Love your new Avatar!
I've started some of my Christmas baking today, so have been ruminating on this case while I sling flour and sugar. So please indulge me a little ruminating.
At the time the Rhodens were murdered, the ballot initiative to legalize MJ in Ohio had failed. Voters thought it was structured to set up cartels, giving just a few wealthy execs and celebs complete control over all cultivation, distribution and sales. The opposing groups (and I can't recall their names) wanted a law that would allow individuals and small Ohio farmers to grow and sell. Both sides were still slugging it out in the news media, preparing to introduce a new ballot initiative.
No doubt people like CRSr would have liked to see something pass allowing smaller grow ops. He had kept his nose clean and with some of the property he had, may have qualified for a permit under a plan that gave licenses to many smaller Ohio grow ops. But what if there were other honchos in the region who wanted to apply as large scale grow ops? It's been said (and I'm no expert) that the conditions for growing MJ were optimal in that area around Pike, Adams, Brown. Scioto counties. So there might have been some growing competition among groups that wanted to apply for permits if MJ was legalized.
What if the big/wealthy landowners and business folk were busy talking to Ohio pols to pressure them to pass a new law that would restrict MJ growers only to big, wealthy companies. We know the small growers around the state were busy fighting to have a more open kind of grow law. What if the little guys like CRSr had already been working and competing with the big wealthy landowners, who could afford to buy protection. The whole issue of competition for who would be able to get local grow permits combined with access and pressure on local politicians in the statehouse became so heated that threats were made and people were killed. Could be CRSr knew enough about what bigger MJ growers were up to. Maybe they were also selling or transporting hard drugs. CRSr could have made a threat that was going t compromise someone's ability to have a clean permit. In that case, federal agents in the area could be the wild card. CRSr could have bypassed local LE, who might be looking the other way on big growers/dealers activities, but federal agents would be much less likely to do so.
The whole thing blew up, Rhodens were massacred and LE/prosecutors covered it up as quickly as possible while stiff arming the feds.
The growers in the Ohio MJ cartel who get permits to grow, process and sell will become extremely wealthy. They will show their appreciation to any locals who helped them get there, as is already seen in the permits recently issued. Lots of payback for the pols who quickly rammed this bill through. The Homan family is just one example. Check the permits recently granted to other big growers and you'll see the same things. Out of town big money investors, local rich guys with links and lot of donations to politicians, etc.
So, yeah, DeWine and all the other pols just want the Rhoden murders to go away. They want the new growers, processors and sellers to get licensed and in production and passing along favors as soon as possible. Everyone will be happy.
