Suburbia registered strongest opposition to marijuana-legalization issue in Ohio

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Opposition was strongest in suburbia to Ohio’s first-in-the-nation effort to legalize both medical and recreational marijuana in a single vote, according to an analysis of final election results.

About 7 in 10 voters in the counties that ring Columbus and Toledo voted against last fall’s Issue 3, while more than 60 percent voted against it in the counties surrounding Dayton, Cleveland and Cincinnati, according to an analysis conducted by Columbus-based election statistics expert Mike Dawson.

Dawson said opposition was highest in affluent, well-educated suburbs – such as Columbus’ Bexley, Upper Arlington and Dublin.

“There’s a real fear about drugs in the suburbs that didn’t exist in the past, because of all the stuff that’s going on with opiates and heroin,” Dawson said. “They’re worried about marijuana being a gateway drug.”

The legalization question failed in every one of Ohio’s 88 counties, the data showed.