Civil Rights and Marijuana in Michigan - The people's right to light shall not be denied

By  Weed Warrior

      The 2013 Hash Bash is history and this is a good time to do an assessment of the movement over the years. First of all, it was an honor to use cannabis on the campus and diag of the University of Michigan. After all %58 of the voters in the State of Michigan agreed that people should not be treated differently on the basis of race, or being a felon. Being in a certain class of people that is treated unfairly is a true violation of equal protection under the law. 



Free The Weed!

I fully support Attorney General Bill Schuette's effort to ban discrimination in all forms.  I could not think of a better place to fight discrimination against cannabis than on the campus of the UofM. Cannabis has been unfairly treated and used to place more people who are non-white and financially challenged into private and public prisons for profit. A mandate of this magnitude must be acted upon and followed up by the leadership of the Office of Attorney General and other law enforcement officials.

A black man  or woman smoking a joint should get the same time jail for a white man or woman smoking a joint. Marijuana customers should not be singled out for preferential or detrimental treatment when they purchase their medicine. The recent changes to the Michigan law is an embarrassment to the citizens because there were no valid research or study efforts undertaken to determine the saneness of the law that they wanted to pass. I was looking forward to sharing a joint with Jennifer Gratz, but she was not available.




Activist Testify during a House Appropriations Hearing

We have prominent attorneys with Facebook and Twitter accounts arguing about privacy rights because your picture is on a Government Issued Medical Marijuana Card. One of the main arguments against a picture is because it is a violation of the HIPPA act. This is so far from the truth that some of these guys need to re-take the bar exam to determine their ability to use reason and apply the law fairly. The picture requirement is in House Bill 4830 and, a memo from Michigan's executive leadership to compel the Secretary of State to supply the picture for the Medical Marijuana card will be coming soon.  This mis-appropriation of knowledge is coming from the same people who want you to have a picture ID when you go to vote.  If a picture on a Medical Marijuana card is a problem, the effort to require a photo id's to vote will not be resolved anytime soon.

Otherwise, the recent changes in the Medical Marijuana Law in Michigan were designed to increase prison population by giving Law Enforcement a wide range of options to "fill the jails" with young and old men and women. America incarcerates it's people more than any country in the world and, a large number of the people are African Americans, Latinos, and financially challenged others who serve as capital assets in a for profit jail system. These law changes will lead to the increase in asset forfeiture and expensive drug testing for cannabis that proves nothing and makes investors lots of money on the backs of patients.

2013 will bring more attempts of legislative voter fraud from the Michigan Legislature. When the people make a decision that they do or do not want something from their government, the leaders are expected to follow that direction. The legislators shall not get together in a closed room or make decisions at 4am to create "new" laws to what the people just rejected.  This behaviour is un-ethical and a example of  a 21st century version of legislative apartheid.

The citizens have two methods to fight back in the form of recall elections or voting out all of the bums in 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017,  and 2020.  We have other methods like fully endorsing Industrial Hemp manufacturing for job creation in agriculture and other industries. Whatever path we choose, change must come and the reckless leadership in Lansing must be made accountable to the people.

 

Reforming Marijuana Policy with common sense.

By Richard Clement 

a.k.a.  The Weed Warrior 

Clearing the Air with Cannabis

It is time for the Annual Hash Bash in Ann Arbor Michigan. 2013 has brought some new revelations in the quest to reform Marijuana policy in Michigan and the United States of America.  It is also an ongoing struggle for rationality and creating opportunity with plant named Marijuana. On a State level we have a small but powerful few bent on manipulating the will of the many.  The recent changes in the Medical Marijuana law highlight the lack of common sense and mean spirits within the halls of the Capitol in Lansing Michigan.  For instance the new law requiring you to keep your medicine in a locked container like a firearm was really designed to fund the local libraries in Cities and townships of Michigan (Click Here to review the new law). It has nothing to do with public safety and protecting the children. This bill was designed by defense attorneys, county prosecutors, and  for profit prison interests to line their pockets on the wallets of Medical Marijuana patients.

April 2009 - Lansing MI
First Time applicants apply at
LARA Headquarters

If you are need of a picture ID at a bank, your Medical Marijuana Card with a picture on it will allow you to withdraw money from a teller.  While States like California and Arizona have pictures on their cards, Michigan officials come up with more excuses than a fiction novel writer on why they can’t do it. From the Secretary of State saying that I will not let you use the picture on the driver’s license for your Michigan Medical Marijuana card, to having to mail in forms while other departments have online bill payment is absurd.  This is a clear case of technology suppression through the use of Attorneys and accountants.

Adam Brook / Hash Bash 2007

These laws will put an additional burden of debt on Cities and Counties in the form of increased use of County Jails and Prosecutor hourly time in the face of sequesters furloughs, layoffs, and diminishing resources. Police and Fire fighters experience many forms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder due to the nature of the job. These young men and women fall off of roofs, get shot at, beat up, drag heavy water hoses and, work long hours to protect us.  If they get hurt they have to take a lot of expensive opiates and dangerous legal drugs.  The recent action by the State of Michigan to consider allowing the use marijuana as treatment for PTSD will translate into a huge cost reduction in the medical budgets of Cities, County, and Township Officials.  Military Veterans and State Troopers would also benefit from PTSD treatment with Marijuana because it would lower the health costs to the people of the State of Michigan. According to a 2007 study conducted by a House Appropriations committee, the State of Michigan will save $2 million dollars by removing EVERY marijuana case from the Department of Corrections.

John Sinclair & The Weed Warrior

On a Federal level we heard President Obama say that he has bigger fish to fry regarding Marijuana. Therefore we should be frying and marinating our fish in cannabis seasoned oil.  However people who work somewhere in the chain of command have not gotten the memo.  Some of them seem to be in a state of insubordination and saying to hell with the memo.  Some of these people are going rouge and continually arresting people for possessing and manufacturing Marijuana. This will change as we the people, review existing treaties for modifications and elimination of all Marijuana penalties and restrictions.  How is it that Canada can ship Kilos of Industrial Hemp products to the USA and, if an American Marijuana patient has one gram (1 gm) of their medicine, they get a free physical with a prostate exam if you are a man. Then you are denied entry into the country even though you could take your Ambien and Chantix into the country legally. This must change! Cannabis supporters in Canada and Mexico must engage with us in America to have true free trade because farmers and growers need to manufacture cross border products to restore growth and improve the quality of life for everyone.

Adam Brook at the Diag 2007

It is time to call bullshit on the US Congress and State Legislators by letting your elected official in Lansing Michigan and Washington DC know that you support Marijuana reform and, I wish that you do the same thing when an Industrial Hemp or Marijuana Reform bill comes before you. (Click Here for the Michigan House, Michigan Senate,  US House or US Senate).  For Congressman Mike Rogers you want to call and ask him to support removing Marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act.  

Contact the White House (click here for the link to the White House) message center to leave a message for the President to Free The Weed by removing Marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act will help too.

Vote Weed 2013 by electing 4:20 friendly Mayors and City Council members.

Vote Weed 2014 by electing 4:20 friendly Governors, Attorney General, Secretary of State, US and Michigan Senate races.

We took a few hits in this movement but as warriors we must get up, walk it off, and run again to the goal line of legalization for economic revitalization.

The will of the people will always win in the end game.

Hash Bash 2007 with Free The Weed