They wore suits and ties in hopes to raise $1,000 apiece from 1,000 peo­ple. $1 mil­lion dol­lars while gath­er­ing 322,609 sig­na­tures by July 9 is their first step toward legal­iz­ing mar­i­juana in Michigan.

At a news con­fer­ence Jan. 20 at Roberts River Walk Hotel & Residence in Detroit, a dozen mem­bers of the Committee for a Safer Michigan announced the kick­off cam­paign of their effort to put their legal­iza­tion ques­tion on Michigan’s November ballot.

Detroit attor­ney Matt Abel, a mar­i­juana user since the age of 15, admits the issue has about only 52 per­cent sup­port right now.

One of the biggest con­tro­ver­sies in pub­lic health right now is sur­round­ing the use of mar­i­juana. Here at Ferris, there have been 13 cases over the past three weeks regard­ing mar­i­juana on cam­pus. While there has still been a con­sid­er­ate num­ber of alco­hol related issues, the use of mar­i­juana seems to be skyrocketing.

With all the alco­hol and mar­i­juana com­plaints at Ferris, some don’t con­sider smok­ing as bad as drinking.

Nick Kenny, Ferris sopho­more in phar­macy, refers to mar­i­juana as rel­a­tively safer than alco­hol. After always hear­ing about peo­ple being killed or injured from alcohol-related issues, he brought up how often you hear about these kinds of things hap­pen­ing as a result of marijuana.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approx­i­mately 20,000 Americans die every year as the direct result of alco­hol con­sump­tion. The num­ber for mar­i­juana is zero. Nearly every week­end or even every day America gets high on booze.

Bethany Sonefeld, Ferris sopho­more in graphic design, said, “I think that since weed has the stereo­type of being so ‘relaxed and herbal’ peo­ple think it’s OK to do it all the time and end up spend­ing more time and money to get this ‘relaxed’ feeling.”

This cam­paign hopes to amend the Michigan State Constitution’s deci­sion to repeal mar­i­juana pro­hi­bi­tion for 21 and over. The enact­ment of the state laws allows for a lim­ited legal use of cannabis by qual­i­fied patients.

Some argue mar­i­juana is objec­tively a safer sub­stance. In con­trast, there are a large num­ber of peo­ple who feel work­ing toward a more pro­gres­sive drug pol­icy is not a very log­i­cal thing to do.

“People are going to smoke whether it is legal or not. Just because more peo­ple are smok­ing now does not make it a good choice to make it legal,” Kevin Osbeck, Ferris senior in con­struc­tion man­age­ment, said.

Could a change of law in mar­i­juana use bring in more Michigan jobs? The Board of State Canvassers approved the bal­lot ini­tia­tive in which to raise the state’s renew­able energy stan­dard to 25 per­cent by 2025, a coali­tion called Michigan Energy. In most cases, it’s gen­er­ally effec­tive of a con­tro­ver­sial issue on the statewide bal­lot to start with at least 56 per­cent sup­port or more.

Alcohol is one of the most toxic drugs, and using just 10 times what one would use to get the desired effect can lead to death. Marijuana is one of, if not the least, toxic drugs, requir­ing thou­sands of times the dose one would use to get the desired effect to lead to death.

“I think they are both OK if like any­thing, are used in mod­er­a­tion,” Zach Theut, Ferris junior in pro­fes­sional golf man­age­ment, said.

The back­ers need 500,000 sig­na­tures to secure the bal­lot spot next November. They hope to file by early July. If suc­cess­ful, we may smell a lot more than tobacco in the air. n

Related Posts

1. Super Drunk
2. High Heels, High Stakes
3. Multiple Marijuana Incidents
4. The Costly Truth
5. FSU Explains High Debt