Students working to gain support for marijuana legislation initiative
Ian Elliott, president of Student Advocates for Medical and Recreational Cannabis, has pledged to gather 50,000 of the required 300,000 signatures necessary to get a new marijuana legalization initiative placed on Michigan's ballot in 2016.
"It's an undertaking," Elliott said. "I'm going to organize volunteers. We need all the help we can get."
Michigan laws governing marijuana are considered some of the most complex in the nation. Twelve years after California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana, on Nov. 4, 2008, state voters passed the Michigan Medical Marijuana Initiative. The measure was approved by voters in each of Michigan's 83 counties.
Central Michigan University Police Department Lt. Cameron Wassman said there has been a cultural shift in the way students view marijuana.
"I've been on CMU's police force since 2000, and what we've seen is students becoming desensitized to pot and not treating it like a really serious drug," Wassman said. "A lot of cities and municipalities have changed their laws. That can affect public opinion."
In addition to Michigan's statewide legalization of medicinal marijuana, individual cities have their own ordinances regarding the use of marijuana. Ann Arbor has been passing increasingly lenient laws regulating marijuana since the early 1970s. Today, if you are caught smoking a joint on the streets of Ann Arbor police will issue you a $25 ticket. Grand Rapids recently enacted a similar law which allows police to issue a $25 ticket to an individual for their first marijuana offense.
However, all cannabis products are illegal under federal law.
The six and a half years that have passed since Michigan legalized medicinal marijuana use have brought sweeping change to how individual cities in Michigan treat marijuana offenses. On Nov. 4, 2013, 62 percent of Mount Pleasant residents voted in favor of decriminalizing the possession and use of less than one ounce of marijuana for adults above the age of 21 within a private residence.
Elliott said the push for complete legalization of marijuana in Michigan is, "stronger than ever."
"The push for legalization has three fronts," Elliott said. "The first front is a legislative movement. The other two are ballot initiatives.
"Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, announced April 4 that he is drafting legislation to introduce a version of Colorado's marijuana laws in Michigan. Irwin's statement was well received by a hazy crowd of supporters at Ann Arbor's 44th annual Hash-Bash.
Tecumseh sophomore Matt Vallad said mimicking Colorado's practices could help Michigan.
"I think that type of legislation is a great idea because legalization will lead to more impartial education and more tax revenue for the state," Vallad said. "Right now kids are only taught that all drugs are bad and dangerous. If marijuana became legalized, some of the scare campaigns would have to die down so people could learn the true pros and cons.
The ballot initiative Elliott spoke of comes from the Michigan Responsibility Council. The action comes from a conservative led group which seeks to treat marijuana as a profitable, taxable industry.
The proposal is set to model a similar initiative recently started in Ohio by the group Responsible Ohio. The goal of the initiative is to grant 10 licenses to 10 pre-selected
businesses, each of which will run their own large plantation to meet the demand in Michigan.
"It's big business," Elliott said. "There would be retail centers all over the state with 10 huge plantations. It's promoting small business, too. I'm not pro big business or pro small business. I just want to see Michigan benefit responsibly from marijuana."
Britton sophomore Anna Prielipp said the state's marijuana laws should reflect the will of the people.
"They're currently working on the writing for their bill," Elliott said. "It's first priority is full-on legalization for adults."The ballot initiative Elliott is working to secure signatures for is being sponsored by the Michigan Comprehensive Cannabis Law Reform Committee, chaired by Lansing attorney Jeff Hank.
The second tier of this initiative is to secure legal status for each of Michigan's several hundred marijuana dispensaries. Although medical marijuana has been legal in Michigan since 2008, dispensaries are still technically considered illegal under state law.
In 2012, Isabella County Chief Judge Paul Chamberlain presided over a case filed by the Isabella County Prosecutor's Office against Brandon McQueen, who was operating a medical marijuana dispensary in Mount Pleasant. The prosecutor sought an immediate injunction against McQueen and his partner Matthew Taylor.
Chamberlain initially ruled in favor of McQueen on the grounds that he was in compliance with the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. The prosecutor then successfully appealed Chamberlain's decision in the Michigan Supreme Court, which ruled that the city may consider dispensaries to be a "public nuisance."
"Providing protection to dispensaries is important from a medical standpoint," Elliott said. "Ibuprofen and other pharmaceutical painkillers can really mess with your liver, but marijuana doesn't. It's one of the most nontoxic plants that can be found."
The third component of the ballot initiative is to legalize the production and use of marijuana extracts and other cannabinoids.
"As it stands you can't use anything but the actual bud, the plant itself," Elliott said. "Wax is essential for seizure and cancer patients, especially with children and the elderly. No doctor wants to recommend smoking. The extract can be turned into a pill form, which would be no different than taking prescription medication."
The final point of the initiative would be a provision for Michigan farmers to grow industrial hemp.
"Hemp is not a psychoactive substance," Elliott said. "It's an industrial product. Legalization of marijuana is something of a social justice issue, what with individual rights and the disproportionate number of incarcerated African Americans for pot offenses. Hemp is just a business issue."
Elliott said ultimately, the decision on how Michigan treats marijuana should be made by its citizens.
"Regardless of a politician's opinion on it, the fact is we have a black market in the United States that trades billions of dollars of marijuana," Elliott said. "If public opinion would support taking that black market out of the shadows in favor of regulating, defining and finally taxing it, that would help our state. The tax revenue in Colorado is staggering, and most of that money was funneled toward education and child health services."
