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Effort To Legalize Marijuana In Michigan To Move Forward Soon


bobandtorey

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MICHIGAN — Last year, efforts fell short to get it on the ballot but the question of whether to legalize marijuana in our state just might be left up to voters to decide after all.

The push for a 2018 ballot initiative is expected to take a big step forward within the next few weeks, according to John Truscott, spokesperson for the statewide Michigan Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol.

The Detroit News reports MI Legalize, the group which failed to get the issue on the ballot in 2016, has announced its support of the effort being led by the statewide coalition. The group had opposed early drafts of the 2018 proposal, arguing it favored business interests over citizens.

“We’ve tried to be as inclusive as possible,” Truscott told FOX 17 in an interview last week. “We’ve talked to different folks in the business community, law enforcement, just to give everyone some opportunity to give some input about what they’d like to see in this proposal.”

Truscott says the coalition is hoping to have final petition language approved by the Michigan Bureau of Elections within a few weeks. The collection of signatures could begin as soon as the end of May, he said.

If the language is approved, organizers would have to collect 252,523 signatures within a 180-day window for the initiative to be eligible to be placed on the ballot.

“We’re taking a classic campaign approach to this proposal,” Truscott said, adding much of the final language will mirror language in the state’s newly reworked medical marijuana laws approved by the Legislature last fall.

“There are some very good provisions in the (medical marijuana laws) that protect the public, and provide a very safe way to move forward.”

Truscott declined to provide details of the provision, only saying it will aim to legalize recreational marijuana use and possession in “small amounts” for adults. Individuals would only be allowed to grow a limited number of plants at home, while the state would license businesses and tax marijuana sales, he said.

“It will be something that people can look at and say ‘that’s a responsible approach,’” Truscott told FOX 17.

Eight states—Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon and Washington—have legalized recreational marijuana use. Thirty states have legalized medical marijuana, Truscott said, citing public opinion showing a growing “wave” of favorable support to end pot prohibition.

“I think 2018 just kind of hits the sweet spot as far as timing with public sentiment,” he told FOX 17.

Right now, the potential ballot initiative does not face any organized opposition, but some current and former law enforcement officials remain opposed to the idea of legalization.

“I have no problem with medical marijuana,” said Rep. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, and former Eaton Co. Sheriff.

“Recreational marijuana is a bad idea. It’s costly to the state, you have more auto accidents, more police needed to police that problem, people driving under the influence of marijuana, which is a dangerous thing.”

Marijuana remains illegal under federal law. Under the new Trump Administration, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has not committed to not enforcing existing federal laws like the previous administration. But Sessions has called marijuana a “financial moneymaker” for organized crime and “definitely a cartel-sponsored event,” CNN reported earlier in the month.

 

http://fox17online.com/2017/04/30/effort-to-legalize-marijuana-in-michigan-to-move-forward-soon/

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truscott is big money. big political player in michigan.

 

all these political people know each other. its just the big ole party in michigan...

 

 

anyways i hope the language is good. i'm glad milegalize could finally approve of it. would be bad to split resources.

Edited by bax
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truscott is big money. big political player in michigan.all these political people know each other. its just the big ole party in michigan...anyways i hope the language is good. i'm glad milegalize could finally approve of it. would be bad to split resources.

 

It surprises me that Republicans are getting behind this marijuana thing. I guess family values and morals go out the window when there's money involved. Unless their goal is to monopolize the marijuana business, get control of the supply, and move to restrict it.

 

Too much conspiracy theorism here?

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Unless their goal is to monopolize the marijuana business, get control of the supply, and move to restrict it.

 

Their goal is to rake in millions in tax dollars. My fear is that when they fail to meet the sky high projections made by the dispensary  lobby then they'll crack down in order to force people to buy from state sanctioned stores so they can make money on every transaction.

 

I'm certain that in their minds they envision everyone lined up to buy joints like at the beer store and when that doesn't happen it will be blamed on "black market" growers.

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  • 2 months later...

A campaign to once again try to fully legalize marijuana in Michigan is getting big support from a Washington D.C. nonprofit activist group and from a tobacco store company that has talked of opening a chain of marijuana shops in the state.

The donor list, revealed in the latest campaign finance statements filed by the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, alarmed critics who have long contended  that marijuana's nationwide march toward legalization is being funded not by the idealistic stoners and medical-marijuana users long linked to the politics of cannabis but instead by a pack of profit-minded investors and corporate types said to be similar to Big Tobacco — the nation's cigarette and cigar industry.

See the donor list: Michigan campaign statement contributions

"It’s obvious that these tobacco guys are making a play for the marijuana money," Jeff Zinsmeister, executive vice president of Smart Alternatives to Marijuana, based in Alexandria, Va., said Friday. The group argues that Big Marijuana is "following the playbook of Big Tobacco," hoping to get young people addicted to pot early on, then keep them as hapless customers for life, Zinsmeister said.

 

Those who support legalization argue that marijuana will be more difficult for youths to obtain, not less, after it passes. They liken the current availability of marijuana to the nation's era of alcohol Prohibition, when people of any age had ready access to illegal alcoholic beverages; in contrast to later laws that made alcohol legal for adults but a crime to provide it to anyone under 21.

The campaign's goal is to put a ballot question before Michigan voters in 2018, when the governor's race will trigger a big voter turnout. Medical marijuana use was approved by state voters in 2008.

Read more:

The top donor to the the current campaign, shown as giving a total of $150,000 as of June, is a company called Smokers Outlet Management in Troy, according to the campaign finance statements.  The company owns 68 Wild Bill's Tobacco shops across Michigan, its website says. But its plan is to use the name Oasis Wellness Centers to open a major chain of marijuana shops in Michigan, according to statements made to state lawmakers' committees and summarized in a memo filed with the state House Judiciary Committee in 2015 by the company's vice president, Paul Weisberger.

Weisberger could not be reached Friday and Saturday. 

Additionally, the Washington D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, which claims to have 32,000 dues-paying members,  has given $58,161, as well as staff time and technical assistance to the campaign,  according to the finance statements. Many of its donations came in brainpower, listed as consulting, staff time, legal research, hotel expenses and airline tickets, assistance that has been missing in previous efforts by Michiganders to get ballot access for marijuana.

 

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2017/07/16/marijuana-legalization-michigan/481154001/

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shop that sells vapes, bongs, pipes and papers to marijuana smokers advocating for legalizing marijuana, news at 11

 

oh also lighters, butane, butane lighters, nails, bubblers, filters, rolling machines, grinders, jars.... what else.... like 90% of their inventory.


 

Edited by bax
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  • 1 month later...

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