Title:
VICTORY!
Message:
Yesterday, Kalamazoo
voters sent a powerful message to western Michigan legislators by
overwhelmingly approving an amendment to their city charter making enforcement
of marijuana possession laws the city’s “lowest law enforcement priority.”
Congratulations to Louis Stocking, Chris Chiles, the Kalamazoo Coalition for
Pragmatic Cannabis Laws, and all the activists who gathered the signatures and
helped make this victory possible.
Despite an
underfunded campaign in an off-year election, the measure passed with a nearly
2:1 margin, gathering 65.8% of the vote. Opponents like Michigan Attorney
General Bill Schuette are already hard at work deflecting the significance of
yesterday’s vote. Schuette and Kalamazoo City Attorney Clyde Robinson told
a local NPR affiliate that the measure is essentially meaningless since it
doesn’t actually change penalties for possession, and Kalamazoo police
typically arrest under state, not local, law.
We know
better. We know that yesterday’s vote was not about some legal technicality,
but about the overarching sentiment expressed by the voters: marijuana prohibition
has failed. Police should stop wasting time arresting people for using a
substance safer than alcohol and instead spend that time protecting our
community from violent criminals and other real threats to public safety. Let’s
hope Kalamazoo-area elected officials were listening.
Congrats
again!
