"This is not going away, every community organization that I'm aware of in this city is looking for the same thing, and it's to not have Detroit become the Wild West city in the state of Michigan for medical marijuana," says Jim Ward, president of the Green Acres radio patrol (GWCRP), a community watch group. Ward has been attending meetings with other Detroiters concerned with what they see as the over-proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city. Maybe, just as the creation of the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act was, this is a case of citizens stepping in where the state has failed to perform. [continues 858 words]
Number of Patients, Caregivers Continues to Fall Defense attorneys said the reality is that clarifying the law has been left to the courts with many defendants on hold for several years. Many have been busted for opening dispensaries that prosecutors and law enforcement said aren't allowed under the law. The number of caregivers and patients continues to drop as Michigan's highest court weighs in on long-pending criminal cases involving the state's medical marijuana program approved by voters in 2008. [continues 996 words]
Justices of the Michigan Supreme Court spent Thursday morning listening to oral arguments in three medical marijuana cases that began in Oakland County. Up first was the case of Richard Hartwick, who was accused of illegally growing and possessing marijuana in September 2011 in Pontiac. "There's no evidence he sold to anyone else," Hartwick's attorney, Fred Miller, told the court. "There's no evidence he was doing anything wrong." Hartwick, who has a medical marijuana card, believes that he is immune due to his status as a cardholder. [continues 344 words]
A Detroit city councilman, worried about an influx of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city, wants state lawmakers to help give local governments the tools to regulate them. Since medical marijuana was legalized by voters in 2008, dispensaries have opened up in Detroit at an alarming rate, according to Councilman James Tate. Tate estimates there are 180 dispensaries in 149 square miles of the city, describing it as an "oversaturation." Detroit is "in limbo in terms of our ability to enforce the law" due to the "gray area that doesn't allow for dispensaries to really exist," Tate said. [continues 408 words]
Justices of the Michigan Supreme Court spent Thursday morning listening to oral arguments in three medical marijuana cases that began in Oakland County. Up first was the case of Richard Hartwick, who was accused of illegally growing and possessing marijuana in September 2011 in Pontiac. "There's no evidence he sold to anyone else," Hartwick's attorney, Fred Miller, told the court. "There's no evidence he was doing anything wrong." Hartwick, who has a medical marijuana card, believes that he is immune due to his status as a cardholder. [continues 340 words]
Things are heating up in Detroit regarding the proliferation of medical marijuana storefronts in the city. Some citizens are alarmed at the number they see popping up in their neighborhoods. "It is a hornet's nest of a topic," says City Councilmember James Tate, who represents District 1 on the west side. Due to citizen comments at meetings in his district, Tate is willing to brave the hornets in order to try to regulate a nascent industry that no one seems to have a handle on. No one else on council seems to be addressing it. There was legislation on the table in Lansing last year (HB 4271) that would have allowed local municipalities to decide for themselves, but that was left to die when the session ended. [continues 1121 words]
Three medical marijuana cases from Oakland County are set for oral argument in front of the Michigan Supreme Court this week. Cases involving Cynthia Ann Mazur, Robert Tuttle and Richard Lee Hartwick are scheduled to be heard Thursday. Hartwick's case is scheduled first, followed by Tuttle and Mazur. Court convenes at 9:30 a.m. in Lansing. Hartwick, who has a registry identification card, was accused of illegally growing and possessing marijuana in September 2011. He believes that possession of the card provided immunity from prosecution, according to a summary of the case on the Michigan Supreme Court website. [continues 454 words]
Penny Ashley knew her son had a heroin addiction problem and did everything in her power to get help for him, but it still proved to be not enough. She along with other family members and friends are grieving the loss of Jacob Charles Ashley of Southgate, who died Sunday, Jan. 4, 2015, at the age of 21. Born in St. Marys, Ohio, on Oct. 26, 1993, he moved to Wyandotte in 2004. He graduated from Roosevelt High School and then went on to Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn where he participated in Ford Automotive Student Service Educational Training. The ASSET program is a 24-month, six-semester associate's degree training program that provides students with skills to succeed in the automotive industry. He graduated from the program and was working in the body shop at Southgate Ford. [continues 480 words]
It had to happen sooner or later as marijuana legalization makes its way across the planet. As the plant gets commoditized, some of the world's great stoners will lend their names to products associated with it. There is probably no stoner more well-known than reggae superstar Bob Marley. He was shown smoking a big spliff on the cover of his Catch a Fire album in 1973, long before almost anyone was willing to be publicly identified with marijuana. Marley's family has entered into an agreement with Privateer Holdings, a private equity firm in the marijuana market, to develop Marley Natural products. The brand will market heirloom Jamaican strains such as the legendary Lambs Bread, as well as lotions, creams, and other accessories. [continues 1094 words]
The City of Rochester recently passed a medical marijuana ordinance to regulate the activity in the city of nearly 4 square miles. City Council unanimously adopted the measure at its Dec. 15 meeting after roughly three months of drafting. The measure designates industrial areas on the south side of the city for any potential licensed medical marijuana growing operations. "We're required to provide a place for the legal use of medical marijuana," City Manager Jaymes Vettraino said. "We've been diligent to make sure it's the right place and the right use for our community." The ordinance was modeled after other communities' efforts to regulate medicinal marijuana, such as nearby Auburn Hills and a handful of other municipalities, Vettraino added. [continues 120 words]
It's the 100th anniversary of Drug Prohibition and the drug black market courtesies of the Harrison Act of 1914. Bring those hard drugs back into a doctor's care and let's save around $75 billion to $95 billion for enforcement and incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders. Drug prohibition's purpose should be to save lives. It's turned into something else, the War on Drugs. As with any war on its own people, it can't be won. Let's stop burning witches (addicts) and save their lives through a doctor's care. [continues 100 words]
How long-term marijuana use effects the human brain is a pivotal question before any legalization can occur nationally. Although alcohol remains legal despite the massive evidence on the dangers associated with long-term use, the fight to make marijuana available, both for its medical properties (especially important in selectively killing cancer cells) and for non-medical/recreational use, is hinged on claims made about marijuana's effects on the individual user. The University of Texas recently published research on the long-term effects of marijuana. This research helps dispel the dying myth that marijuana use lowers the IQ and actually provides even more evidence about marijuana's potential role in fighting Alzheimer's disease. [continues 75 words]
Lansing - Officials representing law enforcement and health workers urged Wednesday that lawmakers not pass bills that would permit medical marijuana dispensaries and "edible" forms of cannabis during the lame-duck session. The legislation, which has passed the House and is among many bills pending on the Senate floor, contains too many risks to be adequately addressed during the two days remaining before the Legislature adjourns for the year, they argued at a press conference. "We're concerned they're rushing this through in lame duck when it should be vetted more thoroughly," said Terrence Jungel, executive director of the Michigan Sheriff 's Association. [continues 310 words]
Looking back on 2014, it was a tremendous year for marijuana activists with two more states legalizing, California lowering penalties for low level crime, New York City decriminalizing possession of small amounts, eight cities in Michigan legalizing, Guam voting for medical use, and generally the public opinion numbers kept moving in the right direction. Washington, D.C., legalized, but since the city is a federal district Congress has to approve. However, hardline anti-marijuana Republicans are making that look iffy at the moment. [continues 1129 words]
Test the Legislature first Legislators sometimes make fun of a law by calling it "a solution in search of a problem." More often than not, these are proposals fueled by ideological bias rather than the facts, such as the "voter ID" bills intended to battle "voter fraud" - an almost nonexistent problem. (But if it should happen to stop even a small percentage7 of voters who support the Democratic Party, so much the better for the GOP.) Same goes with the idea of drug-testing welfare recipients, which Lansing's lame-duck session approved last week. You remember welfare recipients, of course. They're those single mothers driving around next year's Cadillacs and pooping out another baby every 10 months to fill up with Faygo on their Bridge cards. Or at least that's what many opposed to welfare would have you believe. Welfare costs money, dammit. And that money should be going to tax breaks for our job creators, or something like that. Any measure that can be dreamed up that might harass welfare recipients, in this context, is worth considering. Even if it costs more money to do so. And even if the problem it purports to solve doesn't appear to exist! [continues 567 words]
Two bills to watch Big things are afoot for medical marijuana in Michigan right now. At least that's what most activists who have their eyes on Lansing believe. House Bills 4271 and 5104 are widely expected to be passed during the lame duck session before Dec. 18. I'm not a big fan of lame duck legislation in recent years when such things as a Right-to Work bill and anti-abortion legislation have been pushed through. These bills are, however, welcome for the majority of medical marijuana patients. [continues 1118 words]
How Many of Our Brothers and Sisters Will Get Busted for Pot This Holiday Season? I remember a Thanksgiving, nearly 20 years ago. At the time I lived in a very low-income neighborhood. Most white people would call it a "bad" neighborhood. Back then, it was almost entirely black and Hispanic people living there. I loved that neighborhood. It was filled with families, good music, and delicious food. The neighbors were always friendly to me. Even the drug dealers were nice. They sold marijuana back then, nickel and dime bags ($5 or $10 sizes). [continues 494 words]
Both Sides Look to Hand Off Responsibility The Controlled Substances Act, which set up the drug schedules in the early 1970s, explicitly places drug scheduling authority in the hands of the attorney general, and even instructs him or her to "remove any drug or other substance fromthe schedules if he finds that the drug or other substance does not meet the requirements for inclusion in any schedule." The crowning inconsistency of the federal drug control system has always been the classification of marijuana as a Schedule 1 substance under federal law, which makes it among the Worst of the Worst drugs as far as the DEA is concerned - literally as bad as heroin, and worse than cocaine! Drug reform advocates have pushed the DEA to change its position for years, citing decades of research on the relative harmlessness of weed compared with other drugs - including alcohol -- but the agency hasn't budged, even as public opinion has rapidly evolved. [continues 410 words]
In the underground world of heroin, there is a legend of an African root called iboga, or ibogaine, that can cure addiction. Those in the depths of heroin use, often as a last resort, seek out the root, which can be dangerous to use. Some go to Mexico or to Europe to take it, as it is illegal here in the United States. It can be an expensive trip for the user, and often one made in a moment of final desperation. [continues 2893 words]
Both Sides Look to Hand Off Responsibility The Controlled Substances Act, which set up the drug schedules in the early 1970s, explicitly places drug scheduling authority in the hands of the attorney general, and even instructs him or her to "remove any drug or other substance from the schedules if he finds that the drug or other substance does not meet the requirements for inclusion in any schedule." The crowning inconsistency of the federal drug control system has always been the classification of marijuana as a Schedule 1 substance under federal law, which makes it among the Worst of the Worst drugs as far as the DEA is concerned - literally as bad as heroin, and worse than cocaine! Drug reform advocates have pushed the DEA to change its position for years, citing decades of research on the relative harmlessness of weed compared with other drugs - including alcohol -- but the agency hasn't budged, even as public opinion has rapidly evolved. [continues 411 words]
Inside Michigan
