Medical Marijuana: Massachusetts Entrepreneur Gets Monopoly Distribution Initiative on Michigan Town Ballot -- Officials Surprised and Confused
Thanks to the efforts of a Massachusetts man, voters in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale, Michigan, will have a chance to vote November 4 on an initiative that would allow only one outfit to distribute medical marijuana. The initiative would allow something called the National Organization for Positive Medicine to seek a court order to distribute and sell medical marijuana to qualified patients.
Medical marijuana is not currently recognized by the state of Michigan, although voters in several cities, including Detroit and Ferndale, have already voted to approve it at the municipal level. An initiative that would legalize medical marijuana statewide is on the November ballot.
The Ferndale distribution initiative is not linked to the statewide initiative, nor is it linked to local activists. According to the Detroit Free Press, the National Organization for Positive Medicine is headed by a Carl Swanson of South Boston, Massachusetts. Swanson's attorney told the Free Press Swanson was not available for comment.
"Swanson is looking ahead to when it's decriminalized statewide and he can distribute legally," Ferndale Mayor Craig Covey told the Free Press. "But it's just for him. We are just scratching our heads here."
The text of the initiative is not yet available on the City of Ferndale web site, but Covey said it allows only the National Organization for Positive Medicine to seek a court order to sell medical marijuana.
Councilman Scott Galloway told the Free Press the initiative was a publicity stunt by marijuana legalizers, but conceded that it could pass. "Like any movement, it has to start somewhere. My guess is that it passes, but has no real effect. You have to get a court order. That's never going to happen," he said.
But on the face of it, the initiative appears more likely to be an effort by an entrepreneurial spirit to position himself to profit from medical marijuana sales in the event that the statewide initiative passes. The profit motive is a powerful force, for medical marijuana distribution as for any other product that people want.
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Comment posted by Anonymous on Fri, 06/20/2008 - 8:01pmTake the money out of the medicine. PROMOTE GROWING YOUR OWN!
IT'S TIME TO REMOVE ALL THE POLITICIANS THAT PROMOTE PROHIBITION.
HOW MANY MORE LIVES HAVE TO BE NEEDLESSLY DEVASTATED OR LOST?
PROHIBITED DRUGS ARE WAY EASIER FOR KIDS TO GET THAN REGULATED DRUGS!
PROHIBITION NEVER WORKS IT JUST CAUSES CRIME & VIOLENCE.
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DEMAND your Constitutional rights. The right; to freedom of religion, free speech, a free press, to keep and bear arms, to be secure in your person, house, papers and effects against unreasonable search and seizure, to life, liberty and property, to be protected from having your property taken by the government without due process of law and without just compensation, to confront the witnesses against you, to be protected from excessive bail, excessive fines, cruel and unusual punishment, to vote and many others have been denied to millions of Americans in the name of the drug war.
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Enterprise
Comment posted by Anonymous on Sat, 06/21/2008 - 1:29pmOur country is not a communist regime; profit and compassion are not mutually exclusive.
The obscene profit available to cannabis providers is caused by the black market, deliberately created and supported by prohibition.
Neither prohibition nor granting an official monopoly to one exemptee are rational. They are both bizarre ideas.
Time to send prohibition to history's dustbin to join segregation and slavery as obsolete government-sanctioned usurpations of unalienable rights.
i wonder what the wording is going to be on the ballot
Comment posted by Anonymous on Mon, 06/23/2008 - 3:34pmthe guy would have to be able to fool the voters into voting for him. i mean, why would the voters want some guy coming in and having a monopoly? i hope it doesn't pass. i hope people are well informed, so that they don't mistakenly vote yes on this(thinking they're voting for medical marijuana in general).
scum
Comment posted by Anonymous on Fri, 06/20/2008 - 12:16pmscum like this should never NEVER be allowed to get "in ont the money" as it were. In fact , the medical community has become a for profit only industry wehere in the past it was for actually helping people and not about the money. Its a shame when the freest country on the planet cant take care of its own people and the medical community is only out for profits rather than helping the sick and dying