Recreational Marijuana Advocates Will Begin Collecting Signatures In Michigan, State Could See Tax Revenue It Desperately Needs

Michigan’s Board of State Canvassers approved the form petitions Thursday for two initiatives that would legalize recreational marijuana. Advocates in Michigan will begin collecting signatures from Michigan voters. WWJ Lansing Bureau Chief Tim Skubick said that it will be easy to find enough Michiganders ready for legalizing recreational marijuana to get the initiatives put on the ballot in 2016.

“The sponsors are very confident they can gather more signatures than needed to put this on the statewide ballot.”

Michigan has already legalized medical marijuana, but the state has endured significant bumps in the road over the interpretation of its Michigan Medical Marihuana Act since it was adopted. If the recreational marijuana supporters in Michigan manage to collect enough voter signatures on the petitions, the measures will be on the ballots across the state in November of next year. If the Michigan voters follow the state’s recent poll trends, then Michigan could be the next state in the Union to legalize non-medical cannabis use.

Of course, Michiganders wouldn’t see a statewide, free-for-all Hash Bash if the plant were legalized. The State of Michigan would create a regulatory board for marijuana. Only Michiganders aged 21 or older would be permitted to use the plant for their own enjoyment. It would be sold at retail outlets in commercial areas. Michigan lawmakers could tax the sale of the plant and collect some much-needed revenue, according CBS Detroit, which claims one of the initiatives for legalized marijuana is actually backed by a “Republican political operative working on the behalf of anonymous business interests.” The state could end up seeing as much as $200 million in annual revenue from the taxation of recreational-use marijuana.

Interestingly enough, according to the Detroit News, a Michigan nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency blamed a large part of the state’s yearly projected deficit on “an unexpected influx of $200 million in tax credits that profitable businesses have applied against their tax bills.” Meanwhile, Michigan lawmakers have drawn harsh criticism from some this week after the Michigan House approved a plan to get its roads back into shape. The plan included eliminating Michigan’s Earned Income Tax Credit, which has benefited Michigan’s low to middle-income working families. Eliminating the tax credit that helps the state’s poorest working families would, according to MLIVE, save Michigan around $115 million a year, which is, of course, much less than the state could potentially bring in from marijuana taxation.

A CBS News ongoing survey shows (as of Thursday evening) that 96.1 percent of readers would like to see pot legalized. A mere 3.9 oppose legalizing marijuana for recreational use. In September of 2013, 47 percent of Michiganders polled supported recreational marijuana legalization. In January of this year, half of those polled supported the plant’s legalization. Michigan is quickly hopping on board with legalized recreational pot after an arduous few years dealing with medical marijuana politics and fallout.

Late last year, Michigan made national headlines after Sergeant Timothy Bernhardt, a police officer with 22 years of experience, committed suicide. He and other officers apparently erroneously believed that the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act protected the possession and use of medical marijuana butter. However, they faced criminal charges after a postal worker’s tip led to the discovery of the edible form of medical marijuana in the officers’ possession. According to advocates, Sergeant Bernhardt’s suicide will always remain one of many tragedies in the history of Michigan’s marijuana saga. As unexpected as it may have seemed only a few years ago, Michigan could end up joining Washington, Colorado, Oregon, and the District of Columbia in permitting the recreational use of marijuana only a couple of years after dealing with the suicide of one of its seasoned police officers over medical cannabis edibles.

The Inquisitr wants to know: Would you support legalizing marijuana in Michigan for recreational use?

[Photo via Pixabay]