We're heading into the final rounds of the petition drives to legalize recreational marijuana here in Michigan. The MILegalize petition drive is expected to round things up by the end of December. The competing petition circulated by the Michigan Cannabis Coalition (MCC) is expected to finish up in January. In case you were wondering, the MILegalize petition is clearly the one you should support and the law you should vote for when the time comes. The MILegalize campaign comes from the Comprehensive Cannabis Law Reform Initiative Committee, which is mainly made up of the activists who have been fighting to change the marijuana laws in Michigan for many years. These are the people who have stood with the many municipal initiatives to legalize marijuana in cities across the state. These are the people who have rallied to support those who have been unjustly prosecuted in spite of the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act (MMMA). They have fundraised, and stood on the state Capitol steps, and lobbied in the legislature. Michigan NORML, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and the Michigan Green Party have endorsed MILegalize. [continues 1210 words]
There's a lot of talk about high rollers trying to get in on the growing marijuana market. Here's the tale of a couple of low rollers who'd like to get in on a market that - as Donald Trump would say - is gonna be HUGE! Andrea and Ervin Allen run a family- and home-based business on the east side of Detroit. It's called A&E products; they're in the medical marijuana business. Andrea is a medical marijuana caregiver and Ervin is a patient. Their tale of interest in the plant goes back about 13 years when Andrea's father died from cancer. [continues 1360 words]
I saw purple spots. I saw yellow spots. I saw green spots. I saw orange spots. No, I wasn't tripping on some hallucinogen. I was looking at the map of Detroit on display at the City Planning Commission's public hearing on the zoning ordinance for the city's Medical Marijuana Caregiver Centers. Each of the colored spots represented the schools, churches, parks, liquor stores, strip joints, and whatever else the proposed centers would have to be at least 1,000 feet away from as the zoning ordinance is currently written. [continues 879 words]
Lansing - A group seeking to put recreational marijuana legalization on the November 2016 ballot abruptly stopped collecting signatures at the end of September, prompting a competing pro-pot group to speculate the other campaign is faltering. "We've heard rumors they were out of money. We haven't seen them on the street," said Jeff Hank, chair of the MI Legalize campaign. "To take a month off from petitioning is odd." But Republican political consultant Matt Marsden, who is heading the Michigan Cannabis Coalition, says the campaign is taking a "pause" to study the 210,000 voters who have already signed in pursuit of the minimum 252,523 valid voter signatures needed to get on the ballot. [continues 333 words]
It seems that some Michigan political bodies have finally been pushed to give up their wait-and-see approach to marijuana. The wait-and-see was really more of a stall-and-demure and even an ignore-it-and-maybe-it-will-go-away tactic. But citizen actions have finally forced lawmakers to step up. In Detroit and Lansing legislators are addressing the fact that medical marijuana patients actually have to buy their marijuana somewhere. In Detroit that means that the first of two sets of regulations for medical marijuana facilities was passed. It's about time; there are an estimated 148 of them, about one for each of the city's 139 square miles, and they're not clearly legal or illegal. [continues 890 words]
Concerned Detroiters who cringe at the rapid spread of marijuana dispensaries and medical card-holders who rely on the product for treatment packed a public hearing today to debate proposed regulations of the city's medical marijuana industry. The Detroit City Council is considering a proposal that includes a way to license the city's approximately 150 medical marijuana shops. The proposal also has zoning restrictions on how close they can operate near schools, churches and other dispensaries. Eunice Gantt, a lifelong Detroiter, said the growing number of marijuana dispensaries hurts the city's reputation. [continues 504 words]
Nearly eight years after Michigan voters overwhelmingly concluded that marijuana should be available to patients whose doctors prescribe it, state lawmakers are finally addressing some of the most egregious defects in Michigan's Medical Marihuana Act. A package of bills that won lopsided approval in the state House of Representatives last week would establish a rational (if unnecessarily complicated) regulatory scheme for licensing growers, processors, retailers and even those who transport marijuana from one facility to another. The House-approved plan also imposes a 3% tax on retailers' gross income and authorizes doctors to prescribe non-smokable forms of the drug that the Michigan Supreme Court says remain prohibited under the 2008 law. [continues 166 words]
