The former top lawyer at Kroger is investing in the Butler County farm that will grow marijuana if Ohio voters approve a constitutional amendment to legalize the drug.

Supporters of three proposals to put legal marijuana in the Ohio Constitution are pushing for a spot on the fall ballot. But there is growing talk of a move by the General Assembly to undercut full legalization.

Sources say legislators want to create a more restrictive alternative to legalizing marijuana in Ohio than what is being proposed by private, for-profit groups as a way to undermine those approaches.

One option is passage of House Bill 33 — a proposal that would legalize cannabis-derived medicines for those with seizure disorders — either in its present form or by slightly expanding it.

It’s looking more and more likely that voters in a key battleground state will be voting on marijuana legalization in November, and recent polling suggests it could win. That’s this November, not November 2016.

The state is Ohio, where a controversial pot legalization initiative is already well on the way to qualifying for the ballot, and its backers—or should we say investors?–have the cash on hand to make sure it does.

There are pot legalization bills pending in any number of states, and early on, there were hopes this would be the year a state legislature would get around to legalizing it. New England states such as Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont looked like the best bets, but it now doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen.

If passed, the proposal would create a Marijuana Control Commission that would license 10 farms around the state to grow the crop.

The three largest Ohio branches of the union representing nearly 70,000 retail workers, endorsed Wednesday the ResponsibleOhio initiative to legalize marijuana.

"The executive board of these locals, which are made up of rank-and-file members, made a decision to support this proposal because we want to make sure that we have good jobs in the new legal marijuana industry," said Laurie Couch, a spokeswoman for United Food and Commercial Workers.

The majority of the local members work in retail stores, Couch said, including Kroger, Meijer and CVS, as well as in food packing and processing.

Akron, Ohio — Two Ohio graduate students have invented a device that will allow law enforcement officers to determine whether motorists have used marijuana.

The Plain Dealer reports  that two biomedical engineering graduate students at the University of Akron hope to market their roadside testing device to states where marijuana use has been legalized.

Mariam Crow and Kathleen Stitzlein's device tests saliva to determine the concentration of pot's active chemical in the bloodstream. Police must now wait weeks to get results from blood tests for marijuana use.

Owens also said that if marijuana is legalized, “It is critical that we expunge the records of those who have non-violent criminal records related to marijuana.”

Dr. O’Dell Owens, president of Cincinnati State Technical and Community College and the former coroner for Hamilton County, endorsed on Monday the proposed constitutional amendment that would legalize marijuana in Ohio.

In a statement issued by the legalization campaign ResponsibleOhio, Owens said that as a physician, he believes patients should be able to assess the medical value of marijuana in consultation with their doctors.

AKRON – Two graduate students have invented a device that would allow law enforcement officers to determine how much THC — the active ingredient in marijuana — is in a motorist's system during traffic stops.

The Plain Dealer reports that two biomedical engineering graduate students at the University of Akron hope to market their roadside testing device to states where marijuana use has been legalized.

Mariam Crow and Kathleen Stitzlein's device tests saliva to determine the concentration of pot's active chemical in the bloodstream. Police must now wait weeks to get results from blood tests for marijuana use.

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) – A digital effort towards legalizing marijuana could soon be coming to your smart phone.

One local man is developing the app, Brice Keller is a lawyer and veteran who supports legalizing marijuana.

He uses it medically for post traumatic stress disorder. Keller wants anyone who could relieve pain or illnesses with the drug to have legal access to it.

Part of his mission is getting marijuana legalization on the ballot.

To help with that he’s created an app, it’s called Green Fight.

Keller says it will allow activists and advocates to use the app as a tool for civil disobedience and marijuana reform.

The app also hopes to help on the legislative front as groups petition to legalize marijuana.

The Global Marijuana March (GMM) is kicking off at different locations across the world taking place this year on Saturday May 2, 2015 and include marches, meetings, rallies, concerts, festivals and other relevant information and events relating to cannabis.

The Global Marijuana March began in 1999 which have had hundreds of thousands of people participated in over 829 different cities in 72 countries worldwide since its inception.

The Global Marijuana March is a celebration embracing cannabis culture as a personal lifestyle choice. Participants unite to discuss, promote, entertain and educate both consumers and non-consumers alike.

Should Ohio make marijuana legal, for recreational as well as medical use? In principle, I’m inclined to believe it should, although I don’t — and won’t — indulge.

Is a proposal that is likely to appear on the statewide ballot this November, after years of other plans that failed to qualify, the best way to prepare Ohio to become the fifth state to legalize marijuana fully? That’s a different question, and one that Ohioans will need to examine carefully before we vote. We’ve got plenty of time to decide.