After persuading the City of Allegan Nov. 2 not to allow local medical marijuana dispensaries, representatives from the West Michigan Enforcement Team (WEMET) and the Allegan County Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition made their pitch Monday night to the Wayland City Council.
City officials made no decision and considered the presentation, arranged by Police Chief Steve Harper, to be informational only.
Michigan State Police Lt. Andy Fias, who heads the WEMET narcotics team, and Allegan County Community Mental Health prevention specialist Heidi Denton spent about an hour outlining reasons why the city should not allow medical marijuana dispensaries, which will become legal under a new law signed by Gov. Rick Snyder. The new law, introduced by State Rep. Mike Callton, permits such dispensaries if the local municipality gives its blessing.
“The City of Wayland is going to have to decide whether it’s going to allow them (dispensaries),” Frias said. “To do so, it must adopt an ordinance.”
Fias said today’s marijuana is “very different than the marijuana I grew up with.”
He said weed now has a much stronger THC content and there are new ways to use, particularly extracts and food type substances.
Insisting Michigan seems to be following the same path as Colorado, which legalized recreational use in 2014, he said the latter “failed to get involved to ensure a law that enforcement could work with.”
Frias said Colorado provides Michigan with plenty of lessons on how not to legalize recreational marijuana. He said the state’s projected revenue from sales and taxes fell short and it now only amounts to 0.5% of the general fund budget.
He added that the rise of the “medibles,” marijuana that cane be eaten rather than smokes has caused a spike in number of teens visiting hospital emergency rooms. He singled out the dangers of a process of extracting THC that is as flammable as a methamphetamine lab. These THC extraction labs caused 32 home explosions in Colorado in 2014.
Denton presented information insisting that one in 10 regular adult users will become addicted to marijuana and that figure rises to one six when the user starts in teen years.
She noted that the age group in Colorado with the highest use is 18 to 25, which “I look at as the future work force.”
Harper asser
ted that Colorado is losing some businesses and industries that don’t want to deal with the increase of employees who show up high.
Perhaps the most interesting statistic Denton presented was her insistence that adults on average can lose eight IQ points between the ages of 13 and 38. She also said there has been a correlation of marijuana use and poor social outcomes such as dependence on welfare.
Here in Michigan, the medical marijuana law permits each provider to grow 12 plants each time and 216 plants per year, which translates into as many as 88 cigarettes per day per person. Frias obviously noted that no one can smoke that many doobies in one day, so he said the excess would get dumped into dispensaries for sale to others.
“Our marijuana caseload is is as much or more than before the medical marijuana law was passed in 2008,” Frias said. “There is a criminal element that comes along with this product.”
It was noted elsewhere that 7 percent of bookings at the Allegan County Jail are for marijuana offenses only.
It is very likely that pro-legalization groups will try to have a recreational pot proposition on the state-wide ballot in 2018 and Frias says the lobbies are wealthy and powerful.
PHOTOS: Andy Frias and Heidi Denton set up shop for their anti-marijuana dispensary presentation to the Wayland City Council.
New City Council members (from left) Tim Rose, Tracy Bivins and John Sloan and Mayor Tim Bala were sworn in officially after winning in the Nov. 8 general election.
Hello Wayland. Get on board to regulate dispensaries and reap the financial benefits, plenty of benefits. ( $$$) Put it in the old Chevy dealer. The jails are riddled with pot offenders. Even one person admitted he smoked as a youth. No different then alcohol and minors. We manage that. Lets be far sighted and embrace the future and profit from it. Someone is going to do just that….