Pubdate: Wed, 14 Aug 2013
Source: Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Contact:  2013 C.E.G.W./Times-Shamrock
Website: http://www.metrotimes.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1381
Author: Larry Gabriel

LEGAL STATUS OF WEED LOOKS GREEN

 From Ferndale to Lansing - and Even Uruguay - Legalization Seems 
More Tangible Than Ever Before.

THIS MAY BE THE biggest news about marijuana since the War on Drugs 
kicked off under President Richard Nixon: Uruguay is standing on the 
verge of legalizing it.

A couple of weeks ago, the South American nation's General Assembly 
passed a bill that would legalize growing, selling and possessing the 
plant; it still has to pass in Uruguay's Senate and be signed by 
President Jose Mujica.

It would seem there's no contest there as the Senate is reportedly 
more in favor of the legislation than the General Assembly - and 
Mujica proposed it in the first place. However, there is no doubt in 
my mind that the U.S. government is working heatedly behind the 
scenes to derail this historic change. Past experience tells us that 
when a nation desires to do something counter to U.S. policy, our 
government twists arms and threatens to cut off any aid that it may 
be giving them.

But then, Mujica may stand strong. He is a former guerrilla fighter 
who spent 14 years in prison. His administration has one of the most 
liberal agendas in the Americas. In addition to legal marijuana, it 
supports same-sex marriage, has passed an abortion rights law and 
boosted the use of renewable energy. Among other reasons, legalizing 
marijuana is aimed at taking the market away from drug gangs.

For the moment, Uruguay leads a trend working its way across Latin 
America. The presidents of Guatemala, Colombia and Mexico have called 
for discussion about legalizing and regulating drugs. Former Mexican 
"drug warrior" presidents Ernesto Zedillo and Vicente Fox both now 
say that marijuana prohibition has failed and have called for new policies.

Closer to home, the three most recent U.S. presidents have all smoked 
it - although Bill Clinton maintains he didn't inhale - 20 states 
have medical marijuana laws and two states have legalized it for 
recreational use. However, an entire nation such as Uruguay would 
have even larger implications and repercussions. Other nations, such 
as Holland and Portugal, have decriminalized drugs to some extent, 
but Uruguay is proposing legalization. This would break the drug 
policy stranglehold the United States has held over governments in 
the hemisphere for decades.

The current policy obviously hasn't worked on drug traffickers. Some 
Latin American nations are looking for another way when it comes to 
drug policy, something based on evidence rather than fears. If 
Uruguay legalizes, then chances are that some other countries will be 
emboldened to change their own policies.

Uruguay's step is more evidence that anti-prohibition forces are 
active well beyond our borders, and they, too, are making progress.

Policy Back Home

YOU'D HAVE TO BE living under a rock around here to be ignorant of 
the petition that has been turned in by activists to put the question 
of decriminalizing possession and use of marijuana in Ferndale on 
that city's ballot this fall.

And you probably know they'll be voting on that in Lansing and 
Jackson too. That's because the media attention on those filings was 
so intense it was hard to miss. You'd think these initiatives were a 
new thing, but there were similar ones on ballots in five Michigan 
cities last year - Detroit, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Flint and 
Ypsilanti - all successful.

"I've never seen anything like it," activist Tim Beck says about this 
year's media attention. "I've never experienced such media frenzy and 
I've been in this fight for 10 years. Ferndale was the 'creme de la 
creme,' every TV station in southeast Michigan was there. The word 
really got out. It's becoming so mainstream now - and more or less 
legitimate. We're winning the political and cultural battle with 
respect to the misguided policy of marijuana prohibition."

Ferndale is a suburban community of about 20,000 that is literally 
across the street from Detroit, where some 700,000 people live.

In contrast, when petitions were presented for Detroit's vote in 
2010, it was noted, but there was nowhere near the media saturation 
we got over the last few weeks. Of course, officials in Detroit 
didn't want to talk about it. Not the mayor, nor the City Council; 
and the Detroit story had some drama to it. First, the Election 
Commission refused to put the issue on the ballot, claiming that it 
was counter to state law and thereby could not be voted on. The 
Committee for a Safer Detroit, which had initiated the petition 
drive, sued in Wayne County Circuit Court, which ruled in favor of 
the Election Commission. Then the Court of Appeals (none of this ever 
seems to be settled without an appeal) ruled in favor of the 
petitioners. And finally the state Supreme Court chose to let the COA 
ruling stand.

There was some media attention given last year's initiatives, but 
they happened on the same day that President Barack Obama 
overwhelmingly beat Mitt Romney. You can understand why other things 
were on people's minds back then.

There is no such distraction this year. One notable aspect of the 
Ferndale initiative is that it's the first Oakland County community 
to take a swing at softening marijuana prohibition. Oakland County 
has had one of the toughest responses against the Michigan Medical 
Marijuana Act. County Sheriff Mike Bouchard and Prosecutor Jessica 
Cooper have been very aggressive against medical marijuana 
facilities. So far they haven't commented on the Ferndale petition initiative.

Another reason these new initiatives have garnered so much attention 
is that the activists have a track record of success. And they're 
savvier on how to deal with media.

"I worked the issue a little smarter this time around," Beck says. 
"I've cultivated contacts in the media. It's just becoming more 
legitimate and I can speak with some credibility. When word got out 
that the petitions would be turned in, it spread like wildfire. The 
media are competitive and calls were coming out of the woodwork."

Even the actual media coverage is beginning to mature. They're 
starting to lose their nod-and-a-wink attitude with headlines with 
"hazy," "cloudy" and "up in smoke" double entendres.

That's happening in part because the story has to be taken seriously. 
If the changes are successful in Lansing, Jackson and Ferndale this 
year, that will make nine Michigan cities - including Ann Arbor - 
that have either legalized, decriminalized or made possession of 
small amounts of marijuana a lowest law enforcement priority. Those 
are many of our most prominent cities. The anti-prohibition snowball 
just gets bigger and bigger.

"We've got a foolproof method now, especially after the litigation in 
Detroit," says Beck, who pitches in with others around the state. 
"They can't keep us off the ballot anymore."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom