On Friday, January 26, 2018, the Secretary of State issued the statement below with regard to the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol. This statement indicates that an initial review of our petition forms and signatures has passed muster and will be permitted to continue. This statement also provides that, “the deadline to submit challenges to this petition will elapse at 5:00 p.m. on February 9, 2018”.
What that means is, the proposal looks good so far, the Secretary of State has reviewed some of our forms and signatures, and now our opponents have until February 9, 2018, to challenge our proposal in court. That’s how the process works.
We don’t have any reliable information that any specific person or group plans to challenge our petition in court, but it wouldn’t be surprising. The Michigan Responsibility Council, which calls itself “Michigan’s premier cannabis association committed to educating, promoting and advancing the study of legitimate use of cannabis health care”, is funding an opposition group called The Committee to Keep Pot Out of Neighborhoods and Schools, and Scott Greenlee, President of Healthy and Productive Michigan, who is quoted in Metro Times as saying, “If an individual were on a street having one marijuana cigarette, those folks are just not arrested.” You can read more about Greenlee’s group here.
I don’t know if these people are naive or just plain mean-spirited, but they are wrong with their alternative-facts, they are wrong morally, but they have access to money and we shouldn’t underestimate what they might be capable of doing.
Here is the original pdf document.
January 26, 2018
An initiative petition proposing to authorize the personal possession and use of marihuana by individuals aged 21 years and older and control the commercial production and distribution of marihuana, was filed with the Secretary of State on November 20, 2017 by the Coalition to Regulate Marihuana Like Alcohol.
The Board of State Canvassers has established a uniform deadline for challenging signatures sampled from an initiative, constitutional amendment or referendum petition to elapse at 5:00 p.m. on the 10th business day after copies of the sampled signatures are made available to the public. (See minutes of November 8, 2013 meeting of the Board of State Canvassers.)
Please be advised that copies of the signatures sampled from this initiative petition were made available for release to the public on January 25, 2018. Therefore, the deadline to submit challenges to this petition will elapse at 5:00 p.m. on February 9, 2018.
Please contact the Bureau of Elections at (517) 373-2540 if you wish to purchase a copy of the sampled signatures for the petition.
Be careful everyone. Now that California has medical and recreational marijuana the cities and state have slapped a whopping 35% tax on its users including for medicinal use. Medicine is not supposed to be taxed.