The Coalition of Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, seeking to legalize recreational pot in Michigan got the green light on Thursday to circulate petitions. The coalition now plans to being collecting signatures immediately in hopes to making the 2018 ballot.
The Board of State Canvassers approved the form of petitions submitted by the coalition, despite a strong opposition from a group that called the ‘Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol’ as a misleading language.
Petitioners will have to collect minimum 252,523 valid voters signatures within a 180-day window to qualify for the ballot.
Spokesperson for coalition, Josh Hovey said that they have got petitions printed and they are ready to go.
“We also have volunteers who are here today who are ready to go. We will be on the streets immediately, making sure we’re out there especially at the Memorial Day events,” he said.
If the proposal is passed in the State House then anyone over the age of 21 can posses and use marijuana.
It would tax sales and create a state system to license and regulate growers, processors, testing facilities, distributors and retailers.
The submission of the petition faced an unexpected opposition on Thursday from prominent elections attorney Gary Gordon, who is representing a newly formed group called ‘Pot out of Neighborhoods and Schools.”
Gordon urged the board to reject the petition and argued that the proposal would not actually regulate marijuana like alcohol. As the initiative would allow individuals to grow up to 12 plant at home.
“They do not have to be licensed and they are not taxed,” he said of the potential home growers. “There’s not regulation at all on that.”
The board also approved a petition seeking o repeal Michigan’s prevailing wage law, which requites contractors to pay workers union-based wages and benefits on taxpayers-funded construction projects.
Chris DeWitt, a political consultant for Lansing, who is also the spokesperson for the new pot opposition group. He declined to provide any other details about who is involved.
Political consultant Steven Linder of the Sterling Corp. accompanied DeWitt at the board meeting but said he has no formal role with the group.
The anti-marijuana group is “committed to making certain every citizen, especially our kids, are protected from the unregulated proliferation of pot being made available across Michigan.”
“If this flawed effort passes as proposed there will be no stopping pot from infiltrating all aspects of our society, including schools, neighborhoods and places of work.”
The proposal would regulate commercial marijuana production and sales. Smoking would not be allowed on public sidewalks. Local communities could decide whether they want to allow marijuana businesses.
Retail sales would be taxed at 10%, additional to sales tax, with the new revenue going to K-12 schools, road repairs and participating cities and counties.
The proposal was drafted with input from the Marijuana Policy Project, a national group that has played a role in winning campaigns in other states.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, the National Patients Rights Association and MI Legalize, an activist group that attempted its own petition drive in 2016 but fell short are included in the collation.
AMandeep
