More on MMJ in Massachusetts and Michigan

We are making progress folks. Four years ago, this wouldn't have the news. This time around, Metro West Daily runs a good article analyzing the results of Tuesday's vote in the eastern half of the state. The initiatives passed with respectable margins from 60 to 68 percent and the article liberally quotes dauntless organizer Steven Epstein, spokesman for the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition and Drug Policy Forum of Massachusetts. This can only be good for the future.

Meanwhile in Michigan, the news is not as good. The Ann Arbor News reports that despite having been passed by three-fourths of Ann Arbor voters, City Attorney Stephen Postema said Wednesday that Ann Arbor's new medical marijuana initiative is invalid. Police Chief Dan Oates wasted no time in embracing the opinion and said in a written statement he has directed his officers to continue enforcement of all marijuana sale and possession offenses as they did before the vote.

So much for government reflecting the will of the people. However, as Scio Township Trustee Chuck Ream, who led the petition drive, points out.

"But the citizens of Ann Arbor have spoken just as clearly," he said. "And people who would like to be employed by the city should either listen to the voice of the people when they vote or they should seek employment ... in another community. If the people of Ann Arbor didn't speak clearly yesterday, then I don't know what it takes." .

I guess we have to accept these little setbacks along the way but as JRR Tolkien once said, "Little by little, we will go far."