ACLU sues Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills and Livonia over medical marijuana rules
The ACLU is suing Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, and Livonia because, the ACLU says, the three cities have effectively banned medical marijuana, despite a state law approved by voters that legalizes the drug for medicinal purposes.
It continues to amaze me that some people are still so scared of medical marijuana that they’re willing to buck state law and try to outlaw it locally. What is it that they really fear? (They can’t all be making money from prohibition, can they?) Is it some misguided morality thing? A lifetime of ingrained propaganda?
In the federal sentencing guidelines, all drugs are compared to ‘marihuana’ for penalties. So, example, 1g MDMA = 500 g marihuana (ACLU is challenging the MDMA guidelines, btw). Legalizing or reducing penalties on cannabis would remove the reference point for all drug crimes.
Actually, Pete, I’d guess it’s a combo of the two, i.e., “A misguided morality based on a lifetime of ingrained propaganda.” Bottom line, lies from the government and the pulpits.
I think its a lifetime of propaganda with a mix of so called morality. What is morality anyway , aside from the biblical definition. One mans morality is another mans oppression.
It may also be the fact that people must have someone else to kick around to make themselves feel better, important…whatever.
I’ll take congenital stupidity for a thousand.
“A lifetime of ingrained propaganda?”
Yes. Don’t underestimate the power of never hearing the other side of an argument.
Morality? I’m hard pressed to think of anything *less* moral than prohibition of the plant’s most beneficial plant species.
The products of Anslinger and Nixon mentioned in the same paragraph as the word “morality”? It boggles my mind.
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n995/a03.html?1205
This is from the mayor of Lansing. Holy shit, get this guy re-elected:
Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero is in a fiery mood against a proposed ordinance that could place a moratorium on medical marijuana businesses for up to a year.
“They’re trying to say no to commercial dispensaries,” Bernero said.
“It’s absolute nonsense and it’s unnecessary. It’s an attempt to thwart the will of the voters,” Bernero added, speaking in an interview.
“This is the old Nixonian, silent-majority approach,” Bernero said of the moratorium. “They’re trying to stall it, delay it, stop it, ban it.”
Bernero criticized a “faction of City Council that just wants to turn back the clock” on medical marijuana in Lansing, specifically naming At-Large Councilwoman Carol Wood because she is chairwoman of the Public Safety Committee, which has been working on medical marijuana regulation.
He said Wood had nine months to come up with an ordinance regulating the businesses rather than blocking them.
“She took nine months to write a moratorium?” Bernero asked. “It’s just say no – I could have done that in a day.”
“We should be proactive and regulate and license,” Bernero said. “I don’t believe they should all be clustered together, but let’s regulate it to accommodate it. Not ban it.”
He also cautioned about the potential spillover of businesses into neighborhoods because commercial areas would be blocked off from dispensing it.
“They’re trying to push medical marijuana out of the storefronts. In other words, push it back into the shadows,” he said. “Personally, I’d like to see it on ‘Main Street’ than hidden in our back alleys.”
Damn. Michigan is showing the rest of the country how medical marijuana is done here in the midwest. The surrounding states should take notice.