Two campaigns to legalize marijuana in Michigan have the green light to move forward. A state elections board signed off on their petition language on Thursday.
The groups will now begin collecting signatures. One campaign would leave it up to state lawmakers to set tax rates and some regulations.
“I think that we have a perfectly capable group of individuals that are currently elected and are perfectly capable of deciding what a fair tax rate is to establish on an agricultural product,”
said Matt Marsden with the Michigan Cannabis Coalition. The competing group – calling themselves MILegalize - says lawmakers can’t be trusted to make those decisions.
“We’ve seen the Legislature fail for seven or eight years now to adequately fix the issues with medical marijuana. And we can’t give them another ten years to get this right,”
said MILegalize Chair Jeff Hank. Hank’s group is made up of marijuana activists and bills itself as the one with the most expertise on the issue.
“Everyone on our team and on our board has run all the major decriminalization efforts in Michigan.”
The Michigan Cannabis Coalition has not yet disclosed who its members are. The two campaigns are among at least three groups hoping to legalize marijuana in 2016.
