|
Initiatives:
Michigan
Marijuana
Initiative
Effort
Gets
Underway
5/13/05
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/386/michigan.shtml
A move to legalize marijuana
is once again breaking out in the Midwest. A Michigan group, Win-the-War,
has begun gathering signatures to place an amendment to the state constitution
that would eliminate all penalties for the personal use, possession, or
cultivation of pot on the November 2006 ballot.
The group won approval for
its petitions from the state Board of Canvassers May 5 and immediately
began efforts to gather the 320,000 signatures needed to place the measure
on the ballot. Organizers have until October 1 to reach that goal.
"This is about controlling
and regulating marijuana to take it off the streets and out of the black
market," Win-the-War's Bruce Ritchie told the board, according to a report
in the Lansing State Journal. Legalizing marijuana would lower crime
rates and reduce underage consumption of the weed, he added.
The proposed amendment:
-
Eliminates state and local laws
criminalizing possession or personal cultivation of cannabis by adults.
-
Permits the use of medical marijuana
by patients under 21 if prescribed by a doctor.
-
Permits Michigan residents to
apply for state certificates for commercial cultivation or manufacture
(as in making brownies).
-
Permits licensed Michigan liquor
retailers to sell cannabis to adults.
-
Permits the legislature to enact
laws barring cannabis on public lands, such as schools and prisons, and
to enact laws criminalizing public consumption of cannabis or driving under
the influence.
No initiative to regulate marijuana
has passed in any state. In Nevada in 2002, 40% of voters approved
a similar initiative, while last year in Alaska, reformers won an all-time
high of 44% of the vote.
-- END --
|
Issue #386
-- 5/13/05
Editorial:
Paying
for
Propaganda
|
Feature:
Marijuana
Remains
Legal
in
Alaska
|
Feature:
Major
Russian
Drug
Reforms
on
Verge
on
Being
Reversed
|
Feature:
ONDCP
Student
Drug
Testing
Road
Show
Dogged
by
"Truth
Squads"
|
Announcement:
DRCNet/Perry
Fund
Event
to
Feature
US
Rep.
Jim
McDermott,
June
1
in
Seattle
|
Sentencing:
House
Passes
Orwellian
"Anti-Gang"
Mandatory
Minimums
|
Weekly:
This
Week's
Corrupt
Cops
Stories
|
Cocaine:
Connecticut
House
Passes
Bill
to
Eliminate
Crack/Powder
Disparities
|
Pain:
Boston
Congressman
Wants
Nationwide
Ban
on
Oxycontin
|
Pain:
ABC's
Nightline
Gives
Sympathetic
Look
at
Pain
Treatment
vs.
Prohibition
|
Prisons:
Sex
Abuse
of
Federal
Inmates
by
Guards
"A
Significant
Problem,"
Justice
Department
Says
|
Initiatives:
Denver
Marijuana
Initiative
Submitted
for
Approval
|
Initiatives:
Michigan
Marijuana
Initiative
Effort
Gets
Underway
|
Middle
East:
Lawless
Iraq
Becoming
Key
Drug
Corridor,
INCB
Says
|
Asia:
Taiwan
Considers
Syringe
Access
to
Reduce
AIDS
Spread
|
Caribbean:
"Ganja
Planter"
Lament
Tops
the
Charts
in
Trinidad
&
Tobago
|
Weekly:
This
Week
in
History
|
Job
Listing:
Outreach
Coordinator,
Coalition
for
Higher
Education
Act
Reform
(DRCNet)
|
Weekly:
The
Reformer's
Calendar
|
This issue -- main page
This issue -- single-file printer version
Drug War Chronicle -- main page
Chronicle archives
|
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