ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” article. It is an editorial by the editor.

“They say don’t go, to Gun Lake Casino, if you’re lookin’ to smoke weed. ‘Cause the Gun Lake Tribe, is a separate nation, and they forbid you, to do the deed.” — With apologies to Claude King and “Wolverton Mountain,” 1962.

Because use of recreational marijuana was approved by voters in Michigan statewide in November 2018, I asked Gun Lake Casino officials if smoking weed at their facility is legal as well.

After all, the Gun Lake Tribe permits smoking tobacco within the walls of the entertainment facility.

I was told smoking marijuana there is verboten.

Zeke Fletcher, general counsel of the Gun Lake Tribe, himself a Wayland High School graduate, said:

“The laws of the State of Michigan have no applicability on tribal trust land. Since the Casino was placed into trust in 2009, the new marijuana laws have no impact on tribal land. Since the Gun Lake Tribe has not authorized the legalization of the possession or inhalation of marijuana on tribal land, possession or inhalation of marijuana would violate both tribal and federal law and will be enforced by the Gun Lake Public Safety Department.”

So there. That settles that question.

I acknowledge my mild disappointment. Though I haven’t used the substance myself in more than 45 years, I came to understand long ago that marijuana is far less dangerous to health and public safety than tobacco and alcohol, both of which are allowed in the the casino.

My take is that once again the stigma attached to smoking pot is persistent and flies in the face of the general public’s demonstrable attitude. Though medical use statewide was approved by 63 percent of voters in 2008 and recreational use was approved by 56% in 2018, authorities have been doing their damndest to delay its implementation and make it difficult to do.

Politics 101 teaches us that if you make something normally legal cumbersome for the unwashed masses to do, you will reduce it being done. One example is that though abortion was declared legal by the U.S. Supreme Court 47 years ago, strident anti-abortion efforts since have deliberately made it more difficult to do.

The same now holds true for use of marijuana because state lawmakers, who were opposed to it regardless of the opinions of a majority of voters, have allowed the issue to languish in panels and commissions setting the practices. It has been only in the last couple of months that places to buy and sell the product have been established legally, simply because our friends in Lansing have stonewalled it.

A stark contrast could be realized earlier this month in Illinois, where the process of buying and selling in dispensaries commenced Jan. 2, only months after it was declared legal.

Now I don’t mind state legislators opposing an issue, whether for political, moral, safety or religious reasons. But in a country such as ours, we’re told to let the people decide. Those who do not respect the results of that process do not deserve to hold their offices.