If we must pursue a War on Drugs, can't we at least do the compassionate thing and remove the sick and dying from the battle field? A ballot initiative recently launched by the Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care does exactly that. The cannabis plant has been used for millennia as a natural, healing herb. References to cannabis date back to 5,000 years ago in China. The Old Testament contains multiple references to cannabis (kaneh bosm) and directs that it be burned in the temple. In New Testament times cannabis was widely used to ease the pains of child birth. And to anoint the dead. [continues 631 words]
In January 2002, in Juneau, Alaska, Joseph Frederick had the sort of idea that makes a teenager seem like one of nature's mistakes. Last week, after five years and the attention of 13 federal judges, Frederick became a footnote in constitutional history. His case illustrated how the multiplication and extension of rights lead to the proliferation of litigation. It also illustrated something agreeable in a disagreeably angry era -- how nine intelligent, conscientious justices can civilly come to strikingly different conclusions about undisputed facts. [continues 691 words]
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a potentially damaging blow to students' rights to free speech in a ruling Monday. In 2002, Joseph Frederick unfurled a 14-foot banner that read "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" near his school in Juneau, Ala., as the Olympic torch passed through town. Students were being led out to see the torch go by, and Frederick, 18 at the time, was not on school property. A teacher destroyed Frederick's banner and suspended him for 10 days. [continues 363 words]
Rochelle Lampkin of Detroit doesn't drink alcohol, smoke tobacco or use drugs for recreation. But about once a month, she takes in a substance that she says benefits her quality of life - even though it's against the law. She uses marijuana for medicinal purposes. "I have a problem with my optic nerve," Lampkin explained. "It's called optic neuritis, and the nerve swells up. If I smoke one marijuana cigarette or even use a vaporizer, which I truly prefer, it relaxes the nerve." [continues 2534 words]
As a retired police detective from Bath Township, Michigan (near Lansing), I read with interest your idea to increase tourist dollars by legalizing/regulating and taxing marijuana (a la Amsterdam-type coffeehaus). Thank you for your courage to propose such a sensible step. May I add another, perhaps more important aspect of ending marijuana prohibition? During my 18 years of police service I was dispatched to zero calls generated by the USE of marijuana. Its use is NOT a societal problem. I have always urged my fellow citizens to not use any mind-altering, intoxicating and addictive drug, which includes marijuana. However, having my profession still chasing the Willie Nelsons of Michigan does REDUCE public safety. Offr. Howard J. Wooldridge (ret.) education specialist, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Washington, DC [end]
Rochelle Lampkin knows she's breaking the law when she lights a joint and takes a few tokes, but she doesn't feel like a criminal. "Sometimes," she says, "you have to do something that's wrong for all the right reasons." The 48-year-old Detroit grandmother has multiple sclerosis, and an associated condition called optic neuritis, an excruciatingly painful inflammation of the optic nerve. It hits her a few times a month. [continues 1115 words]
Six years ago, Michigan saw petition gatherers advocating a statewide vote on recreational use of marijuana. It was a bad idea at the time, as an LSJ editorial stated. It's still a bad idea, as Lansing-based pollster Ed Sarpolus affirmed in noting full legalization is still a no-go with state voters. Medical use of marijuana is an entirely different matter, however. And, appropriately, a new petition drive has started to put before the Legislature, and probably the voters, the issue of legalizing medical use of cannabis. [continues 561 words]
GRAND RAPIDS -- The cost has been tremendous and the victories small so far, but an Alger Heights couple say a long court battle has been worth it to support their claims of abuse by the Grand Rapids Police Department. Lawyers, representing the city in the couple's 2005 civil rights lawsuit, say Jelte and Janine Jansma got what's coming to people who bring drugs into neighborhoods. It's been nearly four years since Grand Rapids police burst through the couple's bedroom door. The couple say police threw Janine Jansma, who was naked, on the floor, breaking her wrist and arm, as they demanded to know where they had hidden drugs. [continues 459 words]
A Flint man should get Father of the Year for what his son recently put him through. The dad told police he loaned his cellphone to his crackhead son to make a quick call in the garage. An hour later, dad gets a call from his son's drug dealers telling him that he needs to pay off junior's $100 drug debt if he wants his phone back. Dad goes to meet the dealers but starts arguing with them because they don't have the cellphone's case. [continues 342 words]
Michigan Group Needs to Collect Signatures LANSING - An effort to legalize marijuana for medical use in Michigan cleared a key procedural hurdle this week. A state elections board approved the form of petitions being circulated by the Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care. The group needs to collect at least 304,101 valid signatures of Michigan voters within six months to send its issue to state lawmakers. If state lawmakers vote to accept the proposal, it becomes part of Michigan law. If the Legislature doesn't vote on the measure or rejects it, the initiative would appear on the November, 2008, ballot. [continues 176 words]
LANSING (AP) -- An effort to legalize marijuana for medical use in Michigan cleared a key procedural hurdle Wednesday. A state elections board approved the form of petitions being circulated by the Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care. The group still needs to collect at least 304,101 valid signatures of Michigan voters within six months to send its issue to state lawmakers. If state lawmakers vote to accept the proposal, it becomes part of Michigan law. If the Legislature doesn't vote on the measure or rejects it, the initiative would appear on the November 2008 ballot. [end]
Group Still Needs at Least 304,101 Voter Signatures An effort to legalize marijuana for medical use in Michigan cleared a key procedural hurdle Wednesday. A state elections board approved the form of petitions being circulated by the Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care. The group still needs to collect at least 304,101 valid signatures of Michigan voters within six months to send its issue to state lawmakers. If state lawmakers vote to accept the proposal, it becomes part of Michigan law. If the Legislature doesn't vote on the measure or rejects it, the initiative would appear on the November 2008 ballot. [continues 177 words]
Of the eight Democrats vying for their party's presidential nomination, I think it's fair to say former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel is the longest of the long shots. That's what I thought of him late last month when I sat across from the Democratic presidential candidates on the stage of Howard University's Crampton Auditorium. I was one of the three journalists who got to question the full field of Democratic contenders during a PBS presidential forum. The 90-minute program was billed as a chance for the candidates to "address issues of concern to black America." Virtually everyone was there to see and hear the frontrunners --Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. When the forum ended, though, Gravel's views are what I found most intriguing. [continues 410 words]
Backers to Submit Forms to State Board on Medicinal Use George Griffiths of Delhi Township would like to see marijuana legalized. But at a minimum, he believes it should be available to ease the suffering of seriously ill patients. "I've always considered that the so-called war on drugs has been almost as disastrous as Iraq," said Griffiths, 78, who signed a petition last week to put the medical marijuana measure on the 2008 ballot. Supporters of medical marijuana will ask the Board of State Canvassers today to approve the petition forms they have been using for two weeks. Within the next six months, they will need to collect 304,101 valid signatures to put the measure before voters. [continues 446 words]
FERNDALE (AP) -- A group says it plans to collect 550,000 signatures within six months to get a medical marijuana initiative on next year's statewide ballot. The Coalition for Compassionate Care announced Wednesday that the Michigan Medicinal Marijuana Act would allow patients to grow and use small amounts of marijuana for relief from pain associated with cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and other diseases. If 304,101 signatures are validated, the initiative would go to the Legislature, according to Dianne Byrum, a spokeswoman for the Ferndale-based group. The act would appear on the November 2008 ballot should lawmakers reject it or not vote on it. Current Michigan law prohibits marijuana use for any reason but 12 other states permit medicinal use by patients. [end]
An initiative that would allow seriously ill Michigan residents to use marijuana as a pain reliever without repercussions will be launched this week, The Coalition for Compassionate Care announced Wednesday. The Ferndale-based, grassroots group plans to collect 550,000 signatures within six months for a citizen's initiative known as the Michigan Medicinal Marijuana Act. It would allow patients to grow and use small amounts of marijuana for relief from pain associated with cancer, multiple sclerosis and other diseases. If 304,101 signatures are validated, the initiative would go to the Michigan Legislature, according to Coalition for Compassionate Care Spokeswoman Dianne Byrum. The act would appear on the November 2008 ballot if lawmakers reject or chose not to vote on it. [continues 211 words]
WASHINGTON -- The federal government announced Monday that it will regulate a chemical that can be used in the production of fentanyl, a powerful drug often combined with heroin and blamed in the deaths of more than 200 people in metro Detroit since late 2005. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy said the government will regulate the manufacture, importation, exportation and distribution of the chemical N-phenethyl-4-piperidone, also known as NPP. Officials say NPP is a base chemical used in production of fentanyl in the United States and has been seen in several fentanyl labs raided in the last seven years. [continues 93 words]
Federal agents call it dialing for drugs. And over the past few years, they said, the phone number they called eventually led them to the Detroit Thug Lordz, a ring that used cell phones and couriers to supply customers with cocaine and marijuana in northwest Detroit. Advertisement The ring, which took drug orders over the phone, took a major hit Friday when agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested several people believed to be members. [continues 162 words]
Listen up, parents. College students don't think you want to know how much gambling happens on campus. They really don't think you want to know about all the drinking or drug use. And more than anything, they say you'd be stunned to find out what goes on behind dorm room doors. Forty-eight percent of college students on the state's three biggest campuses say their parents would be shocked to learn how many sex partners some of their classmates have, according to The Detroit Free Press-Local 4 Michigan Poll of state college students. [continues 792 words]
I'm writing about: "Police make marijuana bust" (4-27-07). I'm sure many marijuana growers and sellers are thankful to the Thumb Narcotics Unit of the Michigan State Police for this latest marijuana bust and others like it. Without operations like this, marijuana would be worth what other easy-to-grow weeds are worth -- very little. Thanks to the Drug Enforcement Administration and other so-called "drug warriors," the easy-to-grow weed is worth more than pure gold -- and completely tax free. Any marijuana growers, sellers or traffickers arrested will soon be replaced. They always are. Kirk Muse, Mesa, Ariz. [end]
Inside Michigan
