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Appeals Court To Hear Gr Decriminalized Pot Case


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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The Michigan Court of Appeals will soon hear arguments regarding a City of Grand Rapids charter amendment that made possession and use of marijuana a civil infraction rather than a crime.

Grand Rapids voters passed the decriminalization amendment by 59% in November 2012 and it went into effect in May 2013.

In April 2013, Kent County Circuit Court Judge Paul Sullivan threw out a lawsuit from the Kent County Prosecutor’s Office that sought to block the implementation of the amendment. The prosecutor’s office is now appealing Sullivan’s ruling.

The prosecutor’s office says the charter amendment conflicts with state law and prevents prosecutors from doing their job prosecuting criminal offenses, which includes drug cases. The city is defending the amendment.

Since the amendment was implemented, people caught holding or using marijuana have been given a ticket and fined in Grand Rapids District Court rather than charged with a misdemeanor. There are some exceptions. Cases of people found with the drug during the commission of another crime have been turned over to the prosecutor. The Grand Rapids Police Department is also still turning over felony drug cases to the prosecutor.

According to the Grand Rapids Police Department, between May 2012 and May 2013, the year before the charter amendment took effect, the department forwarded 1,191 misdemeanor cases of marijuana use and possession to the Kent County prosecutor.

In the year since the amendment took effect, between May 2013 and May 2014, the department has handed out 1,086 municipal infraction tickets for possession or use, and forwarded another 109 cases to the prosecutor because the possession was found during the investigation of another crime.

The Court of Appeals will hear arguments from both sides of amendment on Nov. 14 in Grand Rapids.

 

http://woodtv.com/2014/10/13/appeals-court-to-hear-gr-decriminalized-pot-case/

 

 

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I met Mr Forcyth under unfortunate (for me) circumstances one time. He told me if I wanted to smoke weed, I should move to Oregon, my reply was "why would I move somewhere to smoke cannabis". He talked to me like he was privy to some headline news "The police are going to start coming down hard on pot users in Grand Rapids this year". What was weird is he took the time to debate me, acted like the cannabis issue was out of his hands, and was a "generally nice" guy. He offered me a 7411, which I didn't accept, because I didn't want gov in my life, longer than it had to be. I ended up getting 6 month non reporting probation, and 24 hour community service. I had a ton of paraphernalia, because my roommate was a glass blower, and a little less than an ounce of weed separated in jars by strain. I wasn't a dealer, just a conneseuir, using a poor mans pain reliever. It's hard to believe this is the same guy, but I guess million dollar revenues tend to get people strung out, on that real gateway drug (money).

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I met Mr Forcyth under unfortunate (for me) circumstances one time. He told me if I wanted to smoke weed, I should move to Oregon, my reply was "why would I move somewhere to smoke cannabis". He talked to me like he was privy to some headline news "The police are going to start coming down hard on pot users in Grand Rapids this year". What was weird is he took the time to debate me, acted like the cannabis issue was out of his hands, and was a "generally nice" guy. He offered me a 7411, which I didn't accept, because I didn't want gov in my life, longer than it had to be. I ended up getting 6 month non reporting probation, and 24 hour community service. I had a ton of paraphernalia, because my roommate was a glass blower, and a little less than an ounce of weed separated in jars by strain. I wasn't a dealer, just a conneseuir, using a poor mans pain reliever. It's hard to believe this is the same guy, but I guess million dollar revenues tend to get people strung out, on that real gateway drug (money).

So you rejected 7411 and ended up getting convicted?

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He may be worried the city will loos $$$ 

The prosecutor doesn't work for the city or make money for them. He works for the county. He can prosecute anything that violates state law all day long. He doesn't need the city to keep it criminalized.  Decriminalizing it in the city only means that the city itself can't prosecute for violations of an ordinance. But the prosecutor can still prosecute under state law. So I don't get it. What's his vested interest? Any1 know?

 

And the city will still make money anyway. It's a civil infraction. I'm sure it has a hefty fine. And people are more likely to pay a civil infraction ticket straight up rather than contest it. If you catch a misdemeanor you aren't as likely to just give in. That means a lot of time is spent on it between the court and prosecutor's office and time is money. So seems like the city will still pull in plenty of cash.

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It was a good 10 years ago that I met him, and yeah I took the hit, 7 years with no incident and you can get it expunged. The decrim measure keeps the police from reporting the "crime" to him at all. I'm sure it makes it a lot harder to prosecute a case when you don't have the leverage, of being able to drop a pot case, if the accused pleads guilty. 2 1/2 oz's, used to be enough to charge someone with a felony count of supplying a controlled substance.

Edited by slipstar059
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