MARIJUANA PROPOSAL, IF APPROVED, WILL ALLOW KALAMAZOO TO STOP WASTING
FUNDS ON ENFORCEMENT

Congratulations are in order to the Kalamazoo Coalition for Pragmatic
Cannabis Laws. Their Lowest Law Enforcement Priority proposal will
now appear on the November city ballot. Following expected passage at
the polls, the measure will direct the Kalamazoo Department of Public
Safety to regard simple, adult possession of small, personal use
quantities of marijuana as their lowest priority.

Campaign organizer Louis Stocking was recently quoted in a Gazette
article as hoping this measure will signal that the city of Kalamazoo
is somehow, "pot friendly," and that it will attract people from
outside of Kalamazoo to the city because, "they'll know we're liberal
when it comes to marijuana."

Well maybe, but surely the benefits of this proposal go far, far
beyond simply giving a bunch of raggedy stoners a green light to
party, party, party. I was disappointed to see the proposal framed in
such frivolous terms.

Making simple, adult possession of marijuana the Lowest Law
Enforcement Priority frees the KDPS to allocate limited resources to
more serious crime. Crimes where there is an actual victim, for example.

It will direct the Kalamazoo city attorney to focus on true criminals
who are intent on doing things that harm the rest of us, not
prosecuting otherwise law-abiding adults who are intent on doing
things we just don't happen to approve of.

It helps clear the backlog clogging up city court rooms - no more
putting rapists on the back burner to make room for the daily parade
of misdemeanor marijuana cases that now take up 20 percent of the
docket. Time and resources spent arresting, prosecuting and
adjudicating petty marijuana offenses is time lost to thwarting child
molesters, impaired drivers and armed robbers.

It is no secret that many in the Michigan cannabis law reform
community regard the upcoming city of Kalamazoo Lowest Law
Enforcement Priority proposal as the opening salvo in a series of
local initiatives that will ultimately lead to a statewide ballot
initiative to regulate, control and tax adult use of cannabis.
Reforms that are long overdue.

Marijuana prohibition has utterly failed to properly regulate or
adequately control cannabis, much less capture significant potential
tax revenues on a commerce that generates $55 million annually
statewide in untaxed sales. Add to that the $40 million spent in
Michigan every year in a vain attempt to enforce cannabis prohibition
and you're starting to talk about some real money.

The city of Kalamazoo Lowest Law Enforcement Priority proposal is a
good first step in staunching the flow of dollars now being wasted
trying to protect adults from their own folly. How much longer will
it be before the state takes the next logical step and finally starts
regulating, controlling and reaping cannabis tax revenues?

How much longer will it be before we show the courage of our
grandparents and face reality? Good intentions are not enough,
results count. Prohibition just makes the problem worse. Lowest Law
Enforcement Priority proposals are about a lot more than just the
right to party unmolested.