Yes It Is, It’s True: Martin pot battle a harbinger of things to come

It should have been a surprise to no one Monday evening that the Martin Township Board would adopt an ordinance specifically to forbid dispensation of marijuana.

This is the same community that a little more than 25 years ago voted against allowing restaurateur Gordon Lyons of Carriage Stop to sell alcohol with food. Martin Township has been about as “dry” a community as you’ll find in West Michigan. The folks who live in the tiny hamlet have resisted these changes every time they have been proposed.

It was surprising, however, that the Planning Commission voted 4-2 to recommend the Township Board not adopt this ordinance. The action merely delayed the inevitable, but it permitted an interesting debate many communities are having about marijuana itself.

Just before the final vote was taken, I watched the eight episodes of “High Profits,” a documentary about a small pot shop that opened on Main Street in Breckenridge, Colo., just before the state’s voters approved a ballot issue permitting recreational use.

Though there is a huge difference between Colorado and Michigan because the latter still only allows medicinal and sets up many obstacles, there are many similarities in the film because of the battle between local government and owners of a business that only recently became legal.

The Town Council had many discussions about whether the Breckenridge Cannibis Club should be able to do business in the downtown. Many insisted the club went against the “family friendly” image Breckenridge was trying to promote. Yet they had no problem with a drunken community festival and the presence of bars on the main strip.

The Cannibis Club was urged to join the other pot shops on the edge of town, but the co-owners, Brian and Caitlyn, very much like Jerry Dan Patrick and Lisa Edwards, stood their ground as having a right to remain at their spot.

Eventually, the Town Council set up a special election to let voters decide whether the shop should close downtown and move to the outskirts.

The talking points on both sides were reminiscent of what had been seen and heard in Martin Township’s recent saga. Underneath it all, the issue really is money.

I highly recommend anyone who has Netflix streaming video to watch all the episodes because they can be very interesting and instructive about the kinds of things we certainly will be seeing soon in every state and every town in the United States. This will be a conversation we will need to have.

This story in Martin Township has been fascinating and illuminating. My only regrets, actually, are that too many people who still influence or make public policy continue to cling to the Flat Earth Society myths about marijuana. Too many seem to still subscribe to Ronald Reagan’s assertion in the 1980s that “marijuana is the most dangerous drug in the United States.”

The War on Drugs started by Richard Nixon and shifted into high gear by Reagan has been proven over and over again to be an abject failure. It has wasted a lot of public money, a lot of lives and it makes a serious contribution to public mistrust of government.

Marijuana is a far less serious health hazard than alcohol or tobacco, is a far better and less dangerous treatment for pain than prescription pills, and is perhaps the most unfairly maligned substance on the planet.

The anti-marijuana campaign over the years has been spearheaded by the alcohol industry, by the drug warrior industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and even more important, the illegal drug industry.

Spoken as an old Sixties guy, I smoked the stuff for two years, quit more than 40 years ago, and looking back, about all I can say is, “I had a good time.”