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US MI: PUB LTE: Repeal Of Marijuana Prohibition

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URL: http://www.mapinc.or...1/n733/a06.html

Newshawk: Herb

Votes: 0

Pubdate: Fri, 23 Dec 2011

Source: Tuscola County Advertiser (Caro, MI)

Copyright: 2011 Michigan Media, a division of the Edwards Group

Contact: joles@tcadvertiser.com

Website: http://www.tuscolatoday.com/

Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4678

Author: Bob Wood

 

 

 

REPEAL OF MARIJUANA PROHIBITION

 

Editor, Advertiser:

 

A coalition of Michigan parents, teachers, attorneys, physicians, health professionals, former law enforcers and many other people from all walks of life are putting together a voter ballot initiative to repeal marijuana prohibition in Michigan. The 2012 Michigan Ballot Initiative to End Marijuana Prohibition will give Michigan citizens the opportunity to vote on the repeal of Marijuana Prohibition.

 

We enacted the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act ( MMMA ) in 2008 to protect patients from criminal prosecutions. Instead of regulating the medical marijuana industry ( like Colorado did ) our State Attorney General, law enforcement, activist judges and our state legislators have done everything they can think of to destroy the new law.

 

State registered patients and caregivers have been viciously attacked and prosecuted by the state. The voters did not intend for the state to spend millions of tax dollars to prosecute patients and caregivers and attempt to destroy the new law.

 

This coalition examined all the options. They thought about strengthening our current Medical Marijuana law. They discussed decriminalization and concluded that whatever they did the state would try to destroy our new effort the same way that they did with the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act.

 

Thanks to the current effort by AG Bill Schuette and company to destroy the MMMA, Michigan could be the first state to repeal marijuana prohibition.

 

Michigan prohibited alcohol in 1919. In 1933 the U.S. Government recognized the connection between high crime rates and prohibition. A state convention with one delegate from each state house district voted 99-1 to repeal alcohol prohibition. The following year Michigan had a 70 percent drop in homicides.

 

The violence carried out by the likes of Al Capone was minor compared to the violence that is created by marijuana prohibition. As soon as we enacted marijuana prohibition the murder rates skyrocketed the same way they did when we tried to prohibit alcohol. Crime rates will drop if we succeed in our effort to right a very serious wrong by repealing marijuana prohibition.

 

The repeal of marijuana prohibition in Michigan will reduce criminal gang activity, reduce access of marijuana by minors. It will promote agriculture and create jobs by creating a new hemp industry and reduce the burdens of an overpopulated prison system, increase better relations between people and law enforcement and law enforcement will have more time and resources to focus on real crime where there are actual victims.

 

We've spent over one trillion tax dollars and arrested over 20 million people for marijuana. Drug use with school children and adults has increased every year along with our drug war budget. Our school budgets have been gutted to the point that there is no more room to cut. Repealing marijuana prohibition will free up millions of tax dollars to help shore up our school finances.

 

Colorado Representative Jared Polis recently called on Congress to end the prohibition on marijuana. Rep. Polis said "We've seen the benefits across the board, as a job creation engine in Colorado". Polis predicted that national legislation was on the horizon, but said "states must lead the charge". "It's a critical and important time for advocacy at the national stage," he said. "The more states that create a regulatory structure around marijuana production and sales, the more pressure there will be on Congress nationally".

 

The undertaking by the coalition working to repeal marijuana prohibition will be an enormous undertaking. We need thousands of volunteers to circulate petitions in order for this to become a reality. The 30-year-

 

old and younger crowds are being targeted in this war and they are the ones that will have to step up to the plate to help make this happen. You need to volunteer to help collect signatures and to recruit other volunteers. My generation brought an end to the Viet Nam war through peaceful demonstrations and your generation will bring an end to the war being carried out against you under the disguise of marijuana law.

 

Bill Schuette has many prohibition allies with very deep pockets. Bill Schuette and company will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on negative and dishonest ads against the repeal of marijuana prohibition. We do not have financial backing to counter their ads, so we will need donations to combat the negative and false advertising that will surely come from our opponents.

 

Go to repealtoday.org now and volunteer to help collect signatures or to donate money for this effort, because if we fail with this effort the violent and unprovoked attacks against innocent people who choose a safer alternative ( marijuana ) to alcohol, will continue.

 

Bob Wood

MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.

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Please use the following talking points

 

Why would Michigan’s AG, Bill Schuette want to return to the old racists** marijuana laws????**

_____________________________________________________________________

So who is Michigan’s AG working for? His job description is to defend Michigan’s citizens * NOT the Cartel’s, terrorists, Big pharma and/or keeping our prisons full with innocuous citizens who use alternative medicine in compliance with the will of the people as passed by this constitutional referendum.

He should be bringing action against the Federal Government defending Michigan’s citizens “States Rights” as guaranteed under our US Constitutions Bill of Rights Tenth Amendment rather than trying to dismantle the MMMA

 

Although Michigan’s Medical Marijuana Act does need clarification as it was poorly written, the people’s intent was clear. The people of Michigan intended that Medical Marijuana would be easily and safely attainable by patients

The current AG opinion and proposals are a direct assault on the intent of the 63% of voters who passed the MMMA. What are the AG’s and the legislature’s goal? Despite their rhetoric to not, intent is clearly to nullify the Medical Marijuana Act. Why?

 

I have always found, that if you “follow the money”, you will generally find your answers.

So who would benefit if we revert back to the prior status of Medical Marijuana?

Let’s follow the money---

1. Big Pharmaceutical

2. Mexican Drug Cartels

3. Afghanistan’s Drug Cartels who fund- Al-Qaida, Taliban and other terrorist groups

4. Columbian Drug Cartels

5. Illegal Hard Drug dealers, (reinstate the feeder system to lure users to far more dangerous and profitable drugs.

6. Police agencies, Forfeiture revenue

7. Racists**(see below)

8. Alcohol and Tobacco industry

9. Attorneys, Judicial system, fees, fines, easy way to pad their felony conviction numbers for future elections

10. Correction System, keeping our prisons full

11. Government court ordered counseling services

12. Arms manufacturers---guns going across the border

 

Who losses,

1. Michigan’s Medical Marijuana 300,000+ expected Patients (based on other states), lack of safer, cheaper alternatives to treatment

2. Michigan Medical researchers—Unable research Marijuana for new safer treatments

3. loss of 60,000+ new jobs in Michigan Michigan’s Medical Marijuana 60,000+ expected caregivers (based on five patients each),

4. Michigan Taxpayers---Loss of tax revenue from registrations, Michigan caregivers and grower supply stores

5. Michigan education---loss of sales tax revenue

6. Michigan citizen’s safety, as Police and courts will expend scarce resources to control Medical Marijuana use, instead of directing their resources against real threats to the safety and welfare of Michigan citizens-- acts of violence, burglary and fraud including internet fraud and ID theft.

7. The victims and families of the border drug war casualties

8. Safety of our defenders of Freedom----as Al-Qaida, Taliban and other terrorist groups funding would be restored,

9. Michigan’s economy

10. Michigan’s Constitution

11. The Michigan’s citizen’s right to override the Legislature when they fail to represent the will of the people.

12. Hemp product industry

 

 

The previous page or something similar needs to be circulated to educate the voting public.

Why we need a recall of the AG for dereliction of his constitutional duty to protect the citizens of Michigan.

Or better, we should write and pass another ballot initiative to make it crystal clear it was no mistake.

Or best, do both

New constitutional referendum to clarify the MMMA including

1. the right to set up dispensaries and/or, co-ops,

2. limit fees the State of Michigan can collect to costs to administer the Act,,

3. number of plants allowed does not include seedlings(plants under 6-8"),

4. caregiver names replaced with ID number on Patient cards (for security of grow location),Police can verify number only--no names or addresses

5. Prohibit registration of grow locations (for security of grow location),

6. allow outdoor grow locations if fenced securely in. (7-8’ privacy fence?)

7. allow patient to patient transfers,

8. caregiver to caregiver transfers,

9. Allow co-op grow locations(without separate locked rooms),

10. specify that both patient and caregiver can be in possession of allowed amount,

11. Social Service can-not remove children or benefits just because a parent is a patient or caregiver,

12. Increase growers allowed amount to 2.5 ounces plus 2 ounces of processed product per allowed plant in place of each allowed plant. (Example: per patient12 ounces plus 6 plants or 0 additional ounces if 12 plants)

13. Cities cannot zone or restrict caregivers or patients from growing in their homes or in commercial districts...----

14. Plus -any other clarifications needed.

Possibly require

A. all MMM used in Michigan be Michigan grown, (removes interstate commerce argument for federal regulation)

B. Allow sales tax to be collected on sales like any other “over the counter medicine” (legitimizes sales and gives Michigan an off-set to loss of alcohol and tobacco sales that those industries claim)

 

 

* Michigan Compiled Laws sec 14.28 Representation of state….”when in his own judgment the interests of the state require it, intervene in and appear “for the people” of this state in any other court or tribunal, in any cause or matter, civil or criminal, in which the people of this state may be a party or interested”

 

** http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/64 (racial statistics)

Despite consistent evidence that black youth use marijuana at lower rates than whites, in every one of the 25 largest counties in California, blacks are arrested for marijuana possession at higher rates than whites, typically at double, triple, or even quintuple the rate.

Not only does the US have the highest rate of incarceration on the planet, but the racial disparity of arrests, convictions and imprisonment have become grossly pronounced. Nationwide Afro-Americans are arrested, convicted and imprisoned disproportionately. Thirty-seven percent of drug-offense arrests are Afro-Americans, 53 percent of convictions are of Afro-Americans, and 67 percent -- two-thirds of all people imprisoned for drug offenses -- are Afro-Americans. This is despite the fact that Afro-Americans do not use drugs at a perceivable higher rate than white Americans. - 8.2% of whites and 10.1% of blacks use illicit drugs. Much of the voting rights & victories won by the civil rights movement during the 1960s have effectively been eroded. Nearly 5 million people are now barred from voting because of felony disenfranchisement laws. The United States is the only industrial democracy that does this. Drug prohibition has become a successor system to Jim Crow laws in targeting black citizens, removing them from civil society and then barring them from the right to vote. If harsh sentences deterred illicit drug use, America would be "drug-free" by now. But that is not the case, and never will be. The drug war has given the "former land of the free" the highest incarceration rate in the world and disenfranchised millions of citizens. It is a cure worse than the disease. One out of three young African American (ages 18 to 35) men are in prison or on some form of supervised release. There are more African American men in prison than in college. That’s a four times higher percentage of Black men in prison than South Africa at the height of apartheid. Let's look at the statistics again: (2008 -all illicit drug use by race) "Current illicit drug use among persons aged 12 or older varied by race/ethnicity in 2008, with the lowest rate among Asians (3.6 percent) (Figure 2.9). Rates were 14.7 percent for persons reporting two or more races, 10.1 percent for blacks, 9.5 percent for American Indians or Alaska Natives, 8.2 percent for whites, 7.3 percent of Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders, and 6.2 percent for Hispanics." That's 8.2% of whites and 10.1% of blacks using all illicit drugs. Now look at the incarceration statistics: (2007 - incarceration rate by race) "The custody incarceration rate for black males was 4,618 per 100,000. While the incarceration rate of white males was 773 per 100,000. This means that there are at least 5 times more blacks incarcerated for drug offenses than should be expected. This is clearly a gross injustice! http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/64 Whatever the exact dynamics involved, these horrific racial disparities are a direct result of drug-prohibition and are quite clearly unacceptable. This moron-a-thon has done nothing but breed generations of incarcerated and disenfranchised Afro Americans and any citizen not doing their utmost to help reverse this perverse injustice should duly hang their head in shame.

US MI: PUB LTE: Repeal Of Marijuana Prohibition

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URL: http://www.mapinc.or...1/n733/a06.html

Newshawk: Herb

Votes: 0

Pubdate: Fri, 23 Dec 2011

Source: Tuscola County Advertiser (Caro, MI)

Copyright: 2011 Michigan Media, a division of the Edwards Group

Contact: joles@tcadvertiser.com

Website: http://www.tuscolatoday.com/

Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4678

Author: Bob Wood

 

 

 

REPEAL OF MARIJUANA PROHIBITION

 

Editor, Advertiser:

 

A coalition of Michigan parents, teachers, attorneys, physicians, health professionals, former law enforcers and many other people from all walks of life are putting together a voter ballot initiative to repeal marijuana prohibition in Michigan. The 2012 Michigan Ballot Initiative to End Marijuana Prohibition will give Michigan citizens the opportunity to vote on the repeal of Marijuana Prohibition.

 

We enacted the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act ( MMMA ) in 2008 to protect patients from criminal prosecutions. Instead of regulating the medical marijuana industry ( like Colorado did ) our State Attorney General, law enforcement, activist judges and our state legislators have done everything they can think of to destroy the new law.

 

State registered patients and caregivers have been viciously attacked and prosecuted by the state. The voters did not intend for the state to spend millions of tax dollars to prosecute patients and caregivers and attempt to destroy the new law.

 

This coalition examined all the options. They thought about strengthening our current Medical Marijuana law. They discussed decriminalization and concluded that whatever they did the state would try to destroy our new effort the same way that they did with the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act.

 

Thanks to the current effort by AG Bill Schuette and company to destroy the MMMA, Michigan could be the first state to repeal marijuana prohibition.

 

Michigan prohibited alcohol in 1919. In 1933 the U.S. Government recognized the connection between high crime rates and prohibition. A state convention with one delegate from each state house district voted 99-1 to repeal alcohol prohibition. The following year Michigan had a 70 percent drop in homicides.

 

The violence carried out by the likes of Al Capone was minor compared to the violence that is created by marijuana prohibition. As soon as we enacted marijuana prohibition the murder rates skyrocketed the same way they did when we tried to prohibit alcohol. Crime rates will drop if we succeed in our effort to right a very serious wrong by repealing marijuana prohibition.

 

The repeal of marijuana prohibition in Michigan will reduce criminal gang activity, reduce access of marijuana by minors. It will promote agriculture and create jobs by creating a new hemp industry and reduce the burdens of an overpopulated prison system, increase better relations between people and law enforcement and law enforcement will have more time and resources to focus on real crime where there are actual victims.

 

We've spent over one trillion tax dollars and arrested over 20 million people for marijuana. Drug use with school children and adults has increased every year along with our drug war budget. Our school budgets have been gutted to the point that there is no more room to cut. Repealing marijuana prohibition will free up millions of tax dollars to help shore up our school finances.

 

Colorado Representative Jared Polis recently called on Congress to end the prohibition on marijuana. Rep. Polis said "We've seen the benefits across the board, as a job creation engine in Colorado". Polis predicted that national legislation was on the horizon, but said "states must lead the charge". "It's a critical and important time for advocacy at the national stage," he said. "The more states that create a regulatory structure around marijuana production and sales, the more pressure there will be on Congress nationally".

 

The undertaking by the coalition working to repeal marijuana prohibition will be an enormous undertaking. We need thousands of volunteers to circulate petitions in order for this to become a reality. The 30-year-

 

old and younger crowds are being targeted in this war and they are the ones that will have to step up to the plate to help make this happen. You need to volunteer to help collect signatures and to recruit other volunteers. My generation brought an end to the Viet Nam war through peaceful demonstrations and your generation will bring an end to the war being carried out against you under the disguise of marijuana law.

 

Bill Schuette has many prohibition allies with very deep pockets. Bill Schuette and company will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on negative and dishonest ads against the repeal of marijuana prohibition. We do not have financial backing to counter their ads, so we will need donations to combat the negative and false advertising that will surely come from our opponents.

 

Go to repealtoday.org now and volunteer to help collect signatures or to donate money for this effort, because if we fail with this effort the violent and unprovoked attacks against innocent people who choose a safer alternative ( marijuana ) to alcohol, will continue.

 

Bob Wood

MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.

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I'm calling BS on the talking points. Rewrite them. Our law does not need clarification and if our law is used as a campaign tool by either side in this, there will be push back from our organzation. The Act will not be put at risk by either side. Thanks, Bb

 

These talking points seem to be about some other effort.

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