Marijuana Decriminalization Question Must Appear On Detroit Ballot, State Appeals Court Rules

The Michigan Court of Appeals on Friday morning ruled that a Detroit city clerk had no right to block a proposal to decriminalize marijuana from appearing on a 2010 ballot. Detroit officials must now place the question on the August 2012 ballot.

The 2 to 1 decision reversed an earlier ruling by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Michael Sapala that allowed the clerk to suspend a vote on the issue because it conflicted with state law, Michigan Lawyers Weekly reports.

If approved by voters, the proposal would amend city law to allow "the use or possession of less than 1 ounce of marihuana, on private property, by a person who has attained the age of 21 years."

Attorney Matt Abel argued before Judge Sapala on behalf of the ballot measure in circuit court last year. He told The Huffington Post he felt vindicated by the decision.

"I think they made the right decision," he said. "We look forward to moving the drug war down another notch."

Abel said the proposal should be on the August ballot, barring a further appeal by the city.

Abel is also the campaign director for Committee for A Safer Michigan, a group lobbying for a statewide constitutional amendment to permit marijuana use. He sid the Detroit ballot question was one of many factors that led to his group to push for full marijuana legalization in Michigan.

According to the Court of Appeals, the proposal, if passed, would still conflict with current state law prohibiting the use of marijuana.

Quick Poll

Would you vote to decriminalize marijuana in Detroit?

Yes! It's time law enforcement focused on more pressing issues.

No. Marijuana should remain an illegal substance.

Only if the city can collect sales tax revenue from it.

VOTE

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Comments

[420 University]

01:18 PM on 02/13/2012

420 University is committed to providing a reliable resource of information from the experts, help in educating everyone about medical cannabis. 420university.com is there for YOU to locate medical marijuana dispensaries, doctors & organizations, plus YOU can publish to our Community and provide your content in order to spread awareness.

[2crudedudes]

12:50 PM on 02/13/2012

What could possibly go wrong? No I mean, really, how much worse could Detroit get?

[PaulaND]

02:58 PM on 02/13/2012

Think about it. If half the city (just throwing out numbers) were high, crime should go down because everyone knows that if some one is high, they just want to sit around and relax. Maybe???

[Eric Graff]

12:03 PM on 02/13/2012

Let the people decide.................this is America right?

[Ablecynic]

09:09 AM on 02/14/2012

Can we have votes on abortion, legality of homosexual marriage, racial equality, and all that? After all, it is America. Right? Or do we only get to vote on drugs?

[WHATHA]

03:22 PM on 02/15/2012

It's a plant, not a person or a civil right... Difficult to process I know, but do try to keep up.

[Eddie VanderMolen]

11:59 AM on 02/13/2012

In a recent study found that in states that legalized medical marijuana there were less car accident fatalities. http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2011/nov/30/new_study_finds_traffic_fataliti

What benefits await us if we decriminalize pot?

[Johnson Moving]

11:23 AM on 02/13/2012

It has been medicine for 3,000 years ! The USA made it "illegal" in 1927 ! Legal for 3,000 years...

[johnthorpe]

11:08 AM on 02/13/2012

I'm actually really high right now, come to think of it.

[Daniel Hahn]

09:47 AM on 02/13/2012

this is a step in the right direction. this plant can do many good things, among which cure cancer. ( see rick simpson, dennis hill, pretty much any study done concerning cannabis effects in tumors/cancers ) while it is a great medicine it is also a safe non addictive choice for recreation ( rather than alcohol or tobacco which are addictive and known cancer causers ). i hope this passes, if not in michigan then in one of the many other states that are offering legalization to it's voters. i feel when this happens many people who were 'taken' by the antidrug propaganda ( which really was more anti cannabis than anything ) will have their chance to rethink their position based on real conditions.

[Nicon]

05:49 AM on 02/13/2012

Marijuana is not an evil force we must fight at all costs. It's a flower with intoxicant and medical properties. We know its less addictive than caffeine and causes far fewer problems to the user than Alcohol.

In Colorado (where i live) We have Medical Marijuana shops all over the place. some 700+ around the State. Were collecting millions in taxes, millions more in regulation fees and permits. and that is less that 2% of the Colorado population with Medical Marijuana cards. If the whole 4,000,000 Population of Colorado were allowed to shop in these stores god only knows what kind of boost to the State that might bring.

700+ stores.
10 employees each = 7000 Jobs (and that is very conservative)

So your seeing the benefits, but asking what are the problems were dealing with now that we have retail marijuana stores?
The answer there is none. These places are run like any other business, security and increased foot traffic have lead to drops in crime rates all around these shops. We have had no increase in traffic incidents or any other issue folks have dream up.

Educate, Legalize, Regulate, Tax.

[WHATHA]

03:26 PM on 02/15/2012

Also a great source of ethanol and textiles, requiring minimal resources as compared to corn (food) based ethanol and wood pulp and cotton for textiles.

[Nicon]

05:31 PM on 02/15/2012

Your thinking HEMP. Anything from wood, cotton, or oil.

[fumes]

09:27 PM on 02/12/2012

Quick Poll
Would you vote to decriminalize marijuana in Detroit?
Yes! It's time law enforcement focused on more pressing issues. 87.17%
No. Marijuana should remain an illegal substance. 3.74%
Only if the city can collect sales tax revenue from it. 9.09%
-------------------------
nuff said!

[RENAMED Concerned Parent]

09:23 PM on 02/12/2012

Jesus said to do unto others as we would have them to do unto us. None of us would want our child or grandchild thrown in jail with the sexual predators over marijuana. None of us would want to see an older family member’s home confiscated and sold by the police for growing a couple of marijuana plants for their aches and pains.
If the people who want to use marijuana could grow a few plants in their own back yards, it would be about as valuable as home-grown tomatoes; it would put the drug gangs out of business and get them out of our neighborhoods.

[Devil Theory]

07:56 PM on 02/12/2012

This is just a gimmick by the democrats to increase voter turnout. Too bad it's not going to be enough to save the horrible Obama-nation we have now!

[Antometrios]

12:05 PM on 02/13/2012

Oh, yeah, because nobody cared about repealing prohibition before Obama came into office... And because reformers are oh-so fond of our President's progress in that area of federal policy....

[2crudedudes]

12:51 PM on 02/13/2012

Because Obama is doing so much in favor of cannabis. Oh wait, he's raiding dispensaries like a Republican.

[Oakland]

04:58 PM on 02/12/2012

Of course the city should collect sales tax on it. The whole country should legalize it and collect sales tax on it. I suppose only Detroit residents get to vote?

I know it won't change a thing, but it will prove that taxpayers are smarter than the fools they elect to represent them.

[Oakland]

04:52 PM on 02/12/2012

Yes and in a flash. I'm tired of seeing our tax dollars wasted on this losing and unending drug war. Prohibition was tried in the 1920s and failed. All it did was pad the pockets of the mob and crooked judges and cops. What's pot prohibition doing in 2012? Padding the pockets of gangs and crooked, judges, cops and politicians.

[VillianousMike]

12:54 PM on 02/12/2012

"Decriminalization" is pretty much a useless word and policy. Even though New York City is under "decriminalization," there are still many (more than 50,000 last year) arrests for something that simply isn't criminal.

If you're really serious about the issue, then "re-legalize" is the proper term considering marijuana and cannabis.

[Jenny Min]

09:54 PM on 02/13/2012

One step at a time?

[fumes]

11:34 AM on 02/12/2012

oh dear god..

now this will shirley happen:

"An entire family wasmurdered by a youthful addict in Florida. When officers arrived at the home, they found the youth staggering about in a human slaughterhouse. With an axe he had killed his father, mother, two brothers, and a sister. He seemed to be in a daze… He had no recollection of having committed the multiple crime. The officers knew him ordinarily as a sane, rather quiet young man; now he was pitifully crazed. They sought the reason. The boy said that he had been in the habit of smoking something which youthful friends called “muggles,” a childish name for marijuana."
"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others."
“By the tons it is coming into this country — the deadly, dreadful poison that racks and tears not only the body, but the very heart and soul of every human being who once becomes a slave to it in any of its cruel and devastating forms…. Marihuana is a short cut to the insane asylum. Hasheesh makes a murderer who kills for the love of killing out of the mildest mannered man who ever laughed at the idea that any habit could ever get him.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_J._Anslinger

[Ablecynic]

09:11 AM on 02/14/2012

Wasn't Shirley Happen the star in "Rise of the Living Dead?"