MONROE, Ohio — If pro-legalization groups are able to get the marijuana issue on the fall ballot, a 40-acre farm in Butler County, Ohio near Middletown could become one of 10 Ohio sites allowed to grow pot.

That proposed marijuana farm, though, is adjacent to Middletown’s largest school, and has school and police officials banding together in opposition. Those officials believe the decades of anti-drug messages will have been in vain.

No one is more irked by the proposed marijuana farm than Monroe Schools Superintendent Phil Cagwin. "In our schools, we do what we can to educate our children about the potential dangers of these drugs and also for other high-risk behaviors," he said. "I’ll be very disappointed if Ohio voters were to approve the legalization of marijuana and allow a marijuana farm to operate here."

The Butler County farm would be at the intersection of Todhunter and Yankee roads. The farm would be located 1.5 miles from Monroe’s elementary and high schools. The schools have a combined enrollment of 2,600 students in a community of more than 13,000. Monroe is 31 miles north of Cincinnati.

The proposed constitutional amendment would legalize marijuana for recreational use by adults, age 21 and older. Medical marijuana would be legal with a doctor’s prescription.

The amendment would allow Ohioans to open pot-related manufacturing plants, retail stores and medical dispensaries. But marijuana growing would be limited to 10 specified sites in the state, including the three in the Cincinnati area – Hamilton and Clermont counties – and another one in nearby Montgomery County.

The farms would likely include structures that would allow cannabis to be grown indoors and therefore year-round.

Officials with ResponsibleOhio, which is in favor of the proposed amendment, claim the legalization of marijuana would be for adults only.

"Marijuana has many medical uses and can be used responsibly by adults 21 and older for personal reasons," said ResponsibleOhio spokeswoman Lydia Bolander. "Under ResponsibleOhio’s proposal, marijuana will be legal for personal use only by adults 21 years of age and older, and there will be strict penalties – including jail time – for anyone who doesn’t follow the law."

Investors in those farms include former Bengals defensive end Frostee Rucker, Indian Hill philanthropist Barbara Gould and NBA basketball legend Oscar Robertson. All have bankrolled the campaign to legalize marijuana.

The sites in Hamilton, Butler and Clermont counties are currently owned by local businesses, who were approached in the last few weeks with offers from unidentified buyers. In at least two of the cases, the local businesses had no idea they might be selling land to grow marijuana.

The Hamilton County farm would be located on 24.5 acres at 8485 Broadwell Road in Anderson Township, part of the Forest Hills school district.

The site is owned by Broadwell Factory Group, a real estate holding company affiliated with Evans Landscaping. A children’s gymnastics center, Gymnastics Central, is also located at the address, along with a packaging company and other commercial tenants.

The Clermont County farm would be located in Batavia school district on 13 acres of undeveloped commercial land along Winding Creek Boulevard, which is near Olive Branch-Stonelick Road between Old State Route 74 and State Route 32. According to the Clermont County auditor’s website, the land is managed by Bill Woodward of Cincinnati Construction Management in Loveland. Frank Wood, a former WEBN radio host, is among the investors seeking to buy the site.

Even with possible farms lined up, the marijuana-legalization advocates have a long journey to the November ballot. The group first needs to gather 1,000 signatures, which started in Cincinnati at the end of March, then receive cursory approval of its ballot language by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and the Ohio Ballot Board. Then, the group would need another 306,000 signatures by the start of July.

Anti-drug groups and Ohio’s statewide elected officials have already come out against the proposal, both because they believe marijuana is dangerous and because it would be a constitutional amendment. If approved by voters in November, Ohio would become the fifth state – plus Washington, D.C. – to legalize marijuana for recreational use.