An Athens County, Ohio, commissioner became a cannabis casualty this week after local law enforcement discovered 39 marijuana plants growing on his property. The Ohio Medical Compassion coalition is currently collecting signatures to place a decriminalization of organic cannabis on the fall ballot. If convicted of the misdemeanor crime, Commissioner Mark Sullivan could still hold office, but the damage done to his reputation in such a small community will likely be permanent. Sullivan's estranged wife reported the plants to authorities after recanting domestic violence charges filed in March.
The twisted tale leading up to the search of Sullivan's Dover Township area property reads like a soap opera. Sullivan cared for his first wife, who eventually succumbed to cancer. One of the primary groups the Ohio Medical Compassion coalition seeks to aid by offering a natural alternative to synthetic medications is cancer patients.
Local court records and news reports show Sullivan's second marriage was ending and not with a friendly tone. In March, his wife Tammie filed domestic violence charges which she later recanted after making local headlines for months. Even though Tammie changed her story, no charges have been filed for making a false police report.
After domestic violence charges were withdrawn in court last month, Tammie called the Sheriff's Office to report her husband had marijuana plants on the property. If regulated cannabis was decriminalized in Ohio, such claims could not be used by separating couples jockeying for a good deal during divorce proceedings.
Commissioner Sullivan told NBC4 that Tammie walked into the house after spending time on the property's back border with a tray full of small cannabis plants. According to Commissioner Sullivan his soon-to-be-ex-wife threatened him with public claims that he was growing marijuana. After he moved out of their home she did just that by calling a 911 dispatcher with to report a cannabis emergency.
According to the information shared by NBC4 journalists who listened to multiple 911 tapes made by Tammie Sullivan, it sounds like she was enjoying smoking the cannabis plants herself. Mrs. Sullivan felt it necessary to call an emergency dispatcher to report her cats were out of food and that Commissioner Sullivan had not paid the cable bill.
Calls from Athens officials and two small newspapers for Sullivan to step down are premature and politically motivated. Traditionally, folks from Athens City look down upon the residents from the less economically advantaged northern portions of the county and were aghast when Sullivan and a fellow "northerner" were elected to office more than a decade ago. The faux shock that organic cannabis is grown and used around the Ohio University college town is laughable.
Divorces can get very messy with claims of all sorts of wrongs filling pages of court documents, but cannabis use does not need to be one of them. If an adult can house physician prescribed synthetic drugs with hordes of possible ill side effects in the medicine cabinet, why shouldn't Ohioans be allowed to also possess an organic plant to soothe their aches and pains?
During theses struggling economic times taxpayer funds could be spent on issues far more important than prosecuting an adult for growing organic plants or circling helicopters over neighboring Vinton County in search of cannabis. Law enforcement officers and prosecuting attorneys are simply doing their jobs to the best of their abilities and are not to blame. If Ohio becomes the sixteenth state to decriminalize regulated cannabis use by adults, funds for eradication efforts could be put to better use elsewhere.
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