My Billy cunning in the Great America. Welcome to this glory. It's Thursday afternoon the tri state of bit cloudy, but the weather looks perfect for the weekend concert with the Voice of America, where I may be introducing Jason Oldeen and his big green tractor. I'm not sure it's a big green tractor or a little green tractor, but there'll
be a big tractor there. But until then, of course, Reds Baseball kicks off first pitch at six ' ten tonight bit early, and we're going to be gin a coverage about five to ten as the Reds blue one last night big time. Hopefully they'll win today, win the series, and move on to Milwaukee. They play good teams better than bad teams. But until then, Melissa Powers, of course, is the Amley County Prosecutor walking in the shoes of Joe Eaters, Artney and Simon Leees and Melissa Powers. Welcome
again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And Melissa, with your permission, I have a few questions to ask about marijuana. Here's the first one. Let's say you're a Tony Bender type that lives in Green Township and you legally possess a handgun because you like to carry one. And right now we are kind of an open carry We don't have to have a permit anymore, and you have no disability.
Is it legal for a Tony bender in Green Township or a Tony rosyellow to have possession of a legal handgun in their pocket or purse or whatever, and then they go in to buy marijuana which is now legal. And can you walk around the streets, the mean streets of Green Township with a gun and possessing legally marijuana.
With The short answer is yes you can. You must be an adult twenty one years or order. You can legally possess two point five ounces of marijuana now that's our law. And carry a firearm if you're legally allowed to possess a firearm. Now you can't be smoking the marijuana, but it's packaged in a baggy you and you have a fine arm. Yes, you can carry both at the
same time. You can transport it in a car at the same time that you've got to follow the proper firearm you know how to transport a firearm in a vehicle. But yes you can. You can be in possession of both as long as you're two point five or under bounces and and you can carry a firearm.
When I talked to lawmakers Bill Sitz and Huffman and others, and the Speaker of the House, when I speak to them, they both say there's needs to update the law because as a prosecutor, you don't you don't create law or make law. You follow the law. And there is some dispute as to the level of marijuana you can have
when you're driving a motor vehicle. There was there was a testimony I think I had on Stevens, you Speaker of the House, about a week or ten days ago, and he talked about using a swab inside your inside your cheek to see the level of THC is as a frontline prosecutor, is there a clear delineation when you operate a motor vehicle as far as what is and what is not the proper level of marijuana in your system while you're driving a car.
There is a clear delineation. The law is written that you cannot operate a motor vehicle under the ensigns of the marijuana metabolite and the prohibited level in your blooder urine for blood is five nanograms per marijuana metabolite per milli liter of your blood, and for urine it's fifteen nanograms per milli leader of your urine. So there is they do hant this. There are levels that you cannot have in your system while you're operating a motor vehicle.
That's a great answer. So let's say Tony Bender is in Anderson Township driving around. He said, had a couple of hits on the joint, and you're talking about blood and urine unlike breath. And one may try at the scene to have them do finger to nose and all those tests, and then maybe an intoxalizer handheld Tony might blow into it. But at the present time, as I understand it, is there a test using breath the determined level of intoxication.
There is not a test for breath. It's what's in your blood, blood or urine at the time you're operating the motor vehicle. So that's Those are the tests that would be requested of you if you were pulled over and suspected of operating a motor vehicle impaired and under the influence of marijuana.
So Tony would have to take it, please please. So Tony would have to go to the hospital with the cop. How do you get urine or blood at the scene of a stop? How do you do that?
Well, the urine they can take the blood, they would have to have a nurse or if any MPT or as you said, from the hospital. So there's limited ways to get the sample, need it in order to test it to see if you're impaired. But it's not as easy as breath. You're correct.
Well, when I talked to lawmakers, you want to develop some tests at the scene where you can swab inside of the cheek. And I'm thinking, man, how would that work? And when you advise police agencies in Hamlety County have they have they called recently the last few days about what to do in these circumstances of blood urine And the person said, no, you know, I had a little
bit of marijuana. I smoked a little bit. But how do you determine if they're under the influence if there if you have take blood or urine, that's a little bit messy at times, and there is no test for breath, and so would it be helpful for frontline prosecutors to have the lawmakers in Columbus clean that up? A little bit.
Well, that's you know, as you as you stated earlier, as the prosecutor, I follow the law. I don't create the law. Sometimes we weigh in and make suggestions we can be in favor or pose. So basically, you know, that's up to the state legislatures. And and and they're on break I think for until October, so they've had a year to sit there and figure this out. But they also this is not anything new. I mean, this
is testing for marijuana, testing for other drugs. As you said, I mean, very few officers are trained to be able to detect and be they you know, and be able to pay. They're specialized officers that actually figure out that are trained to recognize the symptoms of drug abuse. And they do that through different exercises involving pupils. It's been a while since ide been in the courtroom where these tests were being done, but they do have sun at their disposal. I think they're going to have to do
more training. I think also what has to be changed is, you know, all the canines that were trained to hit on a car if they smelled ra all marijuana. I mean, there's all kinds of things that don't need to change with this now that.
This is legal and they haven't done it. And I like to think when Republicans don't have Democrats to fight with, they fight with other Republicans, and Democrats don't have democrats to fight with Republicans, they with other Democrats. Like on the county Commissioner, they're fighting all the time. So at this point, it would be helpful if lawmakers actually got together, did their job and not going break until October and tell the eighty eight county prosecutors this is what to do,
this is what not to do. Now, you mentioned about smoking marijuana in public. If Tony Bender wants to walk around Washington Park on a Sunday afternoon lighting up his weed, can he legally walk around the city of Cincinnati with marijuana just smoking it?
Is that legal? No? No, it's not legal. You cannot smoke pot on any federal, state, or locally owned land in the state of Ohio, so parks, streets, all of that is illegal now. But we've got a mayor in the city of Cincinnati that doesn't enforce possession of marijuana at one hundred grands. There's no enforcement of that law. So I guess it's going to depend and hopefully our mayor will step up and be able to, you know, put this in line. Because Stanley's, for example, I mean
hot stinks. Yeah, who wants to be walking around and smelling it? And say in the public area. Another place that it doesn't apply would the restaurants and bars. You cannot smoke there because of the no smoking laws that were passed with regard to cigarettes. So you can't smoke in no smoking areas, you can't smoke in public areas. You can't smoke in there, but you can't smoke and you cannot smoke in your car. So that's another that's also ill legal.
So let me get this straight. You can't smoke in a park, you can't smoke it on state property, you can't smoke it on federal property, you can't smoke it on city property. You can't smoke it in your car, you can't smoke it inside restaurants and bars, and you can't smoke it in any facility like I don't know, uh, Dillard's, they have signed you can't smoke there. So where can you smoke it? At home?
Right? That's it. It's pretty much at home, your own yard. You know that is obvious. Now, somebody that has a public let's say what. I'm kind of curious. I think in the doorra areas, you know where you're allowed to drink. You know that it's legal to drink out on the street. I don't think they allow smoking. That's in the smoking area too, So you can't smoke there. So you can smoke in designated areas, that's permissible, And you can smoke in your home, but you cannot smoke or in your
yard or on your property. But you cannot smoke in a car or any public area or any area that's been designated for no smoking.
So I'm going to bring this up to you. I'm in Washington Park about a week ago Sunday with the People's Judge, Penelope Are along with Sean Donovan, who lives downtown. We take a walk from his home on Court Street, walk up to OTR walk through Washington Park on a Sunday Sunday evening about six thirty and the smell of marijuana was everywhere, and there were numerous people sitting on
park benches smoking like crazy, and uh, just publicly. And I'm looking around, I'm smelling it, and I'm looking and there's cops walking around and guess what. Nobody's cited, nobody arrested, and.
That's our mayor. That's our mayor is responsible for that. He does not. He has told distance at police department that even though it's illegal to possess, you know, you're at one hundred grams of marijuana. So the current law of recreation is actually less than what is permitted on the books, but you and you can't and it's it's a minor, mistermeor to smoke in public areas. They're not enforcing that law. They've been told not to enforce that law.
So hopefully, hopefully the public outcry would be is to ask our mayor to enforce the law so that we, you know, families and people that want to enjoy the parks without having to smell that because it does stink. You know, people don't like it, and it's illegal to enforce the law.
So I went up to a cop in uniform and I said, to this nice officer, I looked at his name, but his name's not relevant. I said, let me ask you a question, officer. I'm in Washington Park. It's illegal to smoke marijuana here, and I see a few dozen people smoking pot. I said, why aren't you citing. Somebody looked at me and said, I don't want to deal with it, and I said, what do you mean. He said, well, we're told not to site and not to arrest anyone,
and I don't want to deal with it. I said, well, I don't want to be argumentative, but you took an oath to follow the law of the State of Ohio, the City of Cincinnati, the US Constitution, and obviously you're not doing it. And he said, I just don't want
to deal with it. I'm thinking, well, that's not good when you have law enforcement that would do their job, but they're told by Chief Thiji and the city manager share along, and they're told by the mayor don't We're not gonna We're going to enforce some laws but not enforce other laws because of that's just what we're going to do. If I'm in Warren County, I don't see people walking around smoking pot because in Lebanon you'll be cited.
Now.
You know, maybe it's good or bad, but you don't want uh. You don't want mayors or even prosecutors creating law. You want them enforcing the law. And it's a breakdown of law and order in a small way, but it's a it's a serious one.
Now.
Now, lastly, we have a big election coming up, and if you can take off your prosecutorial hat and put on your candidate hat. I've said publicly that the most important election outside of the presidency is for county prosecutor. Practically every urban area has elected Liberal Democrats to be the prosecutor. So we see the results in Chicago, Columbus, Ohio,
we see in New York City. Can you tell the American people, Missy Powers, how important this election is, especially suburbanites who want to see laws enforced and I want to see criminals prosecutor. How important is this election coming November fifth for you and for the people of Hamlet County.
Well, Bill, you couldn't be more right about how critical this election is through the future of Hamilton County. And what's on the ballot is public safety, and people need to have to really be concerned. The public safety obviously affects everybody. You should be feel safe walking down the street, going to an FC game, going to the grocery store.
You should not be afraid that somebody is going to hurt you or a family member, and if you are, unfortunately the victim of a crime, or someone that you love is a victim of a crime, you want justice and you want accountability. And what we see across the country is that there are prosecutors that are not enforcing the law, that are lenient, that are not holding people accountable,
and the victims rights are being trampled on. This election in our county, we're at a crossroads and it's going to be what direction do we want the county to go? And you cannot be thinking you just vote down ballot or it's all about politics, because public safety has nothing to do with politics at this point. You're going to want, hopefully a prosecutor that has experience and that is law in order. I've got over thirty two years of experienced, thirty one of them in the courtroom where I was
a prosecutor. I worked in the office for eight years, was a defense attorney, and in private practice for seven years, was a judge for sixteen years. My opponent can't say any of that. The last time she was in the courtroom was in two thousand and five, and she did public defense work, so she's never tried a murder case. She's never prosecuted a case. And in fact, even last year she didn't have a law license. She let that lapse. So it's a very very important election. And you know,
where is she. She's not speaking out when these judges are setting low bonds and letting violent criminals to go right back into the neighborhood. She's not making any any you know, saying making any stand on that. Where is she where I'm speaking out against that. I'm trying to make sure that we are making judges think about public safety, that we are fighting for victims, that we are trying to make sure there's accountability, and we are supporting law enforcement.
So that's the differences. You have a clear choice. If you vote down the party line, you're going to pick the wrong person. I guarantee you that is not what you're going to want. Because most people when they hear that somebody wasn't held accountable, somebody was released on I know, our bond that was on a violent offense, they like, how does this happen? Well, they've been voting down the party line. They're not looking at the people. They're not
looking at who's law in order. Because I think the majority of people want to feel safe, and what majority of people want accountability and a majority of people we know we want law in order. We know what happens if it doesn't. Just look into all these cities in the neighborhoods that need it the most are the neighborhoods that are getting hurt the worst because these violent criminals going right back in the same neighborhood and they're hurting more people. And we want to put a stop to that.
Car break ins, murders, robberies, thieveries, way up and in the suburbs, they're often the victims of crime. Melissa Powers, good luck. We'll see what happens. You gave us a lot of good information about marijuana laws and things of that character. And the American people should know that your opponent did not have a law license last year. I mean last year she couldn't spell prosecutor. Now she is one, hopefully not. And Melissa Powers, once again, thank you for
coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. May God bless you and God bless America. Melissa, thank you very much.
Thank you, Bell God bless you too.
Let's continue with more if a line becomes available. Five one, three, seven, four, nine, seven, thousand. Red Baseball kicks off about five ten. Imagine running a big city prosecutor office with about one hundred and fifty employees, and last year you couldn't prosecute because you didn't have a law license. Not good, Let's continue. Bill Cunningham, News Radio seven hundred WLW