It’s very seldom that community leaders all agree on a topic, but after a County Commissioner meeting Thursday morning, it’s clear that most Muskingum County officials are standing together in opposition to Issue 1.

The Muskingum County Commissioners held an open meeting Thursday morning to discuss a unified front among many prominent leaders in the community against Issue 1. Prosecutor Mike Haddox served as the main talking head during the discussion as to what Issue 1 would do for the community.

“I think the fact that you (commissioners) see this many officials sitting here before you is a case of how serious this Issue 1 is,” Haddox said. “Personally, I think it’s probably the most dangerous and destructive proposed law (in) the criminal justice system that I’ve seen since I’ve been around.”

Some specifics of the actual proposed law were mentioned during the meeting, but Haddox encouraged everyone in the room that hadn’t done so to take 15 minutes to read through it on their own.

“What makes this so dangerous and destructive, actually there’s many things, first of all I think in theory could basically legalize the possession of every drug,” Haddox said. “The reason I say that is, it’s not written very well. I don’t think it’s written very well or maybe it’s not written very well purposefully.”

Issue 1 allows for a 25 percent decrease in sentencing for cases with the exception of, murder, rape and child molestation.

The issue that Haddox, and the judges in the room, had with those qualifications is that there is no code or crime that’s categorized as “child molestation.” Haddox said there is gross sexual imposition and sexual battery, but no crime that is classified as child molestation, which means the 25 percent sentence reduction doesn’t apply to murder and rape.

With sentencing potentially being cut by one-fourth, inmates with a one year sentence will be reduced to a 9 months. Inmates with a 20 year sentence will be reduced to 15 years.

“Who’s benefiting the most from this? The most serious criminals that we have in our system,” Haddox said.

Additionally, with the passage of Issue 1, Haddox mentioned that it essentially decriminalizes the possession of drugs as a whole, not just less severe drugs.

“You could have enough drugs to kills 10,000 people but it’s still going to be a misdemeanor,” Haddox said in reference to a person possessing just under 20 grams of fentanyl.

He went on to say that those charged with misdemeanor drug offenses will not go to prison, so even if a person is sentenced to treatment or rehabilitation, there is no threat of going to jail if that person doesn’t comply.

“Haven’t we legalized that drug at that point? Because there’s not a darn thing we can do about it,” Haddox said.

All officials in the room – Mayor Jeff Tilton, Zanesville Police Chief Tony Coury, Sheriff Matt Lutz, Judge Fleegle, Clerk of Courts Todd Bickle, Judge Rankin, Judge Hooper and all county commissioners – agreed with Haddox’s points.

With early voting that began Wednesday and the Midterm Election on Nov. 6, it’s clear that across the board in Muskingum County, officials involved in the judicial system, law enforcement and local government are strongly against the passage of Issue 1.

This is the first story in a series of stories that Y-City News is publishing on Issue 1. The information included in this story is not all of the information involved with Issue 1.