Last week Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who is running for the the U.S. Senate seat in Ohio, received a $1,000 contribution from the Marijuana Policy Project Medical Marijuana PAC, an organization that promotes medical marijuana and removing criminal penalties for marijuana use.

It turns out the Brown has a bit of history with marijuana...

In 1985, then Ohio Secretary of State Sherrod Brown's office was the center of a 9-month undercover investigation into felony drug distribution occurring right inside the office.

The Columbus Dispatch reported on July, 8, 1990:

Two employees of Secretary of State Sherrod Brown escaped felony drug prosecution in 1985, and fingers of blame were pointed in all directions yesterday after the disclosure.

The investigation began in March 1985 when Brown's office asked the highway patrol to look into suspected drug dealing in his office. During the nine-month investigation, undercover agents made three buys of marijuana and one buy of a substance purported to be cocaine from the two employees.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Brown himself found a bag of marijuana beneath the seat of his state car and turned it over to investigators.

Surely you would imagine a felony drug distribution ring being run from a state office would merit some disciplinary actions, right? Wrong...

An employee who sold drugs to an undercover agent in 1985 was promoted by Secretary of State Sherrod Brown and remains on the state's payroll, the dispatch has learned.

The employee escaped felony drug prosecution and disciplinary action despite evidence she sold a 1/4-ounce bag of marijuana to the agent in the statehouse parking garage Aug. 9, 1985.

The investigations ended with no indictments, in part says a Highway Patrol investigator, because Brown wanted the matter dropped going into the 1986 election. They attempted to place another undercover agent in the office, and were rebuked.

A Patrol investigative report dated Jan. 7, 1986, says [then-Assistant Franklin county Prosecutor David] Johnson and two Patrol supervisors, Lt. Joe Hopkins and Capt. Richard Wilcox, agreed that the nine-month investigation should be placed 'on hold' until such time additional information is developed which will produce evidence of additional drug activity.

However, the Patrol did not get that chance. Patrol records show brown did not want another undercover agent coming into the office and trying to make more drug buys.

Those records say Donald Kindt, then a top Brown assistant, tentatively agreed to hire an undercover agent as an employee, but that decision was overridden by Brown on Dec. 10, 1985

On Dec. 11, 1985, Hopkins called Kindt, who advised that he didn't have any problems with the OSP (Ohio State Patrol) over the delay, but Brown feels it should be dropped as it is going into the next year (1986).

On Dec. 30, 1985, Kindt told Hopkins that 'Brown wants the matter dropped,' the records show.

In a 1990 look at the investigation, Franklin County Prosecutor Michael Miller said that "an honest mistake'' kept authorities from filing a felony drug charge against a Brown employee for a drug sale to a law enforcement officer. The Plain Dealer reported September 1, 1990:

Franklin county prosecutor S. Michael Miller said... he could find no evidence of impropriety in the handling of a 1985 investigation into drug trafficking in Ohio Secretary of State Sherrod Brown's office.

Miller said he accepted Brown's explanation when he told the Patrol in December 1985 that the probe should be concluded because there was no indication then of any drug sales in his office.

But that's not what the Patrol actually said. They most certainly did make drug buys in Brown's office - that's in their records. Patrol records show three other drug sales were not prosecuted because the Patrol did not want to jeopardize an informant in Brown's office.

And it wasn't just drug sales occurring in Brown's office; there was an "overdose." From a June 27, 1990 article in the The Columbus Dispatch:

The victim was taken to the grant medical center emergency room, where medical personnel determined she had ingested marijuana.

Dr. Ron Thomas, at Grant, indicated the victim's reaction was typical of someone who had never used marijuana before, Sgt. L.J.Jackson wrote in his report. 'Since there is no way to prove how the marijuana got into the victim's system, this case will be considered closed,' Jackson wrote Oct. 23.

The case ended without charges or prosecution, but a subsequent investigation by Brown's office led to the resignation of David H. Goldsmith, now 38, on Dec. 12. Goldsmith, who could not be reached for comment, was an accounts clerk in the office corporations section.

The office investigation was hampered because apparently only two brownies had been brought into the office and both were eaten, leaving no evidence to test.

Columbus Dispatch Archive Articles

The Cleveland Plain Dealer article archives are available, in excerpt form, online here.