When I met with my counsel about legalizing cannabis in Ohio, I explained I never bring up a problem without a solution.

The problem I brought up to him and his many large industrial clients is the excessive industrial pollution in Northeast Ohio, primarily from coal-burning industrial source points like MCCO and MIttal, which must be eliminated to make this a livable, sustainable region.

The solution I asked his firm to support is making Northeast Ohio the Open Source Capital of the Brightest Greenest State of Earth, including legalizing Cannabis and basing the Global Cannabis Exchange and industry here... which will grow to over $1 trillion world-wide in the coming years.

Cannabis is marijuana, for medicinal and other personal use... and hemp, for industrial use and nutrition - two classes of crops, each worth $10s billions to the Ohio economy alone, if developed effectively.

We need $ billions in legal "NEW" economy tender here...

Not that a marijuana economy in this region is new, as it is already worth $ billions to our "underground". I just propose we harvest the value from the underground to the mainstream, and expand the value, to make marijuana AND hemp good for the region and our citizens and visitors... and the world.

For economic perspective, the government of Canada has estimated they grow over $4 billion in marijuana annually in British Columbia alone, supporting over 100,000 workers there - and the projected numbers for Quebec are higher - and 98% of that is exported illegally to America. The Canadian government loves that - the American government wants to stop that illegal flow and tax a new marijuana economy here.

The government of California estimates their annual marijuana consumption at $14 billion, and intends to tax that - I project the national consumption of illegal marijuana in America has a value near $100 billion - Ohio is probably over $10 billion. Legal, and used as conventional medicines and herbs, the market potential of marijuana is far above current illegal baselines. Who knows the value, if marijuana becomes more popular than beer... or Viagra.

For intellectual perspective, I saw a debate between William F. Buckley and John Kenneth Galbraith, around 1980, where the conservative Buckley strongly argued the importance of legalizing marijuana, for economic reasons - and most enlightened economists seem to agree. Galbraith's argument against legal marijuana was very Great Society (his baby) and unrealistic, as has been the War against pot.

Buckley won the debate by a landslide.  

Beyond legalizing commercialization of marijuana in Ohio, I propose that Ohio become core to the global hemp industry, now taking off world-wide.

Hemp has been an important industrial crop since man viewed plants as crops, and it is said to have 25,000 uses - it is a $1 trillion industry stunted world-wide by regressive legacy American industrial-police-state policies no longer acceptable in the enlightened global new economy. All future agricultural planning in America must include provisions for hemp in widespread primary use and rotation - and all industries must realign to that fact - and Ohio must lead the revolution that way.

My proposal to counsel is to place on a statewide ballot a provision to legalize Cannabis - marijuana and hemp - for medicinal, personal and industrial use in Ohio. How that may be applied statewide is now to be determined.

To begin the process, I am moving to have my home town of East Cleveland use an emergency ordinance at the city council level to change our laws to make it legal for residents in East Cleveland to grow and possess personal marijuana and hemp on private property, and to commercialize marijuana and hemp as part of an industry. East Cleveland may pass and enforce such a new order of law under home rule.  This process is currently underway.

I propose East Cleveland become the global innovator with marijuana and hemp, as herb, medicine, food, crop and industry, and base the International Cannabis Exchange there.

A nice representation of what East Cleveland will look like when bright green is provided by Joe Stanley, in his Economy21 re-Forest City Capstone Thesis for making East Cleveland truly green - conceived without a cannabis economy and now a certainty with. His capstone is attached and some illustrations of his East Cleveland planning highlight the current planning below.

The Brightest Greenest East Cleveland plan includes developing 1,000,000s of square feet of medicinal marijuana growing facilities, processing facilities, offices and support facilities, basically filling every inch of East Cleveland with the brightest, greenest assets and prosperity possible.

I propose East Cleveland offer a little Amsterdam zoning in some commercial neighborhoods, where marijuana is legal as a part of our lifestyle and local retail economy there, and as an attraction for visitors. Cafes, clubs and medical facilities there may all feature marijuana as part of their economies.

I propose we convert any excess property in East Cleveland to grow facilities, owned by a cooperative of all current citizens, to generate wealth for the community and region, and I propose all residents may be licensed to grow medicinal and recreational marijuana on their property, to profit from this industry and further support the community through taxes on the commerce. As such, East Cleveland offers millions of square feet of marijuana growing space offering millions of pounds of annual marijuana crop yields for medicinal and recreational use, valued at over $1 billion.

All this must be done to exacting standards, and may make East Cleveland the anchor of the global marijuana supply chain.

See how a typical site now abandoned may redevelop with this industry, from Joe's "Foundation Reuse" component, which was very innovative and is being contemplated by other planners today... missing this higher purpose...

Foundation Reuse Planning by Joe Stanley, 2008

I propose East Cleveland will be the most prosperous city on Earth, followed closely by Cleveland.

For Cleveland, I have met with Councilman Cummins and other community leaders proposing we develop similar hemp and marijuana development zones in wards or neighborhoods of Cleveland.

For example, the Flats should certainly be redeveloped with legal marijuana in the plans, as should Tremont and Slavic Village, where there has been great environmental and social harm from air pollution. Each Cleveland neighborhood should be allowed to develop economic opportunity like in East Cleveland, as the citizens like, localized to the specific needs and interests of neighborhoods, and regional assets like our roads, rail lines, development sites, and underutilized property.

An example is plans to convert the former Richmond Brothers Building, on East 55th, into a 500,000 square foot marijuana and hemp seed factory, to supply the certified organic seeds needed to grow $ billions in cannabis crops in America - that is actually the greatest near-term obstacle to growth of these industries going forward.

And there are certainly many other facilities available in Cleveland to support these industries - and citizens in the region needing work. No need to be bashful.

Most important to my proposal for Northeast Ohio is building the world's largest and primary medicinal marijuana growing and processing facility on the current Mittal site in the Flats of Cleveland, to create the wealth necessary to correct our environmental injustice here.

We are the only city in America with a combination steel processing facility in the heart of our community and it is killing our citizens and economy - that must go.

An 80+ acre medicinal marijuana growing facility will grow up to $8 billion in product for the United States government and global medical and industrial applications, including for the pharmaceutical and food and beverages industries, which will certainly consume that level of product.

An $8 billion new economy - not including taxes and related incomes of 10,000s of employees - will allow the community to literally buy-out the entire Mittal Cleveland Works operation - at over 1,000 acres of toxic superfund brownfields, I'd estimate the value at under $1 billion - and relocate any useful steelmaking facilities to a place they are safer and more environmentally intelligent to operate - or scrap them - and rededicate the flats to an urban Eden.

With less than 10% of the site being dedicated to greenhouses and related facilities, the community will gain over 1,000 acres of land for smart redevelopment and for public access and use - including opening up and truly remediating much of the Cuyahoga River now polluted by Mittal. Without Mittal, there will be no heavy ship traffic deep up the river, and the river may truly be saved for a better future for the region.

Of course, most important, our proposal eliminates all the harmful air pollution and death Mittal causes, making it safe living around there for the first time since the late1800s.

At the top of this post and below is Thanet Earth, on the Island of Kent, showing exactly what my proposed 80+ acre greenhouse looks like - it is for growing cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers. To construct this in the Flats, replacing Mittal, would cost around $300 million and employ approximately 2,000 people full time, directly through the primary facility operations - 1,000s of related jobs would be created in construction, environmental remediation, and in ancillary businesses, just like with making steel.

Ancillary businesses will include vermitechnology, energy, and other core services integral to the greenhouse operating system.

Thanet Earth is exceedingly green and may be made more so in its next generation, in Cleveland.

All current Mittal workers, pensioners, and area residents will share in the benefits of this initiative first and foremost, as they have been the greatest victims of the steel industry, and their lives shall be impacted greatly by the elimination of Mittal from the region.

Wealth from the brightest greenest greenhouse must be used to buy-out businesses dependent on the current Mittal operations, and to eliminate other significant polluters in this area - the purpose of the greenhouse is to grow money to clean our local environment.

It will take $10s billions to regrow this region into a healthy place with a healthy new economy, and this proposal supports that explicit objective.

Details to follow - see the technology to inject $8+ billion a year into our economy overnight in the video below... and know it may practically be here tomorrow...