detroit

Jonathan Oosting | MLive.com

 

Should it be legal to possess a small amount of marijuana in Detroit?

 

Residents should have the opportunity to weigh in this November, as the Detroit City Council today passed up an opportunity to amend a city ordinance and make it legal themselves.

 

Last month, the Coalition for a Safer Detroit submitted more than 6,100 petition signatures to City Clerk Janice Winfrey, which she later approved.

 

The group's proposal would amend the city code to allow anyone over the age of 21 to legally possess up to one ounce of marijuana on private property. Driving a motor vehicle while high would remain illegal.

BY BILL LAITNER

 

A proposal to legalize small amounts of marijuana in Detroit is headed to Detroit City Council.

 

The council is likely to have the issue on its June 15 agenda, a spokeswoman for Council President Pro Tem Gary Brown said today. If council members decline to approve the proposal, it automatically will appear on the November ballot, Brown’s public affairs director Stacie Clayton said.

 

Leaving it up to voters is “actually what I expect will happen,” Clayton said. The subject was twice postponed by the city council’s Internal Operations Committee — last week for the visit to Detroit of first lady Michelle Obama last week and this week so that council members could attend the statewide conference of government officials on Mackinac Island, Clayton said. The committee now is planning to discuss the proposal at 10 a.m. June 9, she said.

By Steve Elliott, Toke of the Town

A push to legalize marijuana in Detroit, Michigan, is being led by a city resident who also helped lead the drive to allow medical marijuana in the state.

 

"You've done a great job" meeting the filing requirements, City Clerk Janice Winfrey said Wednesday to Tim Beck as he handed over more than 6,100 petition signatures, reports Bill Laitner of the Detroit Free Press.

 

Beck, 58, spent the last five weeks supervising the collection of signatures to get on Detroit's November ballot. The proposal, which needed only 3,700 signatures to qualify for the ballot, would legalize possession of up to an ounce of cannabis on private property by adults 21 and older.

 

A registered medical marijuana patient, Beck said enforcing marijuana laws is a waste of the city's money.

 

"Some things should no longer be considered a crime, like minor marijuana possession," Beck said, reports Tom Greenwood of The Detroit News. "We have to start addressing the massive state budget crisis, the lack of resources in Detroit and prison overcrowding."

By. Michael Velardo

Marijuana busts in and around Detroit in the last couple of months appear to be more important than heroin or cocaine as area law enforcement continue their ramped-up efforts to rid the Motor City, and surrounding area of illicit drugs.

The arraignment of a couple in Detroit on February 3rd, 2010 are two of the most recent to fall under the seige on marijuana dealers. Police allegedly found about 1000 pounds of pot in their home. The couple turned themselves in to authorities on Tuesday the 2nd of Feb.

However, why the apparent focus on marijuana?

By. Chris McGreal, Guardian.co.uk

It goes without saying that there's no smoking in class. But there is a good deal of sniffing of leaves, discussion of the finer points of inhaling and debate over which plant gives the biggest hit.

Welcome to Detroit's cannabis college, recently opened with courses on how to grow marijuana – and harvest, cook and sell it too – after Michigan legalised the drug as a medicine. 

Students get instruction from horticulturalists, doctors and lawyers as well as hands-on experience cultivating plants and guidance on how to protect their stash from the criminal element.