A Column By John Sinclair
Happy New Year everybody, and welcome to a whole new cycle of days called 2021, a welcome relief after the awful nightmare known as 2020 where the one good thing that happened was the rejection of Resident Rump and election of a new democratic government, even though the Rump is ever so reluctant to let it go as the people have decided.
If I live another 10 months I’ll be 80 years old, and in all my life I’ve never experienced anything so lame and uncalled for as Rump’s opposition to the overwhelming vote of the people against him and in favor of his opponent, our new president, Joe Biden. We thought Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan and the Bushes were terrible, but the Rump topped (or bottomed) all of these previous criminals.
The next two days will settle this question as well as the control of the U.S. Senate. Rump supporters are urging the Republican Party not to certify Biden’s selection by challenging the outcome of the vote in various states, but it seems apparent that this effort will certainly fail since there has been absolutely no showing of voter fraud to any degree in any sector of the U.S. electorate.
As I write this, a run-off election in Georgia tomorrow will determine whether the state’s two U.S. Senators will be Republican or Democratic. If both Democratic candidates win the run-off, the Senate will be split 50-50, with Vice-President Kamala Harris holding the deciding vote.
It’s impossible to say today what will happen in these two important instances, but if progressive Georgian voters turn out in sufficient measure they can change the direction our government will take for at least the next four years.
It remains to be seen what President Biden and V-P Harris will do about legalizing marijuana in the United States, but as I’ve preached for the past several years, when 2/3rds of American voters adopt legalization as their chosen course of action, the politicians of both parties will stumble all over one another in their hurry to embrace legalization as public policy for all.
I’ve given quite a bit of coverage over the past few years to the state of marijuana legalization in Detroit, where it’s been apparent for a long time now that the vast majority of residents are in favor of freeing the weed for all public purposes.
After fumbling around for more than two years since marijuana use was legalized in the State of Michigan, the Detroit City Council has finally come up with a set of rules and regulations under the listing Detroit Adult Use Recreational Marijuanathat have some very progressive qualities.
Detroiters interested in obtaining one or more of the 10 Adult Use Recreational Marijuana-related licenses can take the first step on January 19 by applying to be certified as a “Legacy Detroiter,” in advance of the license application window opening on April 1.
Detroit’s Medical Marijuana Facilities and Adult-Use Marijuana Establishments ordinance gives preference to longtime Detroit residents seeking licenses that will include discounts on land, reduced application fees, technical and financial assistance to Detroit-owned marijuana business start-ups.
The ordinance also guarantees that no less than 50% of all newly created recreational marijuana business licenses for retailers, growers, processors, microbusinesses, designated consumption, and marijuana event organizers issued in Detroit will be awarded to Detroit Legacy applicants.
To qualify for the Detroit Legacy program, you must currently reside in Detroit, and be able to document that you have lived in Detroit for 15 of the last 30 years, or have lived in Detroit for 13 of the last 30 years and are low income, or have lived in Detroit for 10 of the last 30 years and have a marijuana conviction or have a parent with a marijuana conviction.
For more information about the adult-use marijuana ordinance, the Legacy Detroiter application or the social equity program component: DetroitMeansBusiness.org.
Meanwhile, on the West Coast, politicians and voters in the vanguard state of California and the City of San Francisco, where medical marijuana was first legalized in 1996—a quarter of a century ago—have been dealing with a proposed ban on tobacco and cannabis smoking and/or vaping in residential buildings of more than three units, including houses, apartment buildings and condominiums:
The good news for potheads is that tobacco lost and cannabis won. The ordinance would have taken away the only legal place to smoke cannabis, since it is illegal under state law to smoke it in public places. (Some dispensaries have consumption lounges but they are now closed due to COVID-19.)
The City/County Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 to exclude cannabis from the residential smoking ban. This was due to evidence presented that second-hand smoke from cannabis is not dangerous, augmented by a fast and strong response by cannabis activists who mobilized in little more than a week to call and email to the supervisors.
Smoking cigarettes and cannabis is still banned in common spaces such as stairwells and hallways, and many landlords ban tenants from smoking inside altogether. Offenders could be fined $1,000 a day, but could not be evicted for a violation.
Speaking of social use lounges, Michigan’s Rick Thompson reminisces that “When looking back at Michigan’s cannabis history, many a friendship and partnership was begun at an old cannabis farmer’s market amid the swirl of smoke, the boasting of vendors and the smell of French fries.
“The MMFLA led to a shuttering of almost all the markets in Michigan, but the legalization law created several license types which could work together to bring back this treasured feature of the medical cannabis period.
“The most important license type created by the MRTMA for a farmer’s market is the designated consumption lounge, where people can gather and smoke together at a place which is not on the road, not in their home and not on the job.
“But having a place where people bring their own cannabis and sit for a bit doesn’t generate any income. That accounts for the slow rollout of this license type.
“It seems the formula for a successful designated consumption establishment includes location and relationship. ‘I’ve seen some interesting ideas,’Marijuana Regulatory Agency Director Andrew Brisbo offered. ‘Obviously, pairing with retail establishments and putting them in close proximity.”
“This is the tasting lounge model, where a designated consumption lounge is next to or close by a retailer, and people leave the retailer and go to the lounge to sample the product—or, product is delivered to the social use lounge from the retailer.”
“Cannabis retailers of both medical and adult-use licenses are allowed to deliver cannabis, a service that has become more popular and essential during the Covid pandemic.”
Rick points out that “Smoking cannabis while shopping for more cannabis while surrounded by multiple cannabis vendors under one roof? Sounds like a good old-fashioned farmer’s market.”
“’I think there are some creative ideas,’Brisbo chuckled. ‘Folks will figure out how to make it work.’”
True dat! Free The Weed!
—Detroit
January 4. 2021
© 2020 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
