Detroit has an interesting history of fighting voter ballot proposals. In 2012, The city of Detroit fought the ballot proposal in court , all the way up to the Michigan Supreme Court and lost. Finally these ballot questions would go to the voters! Why did Detroit fight so hard about decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana? Why exactly did they want to keep marijuana illegal and continue the war on drugs and prohibition? 80 years after prohibition of alcohol ended in a huge failure of organized crime, mafia bootlegging and bullet strewn alcohol turf wars on the streets.

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Detroit marijuana referendum goes to voters in November

 

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By Dustin Block | dblock@mlive.com 
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on July 05, 2012 at 7:00 AM

 

 

 

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DETROIT, MI -- When Detroit residents head to the polls in November to vote for president, they'll also get a chance to weigh in on legalizing marijuana in the city. 

 

The marijuana question goes to voters two years after organizers collected enough signatures to force the referendum.

 

Legal wrangling kept the question off of ballots, but a Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for a vote. A city attorney signed a court order last month finalizing a November vote. 

 

As he's said in the past, Tim Beck, chairman of the Coalition for a Safer Detroit, said he expects the referendum to easily pass. 

 

"We don't feel we need to spend any money at all," he said. "The poll numbers are so far ahead, it'd be a waste. ... This thing is going to pass, period."

 

After the Michigan Supreme Court ruled the referendum should go to voters, there was initial confusion on when city residents would vote on the question. Initial reports suggested the measure would go to voters during the August primary election, but the question will actually appear on November general election ballot. 

 

Beck said his group wanted the question on November's presidential ballot because of the higher turnout.

 

"We prefer to be on the November ballot," he said.  

 

If the ballot measure passes, people 21 and older could use or possess less than an ounce of pot on private property and not face arrest and prosecution under the city code. However, marijuana use and possession are crimes under state law. 

 

Organizers hope the ballot initiative signals to local law enforcement to focus on enforcing crimes other than marijuana use.

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2012/07/detroit_marijuana_referendum_g.html

In 2017, Detroit made an ordinance against the medical marijuana businesses, it's ultimate goal was to destroy the nearly 200 dispensaries that were licensed within the city. The citizens of Detroit then put the question on the ballot for the voters to decide.

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Michigan marijuana proposals head to the ballot 

By Larry Gabriel

 

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The latest fight over marijuana in Detroit hits the polls on Nov. 7. On an otherwise pretty spare ballot there will be two questions put to voters that arrived via petition initiatives run by a group called Citizens for Sensible Cannabis Reform.

Neither of the proposals, as they appear on the ballot, are particularly clear about what they enact. The first one is called "an initiative to enact a medical marihuana facilities ordinance." The second appears as "a proposal to amend the Detroit zoning ordinance, chapter 61 of the Detroit city code, consistent with the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act."

 

The first proposal does several things, but most significantly it cuts the distance a provisioning center can be from parks, day care centers, liquor stores, churches, and other provisioning centers from 1,000 feet, as currently required, to 500 feet, and allows them to stay open an hour later to 9 p.m.

CSCR had to take the city to court in order to put it on the ballot. The second proposal is for Detroit to opt in to the new state law, and it would allow growers and secure transporters (two of the categories allowed by state medical marihuana facilities law) to operate in Detroit's M1-5 industrial districts.

The general impact of these proposals is to pull back some of the regulations the city put on marijuana facilities. That 1,000-feet thing pretty much makes facilities be located far from anywhere that people actually go. There are other tweaks in there but that's the basic intention.

I've got literature from both sides of this issue delivered to my home. The supporters highlight the idea that this will help build the industry and bring money into the community. The opposition literature highlights the idea that marijuana stores would be allowed to be too close to schools, parks, and the like.

My personal opinion is that I want to allow the industry to develop and create opportunities for jobs in the city. And I think that once the state rules come out Dec. 15, there will be a whole lot more competition popping up in the suburbs. One of the reasons there were so many dispensaries in Detroit is that there were not any in Oakland County. Once that changes it will be a very different scene. I think that folks will choose to buy their marijuana nearby at Ye Olde Cannabis Shoppe with its incense and mellow ambience rather than hitting the traffic on Eight Mile Road.

The opposition, mostly focused through the Metropolitan Detroit Community Action Coalition, is fairly alarmist, though increasingly sophisticated. A recent communication from one of its members described the scenario of a growing facility with 2,000 plants in a nearby former school building and expressed concern for the effect that odors, chemicals, water, and drainage would have in the surrounding community.

I wouldn't frame those issues in a way that creates an obstacle for businesses but those are valid community concerns to be addressed. I used to live near a slaughterhouse and I've got to admit there were days the smell of dead meat just hung over the neighborhood. While I find the scent of maturing marijuana flowers refreshing I know that others really, really hate it. However, that doesn't mean there should be onerous and undue regulations on marijuana facilities that other kinds of businesses don't have to comply with.

Detroit voters will get to make the decision on this. You almost didn't get that chance. As happened with the initiative to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana by adults on private property in Detroit, petitioners had to go to court to get city clerk Janice Winfrey to put it on the ballot. Winfrey claimed that "a proposal to amend the Detroit zoning ordinance, chapter 61 of the Detroit city code..." was against state law. The county court said she was wrong. The same thing happened in the case of Proposal M that passed in 2012. Winfrey claimed that the proposal to decriminalize marijuana in Detroit was against state law and refused to put it on the ballot. Petitioners took her to court and eventually prevailed.

We'll soon see if Detroit voters make these proposals winners.

While we're talking votes let's note that the Committee to Regulate Marihuana Like Alcohol has passed the 300,000-signature mark and is headed down the home stretch of this phase of the legalization campaign. CRMLA has until Nov. 22 to turn in a little over 252,000 valid signatures to get recreational legalization on next year's gubernatorial ballot. The group's goal is to turn in some 352,000 signatures to overcome any that are invalidated.

Once the signatures are turned in the state legislature has three months to vote it into law. If not, it goes on next year's ballot — which led me to something of a pipe dream. What if the state legislature, petitions in hand, decides to go ahead and vote to legalize recreational marijuana? It happened in Vermont earlier this year.

What if the state legislature thought, we're rolling out this distribution system for medical marijuana, why not save the taxpayers some money and a lot of fighting on this and create a system for recreational marijuana while we are at it?

Well that would be nice, but I don't think so. Despite the example of Vermont, governments large and small are afraid of marijuana, influenced by drug war propaganda. As their arguments against marijuana have been countered with facts and citizen initiatives, their last tactic is to stall, to wait and see, to declare moratoriums until the evidence is in. That way if some terrible marijuana-related thing happens it won't be their fault.

Of course, the terrible marijuana-related things that are happening — destruction of lives, tearing apart families, murder — are happening because of the drug war that they support.

So, while things seem to be trending toward easing up on marijuana, this is still a movement fought at the ballot box. Vote.

Another positive note is that the commercial side of marijuana continues to march along. It may be just sheer economics that forces marijuana through the barriers. An Alternet headline recently stated, "Marijuana is now a driving engine of the American economy." The report claimed that legal marijuana has created over 149,000 full-time jobs — so it should be no surprise that folks are looking for their chance to create a business in Michigan.

https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/marijuana-proposals-head-to-the-ballot/Content?oid=6169067

Again, in 2018, the city of Detroit continues fighting, this time against the new ballot proposal which the voters approved of, makes the Detroit ordinance in sync with the Michigan Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act. Detroit is going to lose, as it did in 2012, as it did in 2017. Three strikes and you are out, Detroit.

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Detroit medical marijuana initiative overturning could be appealed

 

Katrease Stafford, Detroit Free PressPublished 4:50 p.m. ET Feb. 19, 2018 | Updated 5:08 p.m. ET Feb. 19, 2018

 

But Citizens for Sensible Cannabis Reform spokesman Jonathan Barlow said Monday that no official decision has been made yet.

"Currently, we are examining all options before moving forward with any course of action," Barlow said. "However, we are disappointed in that the city refuses to have dialogue with us in order to help minorities in the industry."

 

The overturned initiative, placed on the November ballot as Proposal B, specified in which zoning districts medical marijuana-related facilities could be located within Detroit. It would have allowed provisioning centers and processors in all business and industrial districts, including downtown and Midtown.

 

Chief Judge Robert Colombo Jr. also partially overturned the zoning portion of a separate medical marijuana initiative, Proposal A, whicht had sought to allow dispensaries to open within 500 feet of another dispensary; near liquor, beer and wine stores; child care centers, arcades and parks. 

Despite the ruling, Detroit will still be required to opt into the Michigan Medical Marijuana Facilities Act, the state licensing and regulatory framework for medical marijuana.

The decisions came after Colombo, earlier that day, dismissed two cases that had sought similar action — one brought by VK Real Estate Holdings III LLC, a company seeking a medical marijuana license to operate in the city, and the other by Detroit residents Marcus Cummings and Deborah Omokehinde. Colombo ruled they had failed to establish standing or show “special injury." 

 

Later in the day, the city filed its own motion seeking to overturn the two initiatives, which Colombo granted in part.

Cummings, who is cochair of the community-based Metropolitan Detroit Community Action Coalition, said he was shocked, but pleased to hear the reversal.

"We're glad the city picked it up after our standards were questioned," Cummings said. "... Legally, they (Citizens) can appeal, but if you ask me, 'do they have a case?,' I'd say no. Proposal B went against Michigan's Zoning Enabling Act. I don't see any of the appellate court judges ruling in their favor. The best thing for Citizens is to work with neighborhood groups in drafting something that was equitable for all."

Cummings said the coalition plans to go before council to offer suggestions to tweak the city's current ordinance.

"We're not anti-marijuana at all," Cummings said. "We just want fair regulations and we don't want to be flooded with this industry. ... You just want to make sure the communities and the business owners and the patients are set up where it's a safe environment."

The initiatives were both approved by 60% of voters last November but have been in limbo since then after a crop of lawsuits surfaced, challenging the measures. 

Colombo’s decision came days after Mayor Mike Duggan signed a 180-day moratorium on new medical marijuana permits and licenses.

The Detroit City Council approved the moratorium last week, citing the ongoing legal challenges and concerns.  Councilman James Tate and the city's legal department argued a city's zoning ordinance can't be modified via a voter initiative.

"This is a cautionary tale for those who want to seek ballot initiatives with illegal language in them or language that is afoul of proven case law," Tate, who drafted the resolution, said before the council. "This is what has created this situation. ... (Not) working with the city to try and find some common ground. This is a perfect example of things that can go wrong."

Prior to the voter-approved initiatives, the city already had an ordinance regulating dispensaries in place. Tate originally introduced the ordinance in 2015 and it went into effect March 1, 2016. An effort to amend the ordinance began a year later.

"I think they're putting the cart before the horse at this point," Jason Canvasser, attorney for Citizens for Sensible Cannabis Reform, said about the moratorium. "It's just another attempt to subvert the will of the people."

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2018/02/19/detroit-medical-marijuana-law-appeal/350840002/