Since the 1970s, the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan has imposed some of the softest laws on marijuana ownership in the United States. These included measures approved in the city council's 1972 ruling, a 1974 voter referendum making ownership of a small amount of substance only civil offenses subject to small fines, and a 2004 referendum on the use of medical marijuana. Because state law takes precedence over municipal law, much tighter state cannabis laws are still enforced at University of Michigan properties.
Video Cannabis laws in Ann Arbor, Michigan
The 1972 cannabis ordinance
Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, when Ann Arbor hosted a number of radical organizations - including formative Meetings of Students for Democratic Communities, the formation of the White Panther Party, and local Human Rights Party - public opinion in the city continued to move left on criminalization of possession of marijuana. The Michigan Daily, a major student newspaper at the University of Michigan, obtained national press coverage by urging the legalization of marijuana as early as 1967. However, two more specific factors pushed the city toward adoption of proven marijuana enforcement provisions one of the most liberal in the country.
The first factor is a local reaction to state punishment, which gives a year's imprisonment of two ounces (57 g) or less, four years in prison for the sale of marijuana, and heavier penalties for repeat offenses. This penalty received national attention when poet and activist John Sinclair was sentenced to ten years in prison for having two joints, a sentence that triggered the John Sinclair Freedom Rally landmark in Ann Arbor's Crisler Arena in December 1971. The event unites who- Who's left-wing, including pop musicians John Lennon, Stevie Wonder and Bob Seger, jazz artists Archie Shepp and Roswell Rudd, and speakers Allen Ginsberg, Rennie Davis, Jerry Rubin and Bobby Seale. Three days after the rally, Sinclair was released from prison after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that state marijuana legislation was unconstitutional.
The second factor was the election of April 1972 to the Ann Arbor city council of two candidates from the Human Rights Party (HRP), an organization promoting progressive local and radical causes. In September 1972, a few months after they took their seats on the council, two HRP board members pioneered a bill that would reduce city punishment for possession of less than two ounces of marijuana to a $ 5 civil violation ticket. (Previous city punishment is identical with state punishment.) The city police will then prosecute offenders under city regulations rather than state laws. The HRP's representatives, by garnering support from members of the Democratic council, quickly succeeded in passing the law on the objections of the Republican council. In support of the new regulations, Democrat Mayor Robert J. Harris told the Washington Post, "In this city, it is the only way to go... We have made great efforts to get a good relationship between children and the police Now at least we're going to get the police out of the marijuana business. "
Outside observers characterize the rule as the most lenient in the country. In a press interview, the city's lawyer described the sentence as "a sort of parking ticket", explaining that offenders could send a ticket, with a plea of ​​guilt and fines, back to the town hall to dispose of the allegations. City police and prosecutors agree to use the $ 5 city regulations, rather than valid state legislation, as a tool for enforcement against offenders. The city police chief, however, pledged to continue to pursue large-scale drug dealers aggressively, using stronger state laws against this class of offenders.
Shortly after the adoption of the size, the New York Times reported: "Under the trees on the campus of the University of Michigan, in the back row of the cinema - in fact, it says, in the public gallery of the City Council room itself - the young people are getting lighting up marijuana in public today. "However, neither police nor independent academic observers stated in the national media article that the number of smoking marijuana in the city did not increase; location just switch to include more public space.
Maps Cannabis laws in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Amendment of the Charter 1974
Within weeks of adoption, new marijuana regulations have sparked outrage in many parts of the country. The Michigan State Police Director, for example, immediately threatened to move his troops to Ann Arbor to impose state codes on the possession of marijuana. In the first test case, decided on September 29, 1972, a district court judge ruled unconstitutional rules as "Ann Arbor's annoyance in the Michigan State justice function." Voters responded in November by picking Perry Bullard to the Michigan House of Representatives on a platform calling for the full legalization of ownership, but not sold, marijuana by adults across the state.
Despite the adverse court ruling, marijuana regulations remained in force until June 1973, when revoked by the city council. The local debate attracted the attention of a number of national media, including television news programs CBS and NBC and The New York Times. During the council vote to retract, about 150 spectators packed the boardroom to turn the joints in protest, and a protester threw the cherry pie at Mayor James Stephenson.
On April 2, 1974, voters in Ann Arbor rejected the council's decision by amending the city charter with the famous Section 16.2, which, in somewhat modified form, remains in effect today. The charter section returns a five-criminal penalty for the possession, use, gift, or sale of marijuana and city police which is prohibited to enact stricter state laws. On the same day, the neighboring city of Ypsilanti adopted the same size. In adopting a charter amendment, Ann Arbor voters insisted that the provision was necessary to ensure "fair and equitable treatment of the citizens of this community, and in particular the youth of this community present as students or vice versa."
Part of Section 16.2 states that no municipal police officer "will complain about the possession, control, use, giving or selling of marijuana or marijuana to any other authority except an Ann Arbor city lawyer, and the city attorney will not refer any complaints to other authorities for prosecution. "Thus, the provision effectively rejects state courts the opportunity to declare unconstitutional acts, as had happened in 1972, since the probationary opportunity would never have come before the state judge.
The perception of the city as a haven for cannabis permeated into the local culture. In January 1975, the countercultural newspaper Ann Arbor Sun held a marijuana contest "Win a Pound from Colombia". Meanwhile, John Sinclair runs a local radio program, pro-legalization titled Toke Time at WNRZ Ann Arbor.
Tightening cannabis laws in 1990
During the 1980s, pressure grew from Ann Arbor Republicans to eliminate the soft marijuana portions of the city. In a 1983 referendum, Ann Arbor voters rejected the proposed lifting of sections, with 61.7 percent of voters opposing the proposed tightening of marijuana code. However, towards the end of the 1980s, the moderate GOP Mayor, Gerald D. Jernigan, called the cannabis code "a shame" for the city. In January 1990, the city council approved a referendum on increasing penalties for the possession, use or sale of marijuana. In a referendum produced, held in April 1990, 53 percent of voters agreed to amend Section 16.2 of the city charter with higher penalties, raising fines from $ 5 to $ 25 for the first offense, $ 50 for a second offense, and $ 100 or more for further violations. However, the violation remains a civil offense rather than a minor crime or a crime.
In the same election, using tactics modeled on the original $ 5 marijuana law in the city, voters approved a charter amendment intended to protect abortion access in Ann Arbor if it became illegal in the state of Michigan. Voters mandate that, if the abortion becomes illegal, municipal regulations will apply where an abortion will be punished in Ann Arbor with a fine of only $ 5. The local judge will have the ability to assess a $ 5 fine rather than a more punitive state penalty. Created as a legislative state debated increase in abortion restrictions in Michigan, including the adoption of parental permit bills, measuring states of the "freedom zone reproduction." The legality of the charter amendment is still unclear, as it has never been tested.
One of the local activists expressed disappointment at the decision of the voters' cannabis, told USA Today : "Those people are obviously pro-choice abortions, and I expect them to be pro-choice on marijuana as well." However, even with the new penalties, ownership of a small amount of substance remains largely discriminated against in Ann Arbor, as penalties continue to consist solely of civil violation tickets that are similar to traffic fines. Indeed, Ann Arbor Observer reported in 2012 that the city's lawyer Bob West remembers "only twice in the last five years that non-medical hashish holdings have resulted even in a formal court hearing - and then only because the user fight over tickets received under the light cannabis law in the city. "
Medical marijuana referendum of 2004
On November 2, 2004, voters in Ann Arbor approved the Ann Arbor Medical Marijuana Initiative written by the inhabitants of the town of Rich Birkett. This voting initiative changed Section 16.2 of the city charter to allow the growth and use of cannabis for medical purposes. This measure also limits penalties for third and subsequent violations for non-medical or sales use of $ 100. The move was approved with 74 percent approval among voters. The Ann Arbor initiative was just one of several similar steps on the local and state ballots that day: Columbia, Missouri, another college town, approved a similar law on medical marijuana, as did the state of Montana, while Oregon voters rejected the initiative to loosen existing medical marijuana programs, and Alaska voters rejecting the total decriminalization of marijuana possession.
However, what became a relatively controversial measure during the election proved controversial following the pericope. Shortly after its approval, the Ann Arbor City lawyer, Steve Postema, marked the initiative as "unworkable", citing its conflict with federal and state law. Likewise, city police chief Dan Oates announced that his police would ignore him and continue normal law enforcement practices. Activists who have worked to put the initiative on the ballot quickly declare their anger. But since medical marijuana users in Ann Arbor are rarely prosecuted, and since the penalty for the first possession remains a $ 25 civil penalty, the two measures of the 2004 ballot itself and Oates's assertion of subsequent enforcement may prove more symbolic than substantive.
Michigan Medical Marijuana Act of 2008
In November 2008, Michigan voters enacted the Michigan Medical Cannabis Law. The new state law supports the Ann Arbor City charter by offering protection from state law enforcement to patient qualifications and primary caregivers assigned under applicable law on April 4, 2009. Under the law, a patient with qualifying conditions and signed Statement from the attending physician, can apply for an ID card under the Health Department program of the Michigan Department of Health for the use of legal medical marijuana in Michigan. Upon registration, the primary patient and caregiver may legally possess marijuana in accordance with State law. The primary caregiver may provide assistance to use medical marijuana or even be given the responsibility to cultivate a maximum of 12 legally protected marijuana plants by the patient, at a fee.
Although the legitimate use of medical marijuana is allowed for in Ann Arbor City Charter, it is still illegal in the State of Michigan, allowing it to be captured by state police and other state law enforcement agencies. With this new protection under Michigan state law, the only remaining threats to patients or registered caregivers in Ann Arbor are from the untested nature of the new state law and the actions of D.E.A and other federal law enforcement agencies.
In popular culture
Graham Nash's "Prison Song" from his 1974 album Wild Tales referenced the soft marijuana law of Ann Arbor with a choir:
Children in Texas grassland
Ten year sentence happened
Ask the judge why?
See also
References
External links
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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