Guest column: Rep. Joyce works for states' rights

U.S. Rep. David P. Joyce, R-Bainbridge, whose 14th District includes all of Geauga County and most of the Cuyahoga County portion of the Chagrin Valley, has been making some waves with his bipartisanship again.

Rep. Joyce is a co-chairman of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, which is working to pass a bill called “Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States.” Essentially, if passed by the House and Senate and signed by President Donald Trump, the bill would affirm states’ rights on the issue of marijuana legalization, among other sensible measures.

Marijuana use is now fully legal in 10 U.S. states. Eight others, including Ohio, have legalized medical marijuana. Back in 1975, Ohio, under then-Gov. James Rhodes, a Republican, decriminalized possession of 100 grams or less of marijuana. But the numb skulls who control the federal government refuse to legally differentiate marijuana from heroin. And certain no-nothings falsely claim that marijuana is addictive like legal opioids, hallucinogenic like LSD and, the old fallback, it’s a “gateway drug,” like coffee, I suppose.

So, of course, Rep. Joyce’s efforts are taking hits from worshippers of big-government overreach.

Readers of my coming-of-age memoir, “Virginity Lost in Vietnam,” know about my experiences nearly 50 years ago in Southeast Asia and about a legal system that runs roughshod over the Fourth Amendment protections against “unreasonable searches and seizures.” Readers of my opinion pieces in the Times papers over the years also may know that I’ve advocated for marijuana legalization. People who read up on facts know that cannabis is far less harmful than alcohol, tobacco and other legal drugs.

I know of fellow veterans who swear that marijuana eases their suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. I know of people who find that it relieves their pain from multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease and other afflictions.

As Rep. Joyce has pointed out, cannabis very well may be an alternative to the often-deadly opioids that are legally prescribed for pain relief. So, obviously, I’m a supporter of his efforts on the Congressional Cannabis Caucus.

I’ve known Rep. Joyce at least since 1988, when he became the 30-year-old Geauga County prosecutor. During my 28-year tenure as editor of the Times papers and his 25-year tenure as prosecutor, which has been succeeded by six years in Congress, our paths crossed many times.

When he served as county prosecutor, Rep. Joyce earned well-deserved credit for his work on some major criminal cases. In 1989, he worked with then-Lake County Prosecutor Steven C. LaTourette in the successful prosecution of Jeffrey Lundgren and his collaborators in what was known as the “Kirtland cult killings.” Rep. Joyce also successfully prosecuted Thomas J. Lane in the 2012 mass shooting that killed three fellow Chardon High School students and injured two others.

In our newspapers’ endorsement for his re-election to Congress in 2014, I wrote that Rep. Joyce “has earned the right to call himself ‘conservative,’ but he also has the decency and wisdom to reach across the aisle for collaboration on issues of supreme importance to his district, as he did to secure $300 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.”

Once again Dave Joyce is earning the right to call himself a conservative by working to limit big government while also exhibiting the decency and wisdom to reach across the aisle to do the right thing.

Any newspaper editorial writer who doesn’t publicly disagree with virtually every political leader covered by his or her publications on certain issues wouldn’t be doing his or her job. So, yes, Rep. Joyce has taken some criticism, as well as praise, on these editorial pages.

Mr. Lange is the retired editor of the Times.

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