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.