted of a misdemeanor marijuana possession. This provision was authored by New Jersey’s liberal Senator Frank Lautenberg, trying to prove that he was just as tough on the War on Drugs as conservatives.

Lautenberg’s highway transportation funding cuts were to be tied to state compliance with the federal mandate. There was considerable disagreement concerning this law by numerous states’ representatives, particularly from Western states. As a compromise, an “opt out” clause was added, which permitted the states to maintain their federal highway funds. The clause required state legislators to pass a resolution of their opposition to the federal mandate and the governor to send the resolution to the Secretary of Transportation.

Most states did exactly that. Today the majority of states do not suspend driver’s licenses for drug offenses like pot possession. But Ohio still follows that ’90s federal mandate and has one of the toughest laws in the country. Someone convicted of a minor misdemeanor simple pot possession in Ohio results in a minimum six months’ suspension, but can potentially result in having their license suspended for up to five years.

Ohio political leaders have stepped up to correct this overdue and sensible marijuana law reform. Ohio House and Senate legislators have passed resolutions HCR55 and SCR27 to opt out of the federal mandate. State Senator Bill Seitz (R-Green Township) has done an outstanding job bringing this resolution to the Ohio Senate.

Ohio NORML is not alone in supporting ending Ohio’s adherence to the federal mandate. The Judicial Conference of Ohio Judges does not support drivers’ license suspensions for drug offenses. The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators – the national trade group for Department of Motor Vehicles, of which Ohio is a member – supports ending mandatory drivers’ license suspensions for pot possession. In an 80-page report, the AAMVA summarizes how the research shows conclusively that suspensions not related to driving waste government resources, harm traffic safety and undermine goals such as getting child support paid.

A driver’s license is critical to getting or keeping a job. National studies have shown that 42 percent of people lose their jobs when their license is suspended. Sometimes a judge will make an exception and permit the offender to drive to work and back home. But that does not cover going to the hardware store or the mall. According to Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles records, there are over 145,000 Ohioans with license suspensions due to drug offenses. Overall the federal mandated sanctions have an unintended and negative impact on Ohio’s economy and jobs.

A secondary problem comes up when some of these people drive anyway. They either have a good reason or worse do it out of disrespect for a law that had no connection to their driving. This creates an even larger problem of people driving with a suspended license. Our courts have become clogged with driving under suspension cases. They also make an even deeper legal hole for someone to climb out of.

The next step is for Governor Kasich to send the matter to the Secretary of the Department of Transportation in Washington. Then our state legislature is free to revise state law, removing the suspension language without losing any Federal Highway funds. Finally some common sense is being shown in this endless War on Drugs, which really should be called Prohibition 2.0.