Search Results: detroit/ (13)

Arrests for possession are ongoing even in legal states.

Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.

A study from the ACLU and Human Rights Watch found that more people are arrested for pot possession in the U.S. than for all violent crimes combined. See the report here.
Arizona’s REC debate has led to questions about how drug smugglers would adapt. REC supporters say traffickers will lose business. Opponents say they’ll switch to selling heroin and crystal meth.

THC Finder

When the residents of Detroit vote in the presidential election in November, they’ll also get a chance to vote for the legalization of marijuana.

Two years after organizers gathered enough signatures to force the referendum, the cannabis question will go before city voters, reports Dustin Block at mlive.com.
A legal battle kept the question off ballots until now, but a Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for a vote, and a city attorney signed a court order last month finalizing a November vote.

Cannabis Culture

​Detroit voters who were hoping to vote on a ballot proposal which would legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana may have to keep waiting.

The City of Detroit plans to file an appeal with the Michigan Supreme Court, likely delaying attempts to place the measure on the August primary ballot, according to Krystal Crittendon, corporation counsel for the city’s law department, reports Jonathan Oosting at MLive.com.
The Michigan Court of Appeals had ruled 2-1 last week that Detroit acted illegally in keeping the proposal off the ballot despite the fact that organizers collected far more signatures than needed to put the question before the city’s voters.

Norman Yatooma & Associates
Former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox: “I am not for it mostly because I don’t know how you regulate common, everyday things such as driving while impaired … That being said, philosophically I am not against it.” Political much?

​​Former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox admitted on Friday that he smoked marijuana in high school during the 1970s. (Hey, what a coincidence, so did I!) But during a symposium on marijuana reform, Cox said there are problems with legalizing cannabis, and he wouldn’t support moves to do that in the state.

“I am not for it mostly because I don’t know how you regulate common, everyday things such as driving while impaired,” the Republican former attorney general said, reports Kim Kozlowski at The Detroit News. “If it becomes legal, I don’t think I’ll ever use it again. That being said, philosophically I am not against it. They haven’t come up with a good way to regulate in the workplace or driving to measure it and deal with it.”

The Government Rag

By Jack Rikess
Toke of the Town
Northern California Correspondent
​The Federal raids have begun again in California. Starting in sunny San Diego, with the intent of plowing north, not stopping ’til Eureka.
They’re not cherry-picking anymore. The first assault arrived last year when the Feds went for the low hanging fruit, closing dispensaries that were situated within a thousand feet of a school. It didn’t matter if the school was operational or not. One of the schools was a ballet studio that was exactly 999 feet away. No leeway. No discussion. You’re closed. 
The restrictions are the same for dispensaries near parks, playgrounds, and other locals where the kinder may be occupying. Because it’s always about the kids… Except when it comes to liquor stores and strip clubs, they’re copacetic.
Then there’s Market Street Coop in San Francisco, which was closed because of a nearby school that moved in after the dispensary opened. That didn’t matter, nor did it matter that there were 13 drinking establishments within the same radius. Obviously these saloons and booze emporiums are zoned for preschools, middle schools, bartender schools, just as long as it isn’t a place people that distributes non-federally taxed medicine to sick people.

We Smoke Weed

​Despite no fewer than three visits by Detroit Police and warnings from the officers that nobody should smoke any pot, organizers of the Detroit Cannabis Cup said on Monday that they went ahead with their contest to pick the best marijuana in Michigan.

“We absolutely had the competition” and awarded trophies, said Dan Skye, executive editor of High Times, reports Bill Laitner of the Detroit Free PressThe New York-based monthly magazine for marijuana fans has sponsored Cannabis Cups in California, Colorado and now Michigan.

Click On Detroit
Former Romulus Police Chief Michael St. Andre is charged with spending drug forfeiture money on weed, hookers and booze

​Nice work, if you can get it! The former police chief of Romulus, Michigan, along with his wife and five Romulus officers, on Tuesday were charged with using drug forfeiture money to pay for prostitutes, marijuana and alcohol.
The charges come after an investigation of almost three years by Michigan State Police, reports Steve Pardo and Serena Marina Daniels of The Detroit News. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said the case had “a culture of corruption and greed at its core.”

Photo: Fox 2
First, the state of Michigan said “Trust us, the medical marijuana patient records will be confidential!” But now the Attorney General says he’ll turn ’em over the the Feds with a court order.

​The federal government’s request for patient records from Michigan’s medical marijuana registry will discourage legal use of cannabis, according to Jamie Lowell, founder of the Michigan Association of Compassion Clubs.

Lowell knows of a teacher who could use marijuana medicinally, but she is scared of being identified, reports John Agar at The Grand Rapids Press.
“When you get the application, you are under the impression all of the information will remain confidential,” Lowell said Tuesday, outside of U.S. District Court. “People aren’t going to have that peace of mind, and they’ll think twice.”

Photo: Fox 2
Never mind that medical marijuana isn’t against the law for authorized patients in Michigan. MSU’s gonna bust legal patients if they bring pot on campus.

​A policy prohibiting legal medical marijuana patients from using or possessing cannabis on the campus of Michigan State University is coming under increasing fire.

In “Frequently Asked Questions” page on MSU’s website, the policy is outlined, reports Todd A. Heywood of The Michigan Messenger:
3. Does the Act change University policy regarding drug use or possession on campus?
No, University policies have not changed. Students and employees may not use or possess marihuana on campus. This is true whether the marihuana is smoked or ingested through other means. Michigan State University is subject to the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988 and the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act Amendment of 1989. Consistent with those laws, the MSU Drug and Alcohol Policy prohibits the unlawful manufacture, distribution, dispensation, possession, or use of controlled substances, illicit drugs, and alcohol on any property governed by the Board of Trustees and at any site where work is performed by individuals on behalf of the University. The Alcohol and Controlled Substances Policy also applies to employees performing safety-sensitive functions and whose position responsibilities require they obtain a commercial driver’s license.
Employees and students who violate University policy prohibiting the use or possession of illegal drugs on campus are subject to disciplinary action through the appropriate disciplinary process.
The problem with MSU’s policy, according to activists, is that it violates Michigan’s medical marijuana law, passed overwhelmingly by 63 percent of the voters in 2008. That law specifically prohibits anyone from denying rights and privileges based on the fact that a person is a legal medical marijuana patient.

Photo: Fox 2

​A district judge in Ferndale, Michigan said Thursday he would allow state-approved medical marijuana defendants to keep using cannabis while out on bond — in sharp contrast to a Waterford judge’s statement Tuesday that said pot use by defendants in a parallel case would be a bond violation.

“They have every right to use whatever medications” their physicians authorize, Ferndale District Judge Joseph Longo said.

The contrast in treatment for those arrested in metro Detroit’s first major medical marijuana raids showed just how differently judges can interpret the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, according to Wayne State University law school professor Bob Sedler, reports Bill Laitner of the Detroit Free Press.

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