An issue for the states, right?

A ballot initiative is in the works in Michigan that would amend the state Constitution to legalize marijuana. An email from M. Simon alerted me to what I should have seen yesterday afternoon but missed because I was busy: local reporter Ryan Stanton’s excellent piece on the subject.

Whether it will make it onto the ballot, who knows? I hope they put together a broad, bipartisan coalition, and I’m glad to see Law Enforcement Against Prohibition is involved:

Charmie Gholson, communications director for the campaign, said actual collection of signatures won’t begin until the campaign officially kicks off in mid-January.

“We’re not launching a media campaign until the 12th,” said Gholson, co-owner and editor of the Midwest Cultivator and a former staff member for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. “All we’re doing is organizing volunteers. We’re getting volunteers to sign up and say that they’d be willing to help the campaign.”

The group also is recruiting volunteers through a website. The group plans to collect the signatures from January through early July.

The web site puts the argument quite succinctly:

Marijuana prohibition in Michigan has:

  • Made it easier for minors to obtain marijuana
  • Wasted limited law enforcement and municipal resources
  • Created massive profits for drug cartels and terrorists
  • Decreased the health and public safety of Michigan families
  • Removed the rights of parents to raise and discipline our children according to our own family values, rather than the values of the failed drug war
  • Eroded the public’s relationship with law enforcement
  • Denied relief to the suffering of seriously ill, injured, and dying citizens

The repeal of marijuana prohibition in Michigan will:

  • Reduce criminal gang activity
  • Reduce access to marijuana by minors
  • Create jobs by allowing for a new hemp industry in the State of Michigan
  • Reduce the fiscal and overpopulation burdens on the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
  • Restore right relations with law enforcement
  • Allow law enforcement to focus on violent crime

We must end this disastrous public policy.

No argument there. I’ll sign it, and I might help in other ways if I have time. Annarbor.com’s online poll shows support for legalization running 86% to 14% so far (out of 1100 or so polled).

It would be nice to see someone of importance in the Republican Party take a pro-legalization position. Maybe even a candidate aside from the usual Ron Paul. Is there anyone?

And what about states rights?

You know, like, “how’s that Tenth Amendment federalism stuff workin out for ya?” Personally, I like the Big Tenth approach, and I’d love holding the self-proclaimed constitutionalists’ feet to the fire.

Tenth or consequences!


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3 responses to “An issue for the states, right?”

  1. rjp Avatar

    The repeal of marijuana prohibition in Michigan will:
    •Reduce criminal gang activity

    Gangs don’t deal weed.

    •Reduce access to marijuana by minors

    And how will it do this?

    •Create jobs by allowing for a new hemp industry in the State of Michigan

    Not as many as they think. Large commerecial grow farms will take over, run by the same drug cartels. And there will be a bunch of seedy stateline marijuana shops that pop up.

    •Reduce the fiscal and overpopulation burdens on the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

    Release real criminals from prisons.

    •Restore right relations with law enforcement

    Huh?

    •Allow law enforcement to focus on violent crime

    All the police will remain police and a new Marijuana Conrol Commission will be established ….. more gov jobs.

  2. Randy Avatar
    Randy

    I’ll address rjp’s points–

    If gangs don’t deal weed, then someone needs to tell the LEOs.

    FYI, the black market does not check the birthdates of its retail customers, something legalization would require. Legalization will therefore make it more difficult for minors to obtain MJ. Retailers will act as gatekeepers in that regard, like they already do with cigs and alcohol.

    Legalization of MJ would mean less arrests, which means less arrestees to process, which means fewer arrestees being fed to the meatgrinder that is our nation’s criminal justice system. Your “release real criminals” comment doesn’t seem to be based on reality.

    Legalization will help restore the damaged relationship between police and many of the communities they work in. The WOD has led us to a point where many a police officer starts his/her day viewing everyone they see as the enemy. Not good for anybody, and the WOD is to blame for this.

    Resources not used for drug law enforcement can be freed to police/investigate violent crimes. I’d rather murderers, rapists, etc. be bought to justice than police catch every pot smoker or penny ante pot dealer.

    And because much of the violent crime we experience is a product of the drug laws and the black market it engenders, violent crime would likely drop with drug law reforms.

    In the final analysis, it is immoral criminalize peaceful actions. It is unjust (hypocritical) to punish people for doing things that are morally no different from producing, selling and consuming alcoholic beverages. The WOD must end to bring justice back to our criminal codes.

  3. rjp Avatar

    You are talking about pot and pot dealing by gangs, but that is not what those people are dealing, it’s crack cocaine.

    Maybe in shitty neighborhoods weed is dealt that way and maybe some normal people buy it that way, but I don’t know anybody that goes on the street for weed. If I want it, I make a phone call.

    No the black market does not check IDs, but neither no buddies, older siblings, or a bum for $5.

    The only people in Chicago going to prison for weed are people on whom they can’t make the real crime stick, or people dealing serious size that play with guns too, these are real criminals, not penny ante pot smokers or the guy down the street that gets a quarter pound a month to supplement his income.

    I am not against legalizing simple possession, not against legalizing growth for personal use, same with opium poppies. I am against the synthesis of heroin in somebodies home and and giant indoor marijuana grow farms. Simple product, simple source, simple use, anything beyond that should be criminal.