Since 4/20/18, the proposal to legalize recreational marijuana in Michigan passed. To mark the occasion, I am sharing three videos to show how that referendum is being implemented and how it is changing the environment for legalization elsewhere.
I begin with WOOD-TV reporting on how municipalities in Michigan are implementing the proposal by opting out of allowing commercial production and dispensaries in Voters getting a say about marijuana sales.
Voters in Michigan decriminalized recreational marijuana in November, but in the months that have followed, dozens of municipalities have opted out of a major part of the voter-approved proposition which allowed for the manufacture and sales of weed.I will have to follow municipalities where opting out is put on the ballot and whether those votes succeed or fail.
Next, WXYZ reported yesterday Farmers to start growing hemp in Michigan.
That was about the federal government allowing cultivation of industrial hemp, which is not the same as marijuana for medicinal or recreational use, but it's a start.
For an even better example of how Michigan legalizing recreational marijuana is changing the conversation about legalization on the national level, watch MLive's U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell speaks at Hash Bash 2019 in Ann Arbor.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell became the first U.S. congressperson to speak at Hash Bash in Ann Arbor Saturday, April 6 2019.If nothing else, she said the right things to get that crowd to cheer. It is also another good sign that the federal government is on the path to decriminalizing marijuana. I couldn't have imagined her saying any of this a year ago.
As I have written before on this date, "Here's...to marijuana legalization following in the tracks of marriage equality!"
In contrast to Downundahere, where it's accepted medical wisdom that THC (as marijuana is called in the official jargon) is a primary cause of schizophrenia. As in, "you smoke the stuff and you're going to go schizo, even if you don't have underlying tendencies for mental illness."
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm not talking about prune-faced wowsers, uptight 60+year-olds and other Mormonical types having that opinion. Young hip people, those who think nothing of having a "big night out" (i.e. getting ripped to the tits on alcohol) are aghast at weed. They regard it as something almost as scummy as smoking methamphetamine (known as "ice" here -- your International narcotic terminology lesson for the day!) It's something that dirty hippies do, and it WILL MAKE YOU GO PSYCHO.
Many of my fellow nurses, people in their 20s and 30s, truly believe this. Even those who smoked it themselves when they were younger. They allude to this even when there are no doctors or managers around to hear the conversation, so it's not just that they're being politically correct to protect their position in the medical world. It strikes me as strange that in a country which is in many ways progressive and trendy, not nearly as backward-looking as lots of the U.S. is, that heaps of the modern generation echo "Reefer Madness" viewpoints from the 1930s.
Bukko! Long time no see! Glad to have you back commenting!
DeleteI'd heard crystal meth being called ice before, but it's been decades. As for the retrograde attitudes toward marijuana down under, I'm strangely not surprised, even though I hadn't encountered them before. Don't ask me why; I don't know.