Starting remarks to start Ohio Marijuana Policy Reform Symposium

As regular readers know, the exciting the Ohio Marijuana Policy Reform Symposium (details here) is taking place today,June 11, 2015, at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.  Though formal registration is over, because there is no charge for attending this exciting Symposium at Ohio State, I encourage anyone still interested in attending to make it over to the College of Law because there may still be some limited space in the auditorium (and a few extra donuts and lunches).

I have the honor and privilege of giving brief opening remarks for the event (which formally starts at 10:30am), and I plan to start my remarks this way:

Marijuana reform is a very serious issue.  But, until recently, it has been hard to get serious people to take this issue very seriously.  Disconcertingly, it seems elected officials are especially eager to ignore (or even make jokes) about the very serious issue of marijuana reform even as more and more citizens and voters, young and old, healthy and sick,  keep saying in polls and keep showing on election day that they are troubled by blanket criminal prohibition and are eager to have significant policy reforms seriously considered.