I hereby offer my humble, but sincere apologies to the Watson Township Board and Planning Commission. I was wrong, and you were right.
I publicly but incorrectly stated Wednesday and Thursday that the state-wide referendum on legalizing marijuana and regulating it like alcohol would be placed on the ballot for election would be in May. It won’t. It’ll be in November.
To paraphrase Rush Limbaugh, that pioneer of fake news, I wasn’t making this up. When I first read that more than enough signatures had been collected to place the issue on the ballot in 2018, I noticed the account said it would be in May. I was taken aback, thinking that advocates would want to have the vote in November.
Perhaps it matters more to Watson Township than others in the northeast quadrant of Allegan County because it is the only municipality in this region that has expressed willingness to consider an ordinance permitting facilities that grow, process, test, transport and dispense medical marijuana.
The recreational marijuana referendum is significant because it follows the Medical Marijuana Act approved by 63% of voters statewide in 2008. It also follows a state law approved by the Michigan Legislature and signed by Gov. Rick Snyder in the fall of 2016, in which medical marijuana dispensaries are permitted if local governments say so.
State government and many local governments consistently have fought legalization and have discouraged even legal use by severely regulating it and even penalizing it. Most of all, the roadblocks thrown in front of people who want to use, grow and provide medical marijuana have made it difficult for them to do it.
Businesses are allowed to fire employees who legally use marijuana as medicine. Drug warrior raids too often have been conducted against providers who may have violated penny-ante regulations. It seems as though government stands behind the 46-year failed War on Drugs and it continues to stigmatize pot use in the same way as 80 years ago in the heyday of “Reefer Madness.”
The vast majority of political observers predict the marijuana legalization ballot issue will be passed. This proves once again that our legislators are doing the bidding of their donors (Big Pharma, the alcohol industry, drug warriors and the illegal drug industry) rather than of their constituents.
All the polling I’ve seen about fireworks, assisted suicide and now even gerrymandering has shown our lawmakers are on the wrong side in the court of public opinion. Again, it proves that our political system is legalized bribery, in which those who have big bucks can tell our men and women in Lansing what to bring to the table and how to vote on it.
But in the meantime, I still apologize for getting the wrong date. But I still wonder when the people will rise up in righteous indignation to throw the rascals out of office and tell them, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it any more.”
I will vote to legalize it and tax it. Sorry I’ m a dope!
The hateful left rears its ugly head again. I was suspect when I saw the title, but then I saw the claim by the author “To paraphrase Rush Limbaugh, that pioneer of fake news, I wasn’t making this up.” Rush Limbaugh is a common hate object of the Left because he is so accurate in understanding how they think and letting the rest of us in on the fun. I’m sure the author has immense respect for someone with the largest audience of listeners in the United States, or maybe it’s jealousy?
The author should listen more to folks like Limbaugh, then he might understand Trump, which he clearly does not at this time, his hate for the “other party” is debilitating his reasoning ability. If he hasn’t seen the improvement in the economy since Trump was elected (no, it wasn’t anything to do with President Obama – he hated this country and all those in it). A strong economy means jobs, which in turn means more revenue into the state and federal treasuries.
But watch out, the immense debt Obama put on this country and long-term welfare and give-aways hurt this country deeply and the stability of the economy is in jeopardy. Keep up the fine vilification of others, just like President Obama – Democrats do stick together to harm the country and they are doing a fine job. The Establishment Republicans are Democrat Light. The only hope is outsiders to get into the Swamp to clean up the mess.
It makes sense to legalize and tax it.