Shirkey Announces Area Drug Enforcement Town Hall Meeting In Jackson County On Aug. 14

[Michael Komorn]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                 Aug. 1, 2013

 

 

 

State Rep. Mike Shirkey will host a citizen town hall event in Jackson County on Aug. 14 to help create a public dialogue on drug enforcement strategies and policy. 

Shirkey said the debate needs to happen, based on both the citizen initiative that legalized medicinal marijuana and the introduction of legislation such as House Bill 4623, which would impose fines instead of jail time for the possession of small amounts of recreational marijuana.

"Michigan citizens expect and demand that we strive to balance the needs of personal freedom, public safety, pain management and a host of other factors as we determine how to best spend the people's tax dollars," said Shirkey, R-Clarklake.  "Are we forcing law enforcement to police and jail recreational marijuana users instead of using time and money that should be going to battle our meth lab epidemic?  Are we limiting reasonable options to end-of-life pain management by putting excessive restrictions on medicinal marijuana?  Those are questions that politicians, law enforcement, and most importantly the general public, need to actively discuss and answer."

The town hall, which is free and open to the public, takes place from 5-7 p.m. at the Grass Lake Township Hall, 373 Lakeside Drive.

Shirkey is inviting several people to speak and is hopeful for a large turnout, regardless of people's position on the issue.  State Rep. Jeff Irwin, the author of HB 4623, will attend as will former prosecutor James Gierach, a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).

Seventeen states have some type of marijuana decriminalization laws on the books, according to LEAP, and the organization said they were interested in coming to the Jackson area in part because of a local petition drive addressing decriminalization.

"My time working with law enforcement as a Cook County prosecutor and municipal attorney showed me firsthand how frequently we are turning average citizens into criminals and not spending enough time tracking down and dealing with the true bad guys in this equation," Gierach said.  "You can be both tough and appropriate with drug enforcement once you start to differentiate and realize the serious downsides of a one-size-fits-all policy.  We've already seen that with alcohol and prohibition, and I think we're going to see that very soon with recreational marijuana use as well."

People with questions may call Rep. Shirkey's office at (517) 373-1775. Gierach will also be making himself available for private meetings with interested public officials by appointment, and can be reached through the LEAP offices at (315) 243-5844.

[outsideinthecold]

This guy sounds very reasonable to me. He must be a Democrat though and not a Republican.

[Hayduke]

Shirkey is a republican

[imiubu]

Cool, let the dialog begin...

 

State Rep. Mike Shirkey will host a citizen town hall event in Jackson County on Aug. 14 to help create a public dialogue on drug enforcement strategies and policy.

 

This is on Wednesday

 

The town hall, which is free and open to the public, takes place from 5-7 p.m. at the Grass Lake Township Hall, 373 Lakeside Drive.

[greenbuddha]

Man that's something when a Repub starts talking like that. There may still be hope of things changing for the better.

 

If Shirkey stands behind his words, heck, I'd even vote for a guy like that.

 

There may be hope for the Republican Party yet!

[shishka]

And Shirkey is not exactly a young man either. Luckily he is my rep so I will be there to support this bill.

 

I will be curious as to where I can procure this ounce of weed.

 

I'm sure they have some ideas on that.

[BirdHunter]

Repubs who are libertarian are different than neo-con repubs.

[phaquetoo]

People who are honest and do what the people want them to do, you know the people that voted for them? are doing what they are supposed to do, just who was in power when this law came into effect?

 

Like I said earlier, lets let all dems out of the prison system and only make repubs stay in prison, do you think 3/4 of the place will be empty, maybe 1/2 or 1/4 be empty!

 

The folks that vote by party and not the person are so fooling them selves,,Learn to vote for your own beleif's not your father's or brothers or a bunch of mm pt's who have been brain washed in sites like this that dems are gods answer!

 

Peace

Jim