SAME OLD, SAD STORY: DETROIT CAN'T GET ANY RESPECT

Detroit just can't get respect.

In the primary election this month, 60 percent of Detroiters casting
ballots agreed to change a city marijuana law. It is now legal to
possess marijuana in Detroit for medical use, according to city law.
It flies in the face of state and federal laws that still make
marijuana possession illegal.

Outside of the little circles of people who pushed for or against the
Detroit proposal, the response - both statewide and nationally - is a
surprise to us.

Hardly a whisper.

It's not that people don't care about the issue.

Any little hiccup about medical marijuana on the West Coast,
especially in California, where medicinal use was legalized statewide
in 1996, is trumpeted from the highest mountains.

Ann Arbor has been in the forefront of the marijuana debate for more
than three decades. Nearly everyone in Michigan has heard of the Hash
Bash rally there every April.

But when the people in one of the nation's biggest cities take a
leading role in this political and social discourse, they are
disregarded; disrespected.

Detroit is dissed again. We aren't joining the debate over marijuana
laws yet. It's time, though, we dusted off Aretha Franklin's classic
anthem to remind people that the Motor City matters.

Give it some Respect.

Just a little bit.