A joint, a Jeep, and a guileless General Assembly
I am going to define the 3 terms:
-a joint is a rolled marijuana cigarette [lol not sure if this is known by all, but i assume it is]
-a jeep is a vehicle, often used by people who smoke joints
-the General Assembly is Ohio’s legislative body
-guileless= naive, artless
Ok, so how do these terms connect? In a logical way, they absolutely don’t. A joint has nothing to do with a Jeep; a Jeep should mean nothing to the General Assembly; and the majority of General Assembly members believe marijuana should be medicinally legal [but just lack the wherewithal to pass legislation]. Yet in its amazing mental acuity, the GA decided that it should somehow create a link to joints and jeeps [or any vehicle for that matter] through Automatic License Suspensions [herein referred to as ALS]. So, since I mentioned my adherence to straight-forward translations of legal minutia into effects on everyday life, here is an example:
A couple of young guys and gals are passing a joint in the woods at a local park. They had walked to the park. A cop cruising around looking for this very behavior smells smoke [yes, cops will say in court that they recognize the smell of weed from "their professional training." ehem. ya. ] The cop cites the youngins for marijuana possession. This is a minor misdemeanor…no big deal, right?
Wrong, because when these folks go to court, the judge is going to hit them with an ALS for a minimum of 6 months. Plus the court fine [which is usually $250]. Plus the $40 reinstatement fee. Plus the cost of petitioning the court for driving privileges [either pay an attorney for a motion in some courts, or $15 at Stow].
It is absurd that the General Assembly gets involved with two completely unconnected things.