Pubdate: Fri, 05 Nov 2004 Source: Michigan Daily (Ann Arbor, MI Edu) Copyright: 2004 The Michigan Daily Contact: http://www.michigandaily.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/582 Cited: Ann Arbor Medical Marijuana Act http://www.aammi.org/ Cited: Ann Arbor Police Chief Dan Oates http://www.ci.ann-arbor.mi.us/Police/ Cited: City Attorney Stephen Postema http://www.ci.ann-arbor.mi.us/Attorney/ Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Ann+Arbor Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) Listen to Voters POLICE NEED TO HONOR PROPOSAL C After a laborious petition drive and a bumpy legal struggle, Proposal C, which protects medicinal marijuana users from prosecution and arrest by local authorities, passed with overwhelming support on Tuesday. Proponents of the ordinance hailed it as a critical step toward preserving civil liberties and reducing excessive prosecutions and arrests of medical drug users. Unfortunately, one day after the ballot initiative passed, Ann Arbor Police Chief Dan Oates decided to ignore the direct democratic mandate of Ann Arbor residents, ordering officers to continue enforcing possession, sale and use violations for medicinal marijuana as they had before Tuesday's vote. Aside from the more intuitive reasons for police officers not to be arresting ailing residents for attempting to temporarily alleviate their pain or discomfort, Oates's decision to ignore Proposal C carries some much graver implications. Under the legal counsel of City Attorney Stephen Postema, the Ann Arbor Police Department has argued that the city's prosecution attempts can be referred to state law, even if the offense is otherwise decriminalized under municipal statute. Accordingly, Postema argues, the city has every right to continue to use its law enforcement resources to halt the medicinal use of marijuana. In its departure, Proposal C continues Ann Arbor's time-honored support and recognition of the medicinal benefits of marijuana and represents a critical step toward safeguarding residents' civil liberties from unnecessary government criminalization. Supporters hoped that the ordinance would be met with further legalization initiatives to ensure that citizens using cannabis for medical reasons will be able to obtain safe products from a noncriminal market. By turning a cold shoulder to Proposal C's directives, city officials have not only prolonged the anxiety of hundreds of Ann Arbor's ailing residents, but subverted the democratic process -- ignoring the popular opinion of its residents and gratuitously deferring to state legal precedent. The collective voice of Ann Arbor residents could not have been any clearer. On Tuesday, by a 74 percent margin, Ann Arbor voters explicitly requested that their taxpayer dollars not be used by the city to prosecute or arrest medicinal marijuana users. The city already decriminalized marijuana for nonmedicinal reasons, and usually, when they come across it, Ann Arbor police only charge a small fine for possession. In fact, with the police department's response to Proposal C, medicinal marijuana offenses within Ann Arbor will now hold harsher penalties and steeper fines than they would have under municipal statutes before the vote. Although the state's more stringent laws will always supercede municipal code, a city's residents should be able to decide how the public authorities most immediate to them allocate resources. If the majority of Ann Arbor's citizens collectively conclude that individual possession and use of marijuana for medical reasons is not a threat to public order, local authorities should respect the will of the people.