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Milegalize Rally May 20, 2016 At 2Pm - 4Pm Michigan State Capitol


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On Friday, May 20, MILEGALIZE will host a unity rally at the Capitol Building in Lansing. This is a signature turn-in event and an expression of the cannabis community's frustration with legislators. MILegalize has collected over 300,000 signatures to end cannabis prohibition, create 50,000 jobs, fund schools and rebuild roads-- now the People of Michigan must help finish the job. We are asking 1000 people to bring at least 100 signatures apiece. MINORML will graciously pay the first 15 people to turn in 500 or more signatures a $100 bonus. We will also have petitions to take home for the last 11 day push to make the ballot. This is also a general rally for social justice for Flint, Detroit Public Schools, or any other issues for folks in Michigan. Everyone friendly to MILegalize is welcome to participate! Bring your friends and family and lots of signatures to turn in!

 

 
WHEN
May 20, 2016 at 2pm - 4pm
 
WHERE
Michigan State Capitol

100 N Capitol Ave

Lansing, MI 48906

United States

 

 

 

 
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Lansing — Marijuana activists working to place a legalization proposal on the 2016 ballot rallied Friday outside the state Capitol, urging elected officials to “free the weed” and celebrating a petition drive they launched at the same location last summer.

The MI Legalize committee has suffered a series of recent setbacks ahead of the June 1 deadline for petition submission, including legislative approval of a bill that could block its attempt to include older signatures that would typically not be counted by the state.

“We’ve scared the establishment,” executive director Jeff Hank told an eclectic crowd of more than 100 people. “…They are literally changing laws to try to prevent MI Legalize from proceeding. That should tell you we’re doing something right.”

MI Legalize, which urged volunteer circulators to bring petitions to the rally or mail them in, has now collected at least 315,000 since June 25, according toHank. The state requires 252,523 to make the ballot.

But many of the MI Legalize signatures were collected last year and may be invalidated under a state law and related policy requiring petitioners to collect within a 180-day window or go through an arduous process to “rehabilitate” older signatures.

The group argues the law is unconstitutional and the policy impossible to comply with. It’s threatening legal action against the state, according to Hank, especially if Gov. Rick Snyder signs a bill that would eliminate the rehabilitation option altogether.

“We don’t have the ability to really fight any of this unless we show up with enough signatures to get on the ballot,” board member Jamie Lowell said. “So that’s our main priority now. It’s why we’re here.”

 

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2016/05/20/marijuana-activists-rally-michigan-capitol/84673258/

 

 

I had a lot of Fun yesterday even the Governor looked out his window 

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LANSING, MI — Supporters of a ballot drive to legalize recreational marijuana use in Michigan lined the Capitol lawn Friday afternoon in a final effort to round up signatures and denounce recent legislative efforts to change state signature gathering law.

Jeffrey Hank chairs MILegalize, the group behind the ballot drive. Prior to the rally, he said the group had collected a total 315,000 signatures, which had not yet been vetted.

The purpose of the rally was to bring in any outstanding petition sheets and make one final push for signatures before the June 1 deadline in the same place the drive began last June, Hank added.

The group needs at least 252,523 valid signatures to get on the November 2016 statewide ballot, which would put the question of whether recreational use, purchase and possession of marijuana for people over 21 in Michigan should be legal before voters.

One notable speaker at the rally was Rep. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, who recently introduced legislation that would decriminalize marijuana in Michigan and has long advocated for reforms to marijuana law.

He told rally attendees that in all of his experience gathering signatures for various ballot issues, he's never worked on an issue like marijuana legalization, because most people know exactly how they feel about the issue one way or the other.

"Most people are grabbing it out of your hands — they want to sign, they want to move this issue forward," Irwin said. "It strikes right to the heart of how people feel about government and what they want their government doing."

Irwin said, to cheers from the crowd, that he would prefer the government paved roads and adequately funded schools instead of wasting time and money prosecuting Michigan citizens for cannabis.

The rally comes directly on the heels of the state state House's passage of Senate Bill 776, which would require groups attempting to get a question on Michigan ballots to gather signatures in a strict-180-day time frame. The legislation is now before Gov. Rick Snyder, who has not yet indicated whether he will sign or veto the bill.

Although ballot proposals in Michigan have historically submitted signatures collected within a 180-day circulation period, the time period isn't set in stone — under current law, groups can go through a procedure proving signatures older than 180 days are from registered voters and are therefore valid.

The little-used process was thrown back into the spotlight when MILegalize and the Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan, which would ban hydraulic fracking in the state, announced plans to take advantage of that procedure

But when speaking in support of Senate Bill 776, House Speaker Kevin Cotter, R-Mt. Pleasant, said the change would only codify what had already been happening -- a 180-day window -- before some groups tried to change 30 years of precedent by resurrecting old signatures.

Hank, an attorney, said MILegalize officials are waiting to see what Snyder and the Bureau of Elections will do before taking action, but expressed confidence the group has a strong legal claim that the new law couldn't be applied to them with the signature-gathering process so far underway.

"We've got to have clarity here," Hank said. "He (Snyder) shouldn't throw this process into chaos, which is what they've done."

Addressing rally attendees, Hank said this is the closest a statewide recreational legalization attempt has come to succeeding in Michigan. He said the legislature's efforts to change the law at this stage merely showed lawmakers were scared of how far they'd come.

 

"If we get this close and we fail, we will have missed a historic opportunity," Hank told the crowd.

 

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/05/marijuana_advocates_rally_at_m.html#incart_river_home

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http://www.metrotimes.com/Blogs/archives/2016/05/23/change-in-rules-could-derail-michigan-marijuana-legalization-effort

 

Change in rules could derail Michigan marijuana legalization effort

Posted By MT Staff on Mon, May 23, 2016 at 3:24 PM

Shutterstock

 

MILegalize has 11 days left in their campaign to get marijuana legalization on the ballot. The deadline is June 1. They've collected close to 320,000 signatures, well over the 252,523 needed to get on the November ballot.

 

But SB 776, which passed the House on Wednesday, would limit the window for collecting signatures to 180 days before turning a petition in to the Secretary of State — likely invalidating many of the collected signatures.

 

"The state legislature, and perhaps the governor, are trying to throw chaos into the election system by enacting SB 776. We've got a potential legal battle on our hands. We may be going to court this week," says MILegalize Chairman Jeffery Hank. "We're going to be going to court over it, assuming the governor doesn't veto it, which we're calling for him to do."

 

There is a feeling that the legislation is specifically trying to sabotage MILegalize with the bill. "It's definitely targeted at us. It's definitely targeted at the anti-fracking campaign," Hank says. "It's also just in general an attempt to destroy our constitutional check and balance that we have so that Michigan government is accountable to the people. It's part of the trend.

 

"It's a real troubling action. It's irresponsible legislature that would interfere and meddle in the elections process. This is the kind of stuff you see in Russia or third-world countries. I'm serious. I'm not even joking. We've spent over $1 million, we have a deadline, we're operating under a set of rules. Elections should have clear rules, we should know what they are, and we should be able to follow them. To see the legislature try to change the rules and then to make these excuses on why they have to do it — I'm serious, if that happened in another country, we'd be crying foul. And it's happening right here."

 

Snyder has 14 days to veto the bill, and the MILegalize campaign has 11 days to collect signatures. The timing seems deliberate.

 

"The legislature timed this exactly to have this hanging over our heads for the remainder of the campaign, because our deadline is June 1. Right now, we're up in total flux," Hank says.

 

"We have no idea if the state's going to say if we have to operate under the old system or under the new system. And Gov. Snyder doesn't have to decide until our campaign ends. So they could just throw the whole thing into flux. It's almost out of Vladimir Putin's playbook."

 

Hank says Michigan's timeframe for ballot initiatives has been in place since 1963: "It's never been a problem. So why, all of a sudden, are they trying to shorten that time period? And if they're successful in that, it will effectively negate the citizen's ability to circulate petitions. It's only going to be a pay-to-play system where big money decides who can make the ballot."

 

The MILegalize representative says the group's goal is to collect as many signatures as possible. More information about the effort is available at MIlegalize.com.

 

The petition calls to legalize marijuana for adults over the age of 21, and would expand upon the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act, and allow for the farming of industrial hemp. The proposal would allow for dispensaries and marijuana businesses, and the revenue from a 10 percent excise tax on recreational marijuana would be distributed 40 percent to roads, 40 percent to schools, and 20 percent back to local governments.

 

"It's money from licensed marijuana businesses, so there's (incentive) for local government to police and regulate these businesses, and also to get the tax revenue from them," Hank says. Projections based on Colorado's model show that legalized marijuana could create between 25,000 and 50,000 jobs in Michigan, he adds.

 

"It's a pretty popular plan. People hear about it, they hear the money's going to roads and schools. Most people support us. Our opinion is, if we make the ballot, then we're going to win in November. But there's going to be all these attempts to try to keep us off the ballot."

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The Republicans in our state are apparently trying to do away with free elections. The votes don't go the way they want so they change the law to invalidate them.

 

They aren't representatives they are would be rulers.

 

If they're not careful there are those who might vote from the rooftops.

 

Those votes are hard to invalidate.

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The Republicans in our state are apparently trying to do away with free elections. The votes don't go the way they want so they change the law to invalidate them.

 

They aren't representatives they are would be rulers.

 

If they're not careful there are those who might vote from the rooftops.

 

Those votes are hard to invalidate.

Its not only republicans in the state! It is the whole u.s!

 

Now whether I am a dem or repub, If a person wins the primary's and the party dont back him, and try to put some one in that didnt even run in the primary's!!!   THAT SAYS OUR VOTES DONT COUNT!

 

To me that is a swift Kick In the Nuts to all voters!  OUR VOTE DONT COUNT!

 

We can take our state back, it is easier to keep a state in check than the whole colligiate cluster phaq!

 

Pretty sickening, Hang in there bernie!

 

Peace

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