COLUMBUS — Two issues on this week’s ballot stand alone, but the fate of one may depend on the other.

Ohio is about to make a historic decision on Issue 3. Should the state become the first east of Colorado to legalize marijuana for recreational, medical, and commercial purposes?

But state voters also have a decision to make on Issue 2. Should private individuals have the right to etch their own commercial monopolies into the Ohio Constitution?

If Issue 2 passes, the marijuana legalization amendment may never take effect, even if voters support it.

“It’s not all about making money and about profiting”, said Ean Seeb, co-owner of Denver Relief, a dispensary whose monetary and volunteering donations include Ekar Farm and Garden, which grows vegetables for food banks. In 2012, Colorado passed a law legalizing the recreational use of marijuana.

An emergency bill for medical marijuana is on Governor Andrew Cuomo's desk after being passed by both houses of the legislature.

It's up to the governor to either sign the bill into law or veto it. If this bill passes, they say it would allow the medical marijuana plant in Rochester to open earlier. 

Right now, it is scheduled to open in January. We heard from one local lawmaker Saturday about why he thinks it’s so important for this bill to be signed into law.

The cannabis industry is taking a hit.  The nation’s first cannabis product liability lawsuit was filed in Colorado and challenges the cannabis industry’s production process.

COLUMBUS, OHIO — Deep-pocketed investors in an Ohio marijuana legalization campaign this fall have been the focus of debate over Tuesday's Issue 3.

Roughly two dozen known individuals — and an indeterminate number of others — will have exclusive rights to 10 initial growing sites located across the state. Among them are an Olympic gold medalist, a former boy band star, a fashion designer and the descendant of a president.

The pro-legalization ResponsibleOhio campaign has argued it was necessary to provide investors a monetary guarantee in order to raise the cash needed to mount an expensive statewide ballot campaign.

This week I had the good fortune to cover the SW Cannabis Conference and Expo in my first gig with CannabisRadio.com.

Tradiv, which runs an online platform that helps with wholesale deals in the marijuana industry, has cemented a $1 million round of funding to assist sustain its development.

The company formally launched on Oct. 1 after completing a company accelerator program with CanopyBoulder in June. It had the ability to raise the $1 million through connections with the ArcView Group, Poseidon Asset Management, TL Partners and Anslinger Capital.

Tradiv aims to connect buyers and sellers (merchants, growers and infused products makers) of wholesales marijuana items via an online marketplace.

Marijuana has been something of an unstoppable force over the past two decades. After being completely outlawed in all states in 1995, marijuana in 2015 can now be legally sold in 23 states for medicinal purposes (as well as Washington, D.C.), and it can be sold legally for recreational use to adults ages 21 and up in four states (and Washington, D.C.).

The potential legalization of marijuana in Ohio has elicited mixed reactions from the communities surrounding the three possible grow sites in the Cincinnati area.

The proposed Issue 3, which would legalize both recreational and medicinal use of marijuana in Ohio for adults 21 and older, names Anderson Township, Clermont County and Middletown as three of the 10 designated sites where marijuana could be grown if ResponsibleOhio’s legislation passes in November.