by Richard C. Clement - Marijuana Policy Analyst
Inspections
of Medical Marijuana facilities will continue with employees from BSEED and the
Detroit Police Department to assist in gaining access to the property in
question. According to City of Detroit Building Inspector Wayne Wilkins (
wikinsr@detroitmi.gov), by law they
are required to enter the premises, shoot pictures of a business, advise the owners of a Drug Free
Zone violation and exit the premises quickly.
BSEED inspectors are not interested in and have
NO DESIRE to be concerned with how much marijuana that you have at your facility. During
this time of litigation, BSEED will enter a place of business with the assistance
of the Detroit Police Department because their only job is to make sure that
the building is up to code.
Meanwhile, there are two separate lawsuits that were filed
in Wayne County Circuit Court on the behalf of the business owners and
concerned patients. The first one was
filed by the citizens for Sensible Cannabis Reform (Case# 16-004185-AW Citizens for Sensible Cannabis Reform v Janice
Winfrey, Detroit Election Commission, City of Detroit) that has 3 named
defendants in: The City of Detroit, Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey, and the
Detroit Election Commission. This suit
is in regards to the filing of the petitions to allow the citizens of Detroit
Michigan to vote on the ordinance that was implemented by the City Council in
the August 2nd, primary. A
large majority of Detroit residents signed petitions to halt the ordinance and develop
a new one that is less restrictive on Detroit Business owners. It seems that the current license and zoning
ordinance was designed to benefit a few owners at the expense of other owners
who are Detroit residents that want to be a part of a growing Marijuana
industry.
The second lawsuit was filed by the Sons of Hemp, a
Pro-Cannabis group of African American business owners who will be adversely
affected by this new ordinance (
Case No.
16-004201-CZ JONES, RONALD, ET AL. V THE CITY OF DETROIT). There are 10+
named plaintiffs who all own stores, and grow operations who want a voice and
a place in the growing Marijuana industry.
Their hearing is scheduled on July 1
st, 2016 with Judge John
Murphy of the 3
rd District Wayne County Circuit Court. This lawsuit addresses
the inequities of the ordinance regarding African American business owners in
Detroit who will be getting shut out of the market because of the ideology of the
1939 mandate of
Harry Ainslinger, the first head of the Drug Enforcement
Agency. This man promoted the current drug war on the back of Billie Holiday
because he hated African Americans that played Jazz music and had any kind of
talent. (
The Hunting of Billie Holiday by the USA)
As the late University of Alabama football coach Bear Bryant
put it when he found out he needed African Americans to win football games,
“If
you have a fast negro running the ball, you have to hire another negro to catch
them”.
In Billie Holiday’s case, Harry Ainslinger hired his first black agent Jimmy Fletcher to specifically
take down Ms. Holiday. Quoting the article
"Jimmy Fletcher follows her around for two years, and she was
so amazing, he fell in love with her. And he felt ashamed his whole life for
what he did. He busts her. She’s sent to prison. The trial—she said, "The
trial was called The United States v. Billie Holiday, and that’s how it felt."
"And when she gets out, exactly what happens to addicts all
over the United States today happens—what’s happened to those women I met in
Arizona: She can’t get a job. You needed a license to be able to perform
anywhere where alcohol was sold, and they wouldn’t give her the license. So,
you know, her friend Yolande Bavan said to me, "What’s the cruelest thing
you can do to a person is to take away the thing they love." She sinks
back into addiction."
In 2016 we have a few African American pastors
who use this same ideology to eliminate the business owned by African Americans
by continuing to promote the sick and racist policy of Harry Ainslinger’s
DEA. Marijuana is a 1 billion dollar a
year industry to states like Colorado, Oregon, Washington State, and so on. Less
that 1% of Marijuana business are owned by African Americans.
Everyone wants a level playing field and
there are so many uses of the Marijuana plant that the time has come to get
real and end this drug war on the people with the lack of resources to fight.
We simply cannot support a policy of putting more men in jail that creates a
shortage of males and allow some females to have a bigger selection of partners
to pick from. This policy is counterproductive and supports a for profit prison
system that gets its revenue from failing children in schools that have been
looted by private profiteers. The current
situation with public education everywhere indicates that money is being
diverted into the for profit prison system building new jails and tearing down
public schools.
This must stop at once and, If you are a interested in
becoming a plaintiff please contact the following sources;
Citizens for Sensible Cannabis Reform Attorney Kevin Lynn (248) 693-2300
1,2,3,4. It’s time to end the Drug War.
