Pubdate: Wed, 18 Jun 2014
Source: Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Copyright: 2014 C.E.G.W./Times-Shamrock
Contact:  http://www.metrotimes.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1381
Author: Larry Gabriel
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?275 (Cannabis - Michigan)

MORE MICHIGAN CITIES TO CONSIDER DECRIMINALIZING MARIJUANA

Pot at the Polls.

Michiganders are gearing up for a lot of voting about marijuana over
the next several months. In August, folks in Hazel Park and Oak Park
will be voting on decriminalization of possession and transfer on
private property of up to an ounce of the substance for those 21 and
older.

In Oak Park, the Safer Oak Park Coalition had to take it to court to
force the city to put the question on the ballot, even though the
Safer Michigan Coalition had successfully jumped through all the legal
hoops to get it on. Oak Park officials tried to use an administrative
maneuver to keep it off. They claimed that the ballot language had to
be approved by Attorney General Bill Schuette's office. Schuette is no
friend of marijuana decriminalization, and the AG stood mute on the
language. Since the AG didn't speak, Oak Park officials said the
question couldn't go on the ballot. The coalition sued, and an Oakland
County Circuit Court ruled that the question must go on the ballot.

But that's just the beginning. In November, Utica, Lapeer, Port Huron,
Onaway, Harrison Township, East Lansing, Clare, Saginaw, Frankfurt,
Mount Pleasant, Portage, and Berkley will be voting on essentially the
same question -- except in Utica, where the issue is a lowest law
enforcement priority (LLEP). That means police need to pursue any
other crime as a higher priority than a marijuana offense. Utica is
the first city in a presumably conservative Macomb County to have such
an initiative.

Tim Beck of the Safer Michigan Coalition feels the initiatives will be
successful across the board.

"I'd say it's definite," he says. "We've never lost. These are not
radical proposals. The majority of Michigan citizens believe that
small-time marijuana should be way down at the bottom of the pile of
offenses, and that's why we're winning."

Safer Michigan has a record of successes across the state -- Detroit,
Lansing, Grand Rapids, Flint, Ypsilanti, and Kalamazoo -- where
decriminalization or LLEP laws have been passed. Ann Arbor
decriminalized marijuana in the 1970s. In 2012, five out of five
initiatives passed in the November elections.

It's part of a long-term strategy to change things statewide, even if
they have to go city by city. Beck suggests that there will be a few
more cities considering new pot initiatives this fall before all is
said and done, though he won't speak publicly about them yet.

"We've got this down to a science," he says. "It's probably going to
be the tipping point for Michigan to become a decriminalized state."

There's another angle to this. Many people believe that House Bills
5104 and 4271 will be passed at some time this year by the Michigan
Legislature. HB5104 would legalize medibles (edible marijuana-infused
products), and HB4271 would allow cities to decide if they want to
allow dispensaries to operate within their borders.

"It's a purely local option as to how the dispensaries will be
regulated," Beck says. "I think it's going to have a major impact;
it's going to be huge. The effect here is that in these cities, the
political class cannot legitimately claim that the citizens are afraid
of marijuana" when the question of dispensaries comes up.

This is how you change policy from the bottom up.

If these initiatives are successful, there will be more than 20 cities
in Michigan that have flipped on the marijuana question -- and many of
our biggest cities. Warren, in Macomb County, with some 134,000
residents, is one of the biggest that hasn't faced an initiative --
and there don't seem to be any current plans to take that place on.

Still, the city-by-city approach in Michigan mirrors the
state-by-state approach nationally. There are now 22 legal medical
marijuana states, along with the District of Columbia. Colorado and
Washington state have legalized recreational use. Alaskans will vote
on legalization this fall. As the tide turns through petition
initiatives, legislatures in some states are beginning to smell the
cannabis and are starting to scale back prohibition laws without
waiting for voters to change things themselves.

It shows how things can radically change. When my father, born in
1915, was 17 years old, marijuana was legal but alcohol wasn't. Hmmm.

There's been much hoopla over the passing of an amendment to H.R.
4660, the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
Appropriations Act that forbids the Drug Enforcement Agency and
Department of Justice from using federal funds to go after people
operating state-legal medical marijuana or industrial hemp businesses.

I kind of downplayed the importance of this act partly because it
still has to be OK'd by the Senate and the president. And who knows
what kind of strategies the DEA and DOJ could use to get around the
law. DEA chief Michele Leonhart has said that she thinks marijuana
should remain a Schedule 1 drug, a classification that says marijuana
has no accepted medical use. More sober speculation since the May 30
vote has taken a thoughtfully cautious stance -- no more dancing in
the streets and throwing foot-long colas in the air.

I've seen the high enthusiasm crash in the past when a representative
introduced some pro-marijuana legislation that ultimately went nowhere
enough times to take it all with a grain of salt. However, I do
acknowledge that it was historic that this is the first time since
1937, when the Tax Act made marijuana sales illegal, that a majority
of Congress has voted to substantially change federal policy on the
subject. Hey, the fact that it even got to a vote was a big deal. Most
of these things just melt away in committee.

Congress voted 219-189 in favor of the bipartisan amendment.
Generally, marijuana activists claim that it's not a partisan issue.
But when you break it down in the United States Congress, that's a
different story. Democrats voted 170-17 in favor; Republicans voted
49-172 against. That's partisan.

The Michigan delegation was a little more equitable, with an 8-4 vote
in favor. Michigan Republicans voted 5-3 against the measure; Michigan
Democrats voted 3-1 in favor. Sander Levin (whose former home is just
three doors down from mine) cast the single nay vote among Democrats.
There were two representatives who didn't vote: John Dingell (D) and
Dan Benishek (R). Dingell's 12th district covers the Detroit to Ann
Arbor area. Benishek's 1st district covers the upper lower peninsula
and the entire upper peninsula.

Rep. Gary Peters (D), who's running for Senate this year to replace
Sen. Carl Levin (Sander's brother) voted yes.

Even under the somewhat relaxed atmosphere of the Michigan Medical
Marihuana Act, patients and caregivers have had to operate with some
fears that they could still be arrested. As some law-enforcement
officers are fond of reminding us, marijuana -- medical or otherwise
- -- is still illegal at the federal level.

And even when the 2009 Ogden memo directing federal district attorneys
not to prosecute people using medical marijuana legally under state
statutes was issued, some federal DAs chose to flip the bird to the
Obama administration and continued raiding some state legal operations.

We may be nearing the end of that, with an amendment that won't let
them spend money on it. In the meantime, be aware that an intimidating
raid could still happen to you. And the meantime could be a very long
time.
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MAP posted-by: Matt