Mt. Pleasant residents have overwhelmingly voted in favor of decriminalizing marijuana.

With a vote of 62-percent to 38-percent, the mid-Michigan city residents voted Tuesday to amend the city ordinance so that nothing in the city's code would apply to the use, possession or transfer of "small amounts" of marijuana on private property by those 21 and over.

Mt. Pleasant's ordinance defines "small amounts" as less than one ounce.

"This is a significant statement in Michigan politics," Ian Elliott said.

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How to Get Involved in the Marijuana Business Without Getting Your Hands Dirty

The tide of change in marijuana is pretty much in evidence across the country - even the most anti-drug states are going for CBD-only or hemp farming laws - and all kinds of businesses are involved in the booming marketplace.

A recent national economic analysis on nerdwallet.com estimates that Michigan would gain $122 million a year in taxes on legal recreational marijuana. That's just the taxes; the overall market in the United States was estimated at $14 billion.

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Marijuana decriminalization proposals are on the ballot in three south Oakland County communities on Nov. 4 and pro-pot organizers have yet to lose such an election.

Election Day in Huntington Woods, Pleasant Ridge and Berkley will show whether the activists' winning streak will continue in Oakland County and elsewhere.

"The poll numbers are somuch in our favor all we have to do is put the issue on the ballot," said Tim Beck, a retired health insurance executive and co-founder of the Safer Michigan Coalition, a statewide marijuana legalization group. "The closest election we've had was in Oak Park in August when we won (with) 53 percent. In Michigan, polls show 65 percent of people support decriminalization."

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In a breakthrough decision for those who say marijuana is medicine and not a dangerous drug, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled Friday that workers who are state-approved users of medical marijuana should get unemployment compensation if fired solely for testing positive for drugs.

"It's a very favorable decision for the civil rights of employees in Michigan," said Matt Abel, a Detroit lawyer and senior partner of Cannabis Counsel, a law firm that focuses on marijuana cases.

But Rich Studley, president of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, said the ruling -- and the use of medical marijuana in general -- present "a real dilemma" for employers.

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Despite the fact that medical marijuana is legal in 23 states and the District of Columbia and is legal recreationally in Colorado and Washington state, the stigma of marijuana use sticks to patients and users like the tar and feathers of bygone days.

It sticks despite the fact that medical patients clearly benefit from it. It sticks despite the fact that nearly 90 percent of Americans support medical marijuana, and support for recreational marijuana is nearing 60 percent in recent polls.

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Many years ago, I heard a story that the CIA purposefully allowed the funneling of crack cocaine into Los Angeles and other inner cities across the country in order to fund a war in Nicaragua. It was told to me on the street. I didn't read it. As a young woman living in the Bronx, I heard the story again and again, as matter-of-fact as the sun rises each morning in the east. The CIA, everyone said, knew where the crack was, who it came from, and despite the War on Drugs, the flow was never impeded, rather the lowest level of addict or poorest and most desperate of the pushers were the ones targeted for incarceration.

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If you can't beat 'em at the ballot box, do it with administrative and quasi-legal shenanigans.

That seems to be the way East Lansing City Clerk Marie Wicks and Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum have managed to keep a vote on legalizing marijuana off the East Lansing ballot this fall.

"In 11 other cities the same thing will be voted on," says attorney Jeffrey Hank, chair of the Coalition for a Safer East Lansing, which ran the petition initiative. "They're playing games with democracy. We are pissed off."

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Chief Steve Pego of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe declared war on substance abuse to an at-capacity audience at the Celebration of Healing, Recovery and Hope event last week at the Eagle's Nest Tribal Gym on the reservation.

In a historic move, Steve Pego signed a birch bark document of community standards declaring war, something he said the tribe hasn't done since 1763, during the Sept. 24 community meeting.

Steve Pego said troubling increases in car and home break-ins on the reservation in combination with a rise in heroin abuse led to tribal leaders meeting to discuss how to come together as a tribe to fight substance abuse.

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"Michigan State Police bust marijuana growing operation" reads the headline in the Freep.

"Marijuana smell on Michigan kindergartener leads cops to dad's homegrown pot" announces another.

And from The Washington Post's editorial board recently: "D.C. voters should reject the rush to legalize marijuana."

Every day stories like these bombard our nation, and we are sick of it. Tired. How long does this insane prohibition need to continue?

"... reject the rush to legalize"? The RUSH?

How long do publications considered reputable need to continue to spew falsehoods as facts? (Such as the Post's claim that since legalizing and regulating marijuana, Colorado has seen "increased use by youth." It hasn't.)

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A change is gonna come

Christeen Landino remembers attending her first marijuana protest in downtown Detroit back in 1974. She still has a card from then that she paid $1 for in support of the Michigan Marijuana Initiative, an unsuccessful petition drive to get decriminalization on the ballot that year. It didn't happen then, but we know that a whole lot of water has passed under the Ambassador Bridge since then.

President Nixon had recently declared his war on drugs, and had marijuana designated a Schedule 1 drug, despite having been advised to decriminalize it. Today Nixon's drug war is pretty well considered a failure, and the majority of Americans support legalization of marijuana.

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Marijuana has become pretty normal in America.

That doesn't mean that people aren't still getting dragged off to jail for possession. According to FBI estimates, about 750,000 people were arrested for marijuana-related offenses in 2012. The vast majority of them were for simple possession, and although marijuana use is approximately equal among both groups, young African-Americans and Latinos are arrested at rates much higher than whites.

Those arrest numbers speak to a whole different set of social issues other than marijuana use, and as soon as this marijuana thing gets untangled, it will give law enforcement one less way to ensnare people of color in the legal system.

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UM Study Also Finds Use of Cocaine Down, ADHD Drugs Up, Alcohol Mixed

Daily use of marijuana by college students is at its highest rate in more than three decades and stimulant use has almost doubled, a study released Monday by the University of Michigan shows.

But some drugs, such as synthetic marijuana and cocaine, are on the decline while the use of alcohol is mixed, according to the Monitoring the Future study - a national, federally funded survey of college students conducted by UM researchers for four decades.

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Last week, The Washington Post asked, Is medical marijuana the answer to America's prescription painkiller epidemic? The article looked at a recent study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, titled "Medical Cannabis Laws and Opioid Analgesic Overdose Mortality in the United States, 1999-2010."

The study began with the reasoning that because painkiller overdose deaths continue to skyrocket in the U.S., and because medical marijuana is considered a treatment for chronic pain in states where it's legal, medical marijuana states might have lower prescription painkiller overdose rates.

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I first wrote about Alysa Erwin in December 2013. At the time, she had been cancer-free for 11 months.

Alysa's and her family's ordeal started in January 2011 when she was 14 years old. She started having debilitating headaches, and in the spring was diagnosed with Grade 3 anaplastic astrocytoma - brain cancer - at the University of Michigan hospital.

Her parents were told she might live 18 to 24 months with chemotherapy treatments. After one round of chemo, Alysa was so sick her family decided to forgo conventional treatments and try treating her with Rick Simpson Hemp Oil.

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Marijuana decriminalization in Mount Pleasant just got two more voices of opposition in the form of Michigan's governor and attorney general.

Both Gov. Rick Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette sent letters to Mount Pleasant's city commissioners care of City Clerk Jeremy Howard denouncing the proposal, which is slated to be on the Nov. 4 ballot. The proposal, spearheaded by marijuana advocacy groups on and off campus, would effectively make the use, possession and transfer of less than one ounce of marijuana legal in the city.

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La PORTE - La Porte's success, or lack thereof, in fighting drug abuse in the community was an issue of some contention during the La Porte Board of Public Works meeting this week.

There, city Councilman Roger Galloway said the city's police department needed a new direction in combating the prevalent heroin abuse and other illegal drug problems swarming the streets.

He said the department was too reactive, and needed to start doing something to saturate these problem areas with law enforcers to handle the drug issue. He suggested paying for more off-duty officers to work shifts, and obtaining a second K-9 officer, among other changes, which he believed could be handled with the department's current budget.

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CADILLAC -- The days of seeing marijuana dispensaries in Haring Township may be going up in smoke.

Haring Township board members approved a decision for Zirnhelt, Bowron and Wiggins, P.L.C. to prepare a marijuana moratorium for the township at a special meeting Monday at the township hall.

Earlier this month, the township board agreed to work with township attorney Corey Wiggins in the drafting of an updated version of its 2011 marijuana moratorium.

In 2011, the township voted to impose a moratorium on the use of any land and the issuance of any permits, licenses and approvals related to the medical marijuana business within the township. The township adopted the ordinance although the planning commission recommended the "no action" alternative with regard to regulation related to the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act. The planning commission noted numerous, diverse and possibly conflicting legal interpretations of the act and pending lawsuits regarding aspects of the act as a basis for its recommendation.

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Last week, there was a disturbance in the Force: The world lost a great giver of light, Robin Williams.

The sky above metro Detroit, where Williams spent his childhood, seemed to know this loss intimately, and flooded the region. The wake of the event still ripples throughout the world, and there are tributes to Williams around the globe. From the theaters on Broadway to Syrian rebels to planning the next Emmy awards, people are honoring the actor ... fans are even demanding a character be created in the video game "Legend of Zelda."

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Livingston County Sees 22 Percent Drop in Patients Over Two-Year Period

While Colorado is smoking pot -- medical and recreational -- by the ton, according to a recent report, the number of medical marijuana patients in Livingston County has decreased.

Proponents of medical marijuana say this is due to intimidation by law enforcement.

"Individual communities within each county are permissive or restrictive based on their own beliefs," said Rick Thompson, editor and blogger for The Compassion Chronicles. "Howell is not pleasant toward medical marijuana patients, but Livingston County rural areas are not quite as difficult."

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Over the past 10 years, Michigan citizens have voted in favor of pro-marijuana ordinances and state laws every time they have been given the opportunity, and the Committee to Reform Onaway, CRO, is hoping the streak continues in Onaway when its citizen-initiated ballot amendment proposal goes to voters in November.

The proposed amendment to the Onaway city charter, which will be placed on the November ballot, reads, "Nothing in the code of ordinances shall apply to the use, possession, or transfer of less than one ounce of marijuana, by a person who has attained the age of 21 years."

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