Proponents of Michigan voter initiative effort to legalize and regulate the personal use and retail sale of cannabis statewide has gathered over 100,000 signatures in the past six weeks. Advocates must collect a total of 252,523 valid signatures from registered voters by mid-November in order to qualify the measure — the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act — for the 2018 electoral ballot.
The initiative permits those over the age of 21 to possess and grow personal use quantities of cannabis and related concentrates, while also licensing activities related to the commercial marijuana production and retail marijuana sales.
The coalition behind the effort, The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, is partnership between the Marijuana Policy Project, the ACLU of Michigan, the Drug Policy Alliance, the National Patients Rights Association, Michigan NORML, MI Legalize, the Michigan Cannabis Coalition, and lawyers from the State Bar of Michigan Marijuana Law Section.
Proponents sought to place a similar measure on the Michigan ballot in 2016. That effort was ultimately turned back when lawmakers imposed and the courts upheld new rules limiting the time frame during which signatures could be collected.
Marijuana law reform advocates are also presently gathering signatures for voter-initiated efforts in Missouri and Utah. A statewide initiative legalizing the use of medical marijuana in Oklahoma has already qualified for the 2018 electoral ballot.
None of this would have been possible without the decades of work done by NORML. Thank you so much.
Can you guys come to Kansas, please?
🙂
great blgo
Come on, do it!
Ha Ha! The Nevada Liquor Board lost their authority over distribution of marijuana so they cant hold up supplies anymore;
https://www.marijuana.com/news/2017/07/nevada-marijuana-distribution-licenses-issued-weed-shortage-avoided/
Dont worry Michigan; once the money starts rolling in your state legislature will work out the kinks like they did in Nevada. Just get your signatures, get ready for a court battle and make damn sure you have a reputable notary! Hint: If the guy talks like a teamster and use to work for some shady casinos, find another notary!
I used to be completely pro-legalization and a big freedoms fan until very recently. I live in an area where it is still forbidden and illegal to posses or use marijuana although the state next to be recently decriminalized just a small amount of it. The city there is small of just a small population with zero crime. I mean absolutely no need for police and when decriminalization came the gangs found the place attractive. They are slowly floating in and taking over the place. Last week we have had our first disappearance of a clear cut young man, and this more than likely a homicide. Gangs always have to be tough and initiation is a process of becoming a gang member by killing someone innocent.
Now our quiet space was so attractive to gang member it’s becoming a third world country thanks to pot because they will not live where there is no drugs.
I find your comment such a complete misrepresention of what legalization of marijuana accomplishes.
1. Gangs have much more profitable drugs to deal the marijuana. So I highly doubt the legalization of weed caused your problem.
2. Maybe the gang recent presence has more to do with the lack of law enforcement in the area than the legalization of marijuana.
Your words have power and to be honest your comment from what I can tell have absolutely no merit just speculation on your part.
This has been a long hard road to get marijuana legalization to where it is today and it’s because of people like yourself who want to point the finger of blame at marijuana because it’s an easy target . Shame on you!!!!!
Pardon my bad spelling. No drugs = No gangs and zero crime.
Gangs will not live in places if they can’t use narcotics
I’m serious I’m not lying. I could take you and show you his picture. He is a young clean white male in a zero crime environment and he looks like the most innocent person.
I’ve lived here so long and there is openly no crime no cameras on street lights, police rarely patrol, but all this strange people starting moving in that you notice because of tattoos and type, around the time of his disappearance after decriminalization came, and year, after year, after year, before decriminalization of drugs this never happened. Never.
Sorry for repetition. But some people will not live where they can’t get drugs and when they can the bad begins.
@ Tb,
Wrong. Drug prohibition promotes violence and crime, while drug legalization reduces violence and crime. Get your facts straight!
Ok….first off, we are doing awesome this second round in MI, and I just know it is going on the ballot in 2018…..this time the opposition (and they almost immediately opened fire on us) is going to be behind….
Here it goes….
I am 30, am well-educated and a uni grad….so, for years, I have been using alcohol every weekend to help me….well….recently….even at 30…..alcohol psychosis finally hit me one dark evening alone at home…I was alone, family out of town….the nurse perscribed me some perscription benzos. Yes, they have helped, but I know what the real solution is….sadly, here in MI, it is still illegal, oh, granted, medical, but it is not just that simple to obtain…alcohol is a terrible, terrible solution when legal cannabis makes life much easier for me….I have much to say, but space is limited…but…well, I contacted my MI legalization region and they send me some docs to get those signatures…I was so grateful. Our state is desperate. When Big Pharma and booze do not work, I always knew what the answer was. I want to say one thing….if you suffer from alcohol psychosis, for the first time in my life, one dark evening, the HORRORS of alcohol psychosis hit me, the hallucenations, the MONSTERS….I….well, I admitted myself to the ER….I know this is personal, and, again, PLEASE, NORML mods, allow this post…no one should ever experience this, if you have, you know what I speak of…DT’s.
Such things do not exist with the medicine that is cannabis, and medical cannabis, so shunned by doctors, sadly today….
con….
Everyone, I have much more to say, but obviously I need to keep it app. and space is limited for typing my story on here. All I can say if you have ever experienced DT’s, and alcohol psychosis, which I, for the FIRST time after years of sadly using alcohol because marijuana is illegal to calm myself and as a medicine, even after graduating uni and as, I would hope, a relativly intelligent individual…..it is monsters, paranoia, fear, vivid dreams, it is worst at night and waking up…..always in fear, even when I am driving sober, the fear causes those shakes….I am fine now, I went to the ER three times…but…..it is ALL due to alcohol…..
We are making so much beautiful progress in MI and are now, THIS TIME, ahead of sch. They won’t get us on the deadline for sigs this time. Please, support us out here in MI. We are so powerful. NORML, I do not mean to sound like a broken record, but we seriously need to start attacking the Midwest sector. I get NE, I understand other critcal states.
Can we please capture a Midwest state? Please, everyone, please support us here in MI. If we can capture and LEGALIZE in my state, MI, it would be such a beautiful thing.
To legalization. To a GREATER future.
Thank you. M
Hi Matt,
I’m an alcoholic. I’ve experienced the horrors you describe. I’m pulling for you. Just don’t sweat the small stuff, and take it one day at a time. One day’s problems are sufficient for today!
Stay off the booze, chill with weed whenever possible, and give it time. The first year of sobriety, the body heals. The second year of sobriety, the mind heals. Then the third year, the spirit heals… And then it soars, baby!
Run with me, Matt!
Hey Mark, thanks for your reply, and sorry I have not replied in the past….hey, thanks for the support. I just wanted to say again that I appreciate it, and that I am doing just fine now. Yeah, Wend. was a psychotic meltdown or something, but I know what it was. For too long now it has been too many vodka bottles over the weekend. It really started in 2009 due to somethiing in college and, over time, the drinking did pick up, though the majority of times were some of the best with collegues out on the town, the fraternity crowd, etc, alc. or not. In 2011, in a story that is too long for here, my roommates and I (who have all graduated and are highly successful from good families) were raided (one roommate was indeed dealing weed, they even tore down a Marley poster, but left up a Pineapple Express one!), and, long story short, they put me on probation.
So, yes, I did a mandatory rehab. One thing a counselor said was true, denial thng, rationalization thing aside….she has two Masters, by the way, and is actually very beautiful. “Only you know yourself, Matt” essentially. It was great advice. I still love to enjoy a bottle of wine with a beautiful, intelligent, sophisticated, cultured woman. I love a martini like before college again in the most upscale est. I can find over some of the finest food. When I move to the city, I will probably indulge with the business crowds as often as I can, just as I did when I met a beautiful 37 year old CEO with two state uni degrees, and a great suit. She is, from Denver (and she loves her cannabis, too) 🙂 We still are friends today.
I love this control again, I know what I need to do, and self-control and massive changes if I CHOOSE to continue my lifestyle are being made. I went out on Sat. night again to a local place…and I had the most wonderful time of my life. Thank you for your support, Mark, my lifestyle might not stop completely, but I do know what I need to do, and that is massive harm reduction. That is what I feel is right for me :). I will not be coming back to this post, as I have…said my piece and am sticking to it, but thank you again. I am moving on to other articles now, this is my last post on this one, but thank you again. I have chosen my path, but am powerful enough not to go astray again, no denial here. Namaste, M
We’re going to do some GREAT thngs, folks. We are going to do some GREAT things for legalization here in MI. I love this movement so much. Let’s keep pushing. In every state.
free the weed, and put the cops to work fighting the corruption, gangs, opiod problem.
NORML….thank you so very, very much for continuing to allow my posts! I am so grateful for this, thank you, I was noticing earlier today that no new posts had posted and all day was worried I overdid it with these, lol. Sometimes I worry that my posts get too, er…emotional? lol. But thank you so much. Guys and gals, SO MUCH happening in the news today and right now, including in Mass. I am going to be back on tonight/early morning to respond to many of these. Thank you so much, NORML, for once agan reassuring me and allowiing my posts! 😀 You folks are great! Back later! Much going on in the news, and hey, hahaha, Nevada is even selling out, lol! Even Sessions I think knows he can’t stop us now! More later! –Matt
Hi I was wondering if our state is going to make it so we can’t be tested for it at work like Wisconsin. I drive a hi-lo and do not smoke at work but like it after work but I can’t smoke at all because of fed policy. I don’t see the sense of making it legal if workers can’t smoke after work