"600 Million Dollars a year in taxable revenue from Marijuana" - Harry Smith CNBC
We cannot go back to the time where we had people like Marc Emery, a citizen ofCanada
extradited to the United
States to serve 5 years of Federal time in Mississippi
for the act of selling marijuana seeds. While Colorado makes $2.5 million
dollars a month from legal Marijuana sales for schools, we can do better when
we use the Cannabis plant for manufacturing products like cars, homes, fuel,
fabric, and 20,000 other uses. Most of the corrections system is full of
prisoners for small drug crimes. We hope
that before President Obama leaves office, he will issue a complete pardon to
immediately remove these prisoners from incarceration.
Led by Winfred Blackmon and Marcus Cummings, the Metro
Detroit Community Action Coalition is attempting to develop an ordinance to
reduce the number of Marijuana related business in the City of Detroit. After
further review of their proposal, the group’s attempt is to shut them down
and/or severely restrict their growth through the use of the Building Safety,
Detroit Fire Department Fire Marshals, and other zoning restrictions that have
been deemed illegal by the Michigan Supreme Court.
Developing a Marijuana regulation ordinance based on the
theory rooted in the ideology of the late Harry Jacob Anslinger (May 20, 1892 –
November 14, 1975) is to re-affirm the failed ideology of prohibition with
racism. Anslinger was a United
States government official who served as the
first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of
Narcotics (FBN ). He was a staunch
supporter of prohibition and responsible for declaring Marijuana a Schedule I drug like heroin with no medical value. He was an avowed
racist that described Marijuana as a drug that makes Negros
attack White Women. He along with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover sincerely
believed this until they died. This mindset was carried on by President Nixon and
John Ashcroft who authorized the shooting of two activists by the FBI and
Michigan State Police at the Rainbow Farms camp in Vandalia Michigan in 2001. (click here for the story of Rainbow Farms)
In 2015, interviews with high ranking Detroit Police
Department officials and neighborhood police officers reveal that DPD has not
had a police call for trouble at ANY of the identified places of business by
this group. If places are getting
raided, it is because they are doing something more than dealing with Medical
Marijuana like gambling and vice. Otherwise these places of business in the
district are operating within the law by permission. This addresses the safety of the
neighborhoods issue because if the Detroit Police are not having any incidents
of trouble, then where is the danger?
The growth of these business are a reflection of a trend
toward decriminalization of Marijuana by Federal, State and Local leaders who
see the war on Marijuana as a total failure and agree that something has to
change. The war on weed has a disparate impact upon our diverse community and,
only serves to keep the economy of the for profit correction system in the
black. Mayors like Virg Benero of Lansing
and Jan Parisi of Hazel Park
have come out of the closet to support decriminalization. This is because they
are listening to the people and they are saying loudly and clearly that we want
these businesses to patronize.
For this group to use the Detroit Zoning Board, Detroit
Police, Detroit Fire, and Building Safety Departments to fight a losing proxy
war against Marijuana is a sure loser and a waste of tax dollars. The Detroit
Fire Department marshal wants safe entry, exit with no capacity overloads and,
fire extinguishers in these facilities, just like any other business. Building
Safety wants a code compliant building and, the Detroit Police want to keep the
peace. People who use Marijuana are not
violent when they only use Marijuana. They get plenty hungry and that could
help sales of food in the community.
The last thing the City of Detroit needs is a 1920 style of the
Temperance movement who created alcohol prohibition and you see where this got
us as a nation. If we can allow Hookah Bars, Cigar Bars, then what is the
problem with a “weed bar”? Given that Detroit retirees need to
have their pensions protected and respected with decent health care coverage,
the time may be coming so that retirees can have their Medical Marijuana
covered to lower their health costs.
Using the rules of the Voluntary Employee Benefit Agreement
(VEBA), the members can vote to make this happen with funds from the sale of
legal marijuana to help the pension funds for Police, Fire, and General
Employees get financially sound.
We cannot go back to the time where we had people like Marc Emery, a citizen of
Finally we hope that the
next President continues the policy on a path of saneness to correct this
injustice from the grave of Harry Anslinger in 1939.
