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FREE THE WEED 11
A Column by John Sinclair
First off, I’d like to congratulate the people at The Committee for a Safer
Michigan for successfully formulating and launching their campaign to amend the
Constitution of the State of Michigan and repeal marijuana prohibition for adults
21 and older. Their amendment will in fact render every anti-marijuana statute in
the state of Michigan unconstitutional.
“We intend to put an end to the wasted resources, skewed police priorities and
very real collateral damage of marijuana prohibition,“ Campaign Director Matt
Abel announced in kicking off the campaign in Detroit last month.
It is my prayer—and I’ve intoned it for an awful long time—that the millions of
smokers and sympathizers in the state of Michigan will step forward this year
and end marijuana prohibition once and for all. It’s up to us, and if we take the
necessary steps of signing and circulating the petitions and then voting and
helping to turn out the vote on election day, the seemingly endless nightmare of
marijuana prohibition in Michigan will be nearly over.
I say “nearly over” because of the insane federal laws against marijuana and the
immense war machine that enforces and exploits them. But, as we’ve seen from
the practical results of legalized medical marijuana, each step takes us closer to
the freedom from persecution that we seek as smokers. If we can legalize it in
Michigan, and Colorado and California succeed with their 2012 initiatives, that
will be a powerful statement in favor of legalization across the nation.
I want to thank Matt Abel and all the people who’ve met at his office every
Monday evening for several months to work out a consensus, draft the proposed
legislation and actually launch the petition drive. Our publisher, Ben Horner, was
a moving force in this coalition, and I’m sure the language and the nuts and bolts
of the 2012 petition drive will be fully revealed elsewhere in these pages.
But these are friends of mine, and I’m very proud of them for making this happen
at a very crucial time in the course of our long struggle to get the police and the
government out of our heads and away from our bodies. I’m a long way from
home right now, enjoying the winter months in Amsterdam before coming back
to the States for the Mardi Gras, the Hash Bash and the 8th Annual John Sinclair
420 Music & Art Fair in Detroit, but my heart and my thoughts and prayers will
always be with the Committee for a Safer Michigan.
The stated mission of CSM is to educate Michigan citizens and media about
the harms of marijuana prohibition and put an end to this failed policy.
Additional information may be found at http://www.repealtoday.org and https:/
/help.repealtoday.org/ or you can contact Communications Director Charmie
Gholson at
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.
Just before the petition drive kick-off I received an urgent plea from the people at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
titled We Must Save The Michigan Medical
Marijuana Act! It signaled the imminent disposition of several regressive bills in
the Michigan Senate and House of Representatives championed by the forces
of old-time law and order led by Attorney General Bill Shuette, and called on
smokers and sympathetic citizens to sign the petitions being circulated by their
organization in opposition to the proposed restrictions.
The letter draws a dark picture of our future in Michigan if these attempts at
tearing down the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act in the legislature win out over
the will of the voters. “The Michigan Medical Marijuana Act Will be Overturned In
Two Weeks If You Don't Act,” it begins, and the writer predicts a whole range of
dire results:
• State inspectors, probably police officers, coming to check out your crop.after
your patient and care-giver information has been shared with police departments
across the state. This could end up with your property being seized and possibly
your family brutalized and family pets killed.
• The government could violate your legal and civil rights and you couldn't sue
them nor use the courts to protect yourself.
• One bill would make it illegal to grow in almost every township and city in the
state. “Compound that with local zoning,” the author says, “and it would be
impossible to grow. If you violated this law you would be guilty under the public
health code and could be looking at 7 years in prison and a half million dollars in
fines. This bill would apply equally to patients and caregivers, so growing patients
would not be allowed to cultivate for themselves.”
• HB 4850 would require that a person be connected in the registry to do a
transfer, so that a patient buying from someone other than his or her caregiver
would be guilty under the public health code and could spend years in jail. “No
caregiver would be willing to take care of a patient not connected because the
same thing would apply,” the author says. “This means the Michigan Medical
Marihuana Act would be dead. You couldn't grow it, buy it or sell it.”
• Another bill would require patients to get certification from their primary doctor
and sets standards for the doctor that, if unmet, would cause the patient’s card to
be invalidated, the caregiver to be imperiled, and the .State Police to be notified
in just a few minutes.
• Finally, other bills would make it difficult to find a caregiver, increase sentences
for violations of these new bills, and severely limit legal transport of the medicine.
This is why we need to come together and end marijuana prohibition in
Michigan once and for all. These characters will just keep grinding away at us
until we take the tools out of their hands and, as The Committee for a Safer
Michigan promises, render every anti-marijuana statute in the state of Michigan
unconstitutional. Case closed.
As my correspondent from Michigan Medical Marijuana.org signed off: “Focus on
defending the Act, while at the same time signing people up for the fight including
the drive for legalization. Save yourselves and save the sick.” Amen!
—Amsterdam
January 29, 2012
© 2012 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
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