During the 2018 election the people of Michigan voted in favor of legalizing marijuana (also called cannabis).  This referendum went a long way to help end the criminalization of drug here in the state.

The initiative was created to regulate marijuana like alcohol in the state. For most people this was good enough. It accomplished the goal in a sense, but the initiative didn’t go far enough. Some of the problems of the ballot initiative are as follows, but not limited to:

• It does not expunged the record of non violent marijuana convictions.
• It limits the amount of marijuana you can have at a time to 2.5 ounces.
• You can only grow up to 12 plants per household.
• You can not give or sell it without a state license.

The answer to these problems is a movement called “End Prohibition Michigan.”  The movement split from from the Abrogate Prohibition during the summer of 2018. They seek to protect the ‘natural’ and ‘unalienable’ rights of the people to use marijuana. To achieve this end, they seek to amend Article one of the state constitution. This initiative would most importantly stop the state from infringing on the people’s right to grow, sell and possess canabis. This would be a huge step forward to keep people whose only crime was having more than a bag of marijuana on them or growing just a few plants out side from eating up our court system.

1. The natural, lawful, unalienable and absolute rights of the people to cultivate and utilize thenatural plant known as Cannabis shall not be infringed. These rights include, but are not limited to, the possession, consumption, growing, manufacturing, delivery, treatment, purchase, sale, transfer, storage and transport of any plant seed, flower, leaf, mixture, derivative, extract…

This ballot initiative would close one of the major gaps left in the last one by voiding non-violent convictions from the records of people for the possession of marijuana. It states in section 6:

6. All prior and current non-violent Cannabis related convictions shall be hereby null and void.

On April 13, 2019 the Libertarian Party of Michigan at its state convention in Bay city, passed a resolution showing their support for the initiative.

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomangell/2018/11/06/michigan-voters-approve-marijuana-legalization/#ca0e40d47a57
[2] MCL 333.27955 sec 5 article 1 (a) [cf. https://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(tqzkcq1a0nk12neswy5shja4))/mileg.aspx?
page=getObject&objectName=mcl-333-27955]
[3] MCL 333.27955 sec 5 article 1 (b)
[4] MCL 333.27955 sec 5 article 1 (d)
[5]https://endprohibitionmichigan.org/