News Blawg

Advocates to seek legalized pot in Michigan

December 29, 2011
By

Pro-marijuana activists are on the verge of launching an effort to amend the state Constitution in an attempt to end prohibition of the drug in Michigan.

Campaign director Matt Abel, a Detroit attorney who specializes in handling marijuana cases, tells the Metro Times that 322,608 valid signatures must be collected by July 9 to qualify the proposed amendment for the November 2012 election.

The campaign is expected to officially kick off Jan. 12. Efforts are already under way to organize volunteer signature-gatherers.

Nearly 63 percent of Michigan’s voters approved a ballot measure to legalize marijuana for medical use in 2008. However, especially in the past year, law enforcement in many counties and state Attorney General Bill Schuette have been cracking down on patients, caregivers and dispensaries they say are in violation of the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act (MMMA).

The attempt to legalize pot outright at the state level is a direct reaction to that crackdown, say activists.

“We feel there is little alternative considering the blatant abuse and violation of the MMMA by the police and many prosecutors,” Abel explains in an e-mail. “If we don’t try to do something now, it may be years before we have appropriate reform.”

More information about the effort can be found at the website help.repealtoday.org.

  • Anonymous

    Is this a joke? Please explain to me how ANY state initiative
    is going to stop the Federal Government from trumping any such attempt with the
    (CSA) Controlled Substances Act (1970)?

    For over 20 years now I’ve been saying that we need to
    Deschedule Cannabis from the CSA. Yet the silience from DPA, MPP, NORML, ASA
    and the dispensary monopolists has continued to be deafening. Yet among the
    grass root activists my line of reason does seem to be gathering some currency.
    And it should since this is the ONLY way out of this mess.

    I’m not going to “sugar coat” this. We have been sold out by
    these groups and monopolists. Many of these groups are subsidized by George
    Soros or law firms that are in the pockets of Big Pharma. In Michigan Matt
    Able, long time national member of NORML, is launchng another initiative in
    Michigan which suspiciously leaves the door wide open to more arrests by not
    defining what measures should be used against “driving under the influence of
    Marijuana.” As we all know tracable amounts of Marijuana can be found many
    weeks after smoking a single joint. Could it be that Able, as an attorney, is
    just hoping to profit from the avalanche of Marijuana arrests.

    And even if this certain result were not to surface we still
    have the problem with Federal Law which Obama is currently using to shut down
    all the dispensaries and go after both patients and caregivers (e.g., growers).
    I don’t know about you, fellow activists, but I’ve had enough of this bullshit.
    How long do we allow these groups to ignore the obvious while finding new ways
    to get us to chase our tails — knowing full well that these statewide
    initiatives will do nothing to end this War on Cannabis Consumers.

    Sorry but we now have a majority of Americans that want
    Marijuana Legal and not just for this stupid unworkable model we now know as
    “Medical Marijuana?”

    Dennis Peron had it right: “all use is medical.”

    Mickey Mouse Martin threatened both myself and my federation of
    activists when we pointed out the flaws in Prop19 in 2010. And as Prop19 failed
    it seems obvious that our voice was heard. Now he wants us to make a false
    choice about which state initiative we should pick to waste another year chasing
    our tails. I think it is time for a new direction. I think it is time we put
    Obama right in the middle of our sights and expose him for the Globalist
    Corporate Whore that he is. And it is not as if I don’t have a plan:

    The MERP Strategy for Marijuana Re-Legalization in a
    Nutshellhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG4YzkHjIPo

    But for this to work we must bring the National Organizations
    into the fold. And my advice to all activists is to starve the beast. Should
    they not support a national strategy, concurrent with whatever else you’d like
    to do, then don’t give them another wooden nickle. Put them out of business a
    little early. Because what is obvious to them is that their pampered lifestyle
    – Nadleman, Kampia, St. Pierre — is predicated that some form of Marijuana
    Prohibition continue.

    I say we solve the problem and move on. But the only way this
    occurs is if we unite.

    Bottom line? State Initiatives were a good strategic move
    beginning with Prop215 in 1996. But now they are nothing but counter
    productive. Instead of stepping on the beasts toes I say it is time to cut off
    the beasts head. And to do that we must minimally strike Cannabis from the
    Controlled Substances Act. And if anyone is interested in arguing this point
    please let’s get together on “Time for Hemp” or some other venue and debate the
    facts. I’ll be waiting for you.

    Let us get beyond state initiatives and “medical only” and
    embrace the full potential that hemp has to end our dependency on foriegn oil,
    stop all home invasions and destroy the Mexican Drug Cartels. Anyone with me on
    this? LOL. From now on what I want to hear is “let’s legalize Cannabis for
    it’s agricultural, industrial, medicinal and recreational uses. That was Jack
    Herer’s vision and it remains my vision. And perhaps that is because it is the
    only strategy that makes any damn sense. Minimally support a federal solution
    while you waste our time on “more” state initiatives.

    Despite Obama maintaining that Marijuana has no “medical use”
    he is in process to give full control to Big Pharma. In 2003 the government
    patented Marijuana for “medical uses.” How long do we stand for being treated
    like 4th Class or “red headed step children?” How long do we allow these pseudo
    reform organizations to give us the run around?

    Yours in Peace and Freedom,

    Bruce W. Cain

  • Whyamistilup

    I hope pot stays illegal. It has more cancer causing tar than tobacco and it clouds your judgment.

  • Whyamistilup

    And I’m no big pharma, policital fat cat.. I’m just one guy that thinks drug abuse is stupid.

  • http://twitter.com/dale0k Dale

    Putting billions and billions of tax dollars toward prosecuting and housing marijuana “criminals” isn’t stupid?