This article was originally published on the Marijuana Patients Organization site on August 15, 2013.
Does it even surprise us any more? Do you even get mad or shocked when you open the paper each morning and read about another town, politician or judge that restricts the rights of “newly freed” medical marijuana patients.
The headline this morning, “Jackson, MI Ordinance Restricts Medical Marijuana Use in Homes”.
What will it be tomorrow? What judge will decide to infuse his beliefs into this act and further restrict the rights of us out-of-control patients?
Essentially the city of Jackson, MI (ilegally) decided to further restrict access to patients and caregivers. The story got me thinking, did African-Americans face the same challenges after the Civil War? Of course they did. Jim Crow Laws and other norms slowed the freedom of these “freedmen”.
In 1865, after the Civil War, many southerners created the Black Codes, rules that kept freedom from former slaves, ensuring the status quo would stay in tact. Let’s examine some of the southern codes and see if they relate to us patients in 2013 Michigan.
- In South Carolina, for example, a special license and certificate from a local judge attesting to a freedman’s skill had to be obtained in order to pursue work in any occupation other than in agriculture or domestic work. In Michigan we empower judges to decide the validity of patient status and humiliatingly place their doctors on trial
- Slaves had few legal rights, in court their testimony was inadmissible in any litigation involving whites.
- Residency within towns and cities was also discouraged. Local ordinances in Louisiana made it almost impossible for blacks to live within the towns or cities. Jackson and Wyoming, MI for example.
- Blacks could not own firearms.
- In Mississippi, for instance, they were restricted from renting or leasing any land outside of cities or towns and black ownership was left up to local authorities.
- And be it further enacted , That every black or mulatto person who shall come to reside in this state with such certificate as is required in the first section of this act, shall, within two years, have the same recorded in the clerk’s office, in the county in which he or she means to reside, for which he or she shall pay to the clerk twelve and an half cents, and the clerk shall give him or her a certificate of such record. Michigan patients must register with the State every 2 years, despite the fact no other controlled substance requires patient licensure with the State government.
- And be it further enacted , That no person or persons residents of this state, shall be permitted to hire, or in any way employ any black or mulatto person.
- If any freedman, free negro, or mulatto, convicted of any of the misdemeanors provided against in this act, shall fail or refuse for the space of five days, after conviction, to pay the fine and costs imposed, such person shall be hired out by the sheriff or other officer, at public outcry, to any white person who will pay said fine and all costs, and take said convict for the shortest time.
- Extra tax dollars were assessed to blacks that were to go to a fund that would assist poor freedmen, however monies ended up in the general fund and often never funded the needs of the poor.
- No person of color shall migrate into and reside in this state, unless, within twenty days after his arrival within the same, he shall enter into a bond with two freeholders as sureties.
Many Michigan medical marijuana cases, judges are barring defendants from telling the jury that they possess a marijuana card or any discussion.
Casias V WalMart. Employer can fire medical marijuana patients. Casias had brain cancer at time of termination, never consumed on-the-clock and had an exemplary work history
The State of Michigan, with a $10,000,000 surplus, dropped the reduced-fee-program for low-income patients, though the statute states otherwise.
While the Michigan Marijuana Act recognizes the rights of out-of-state patients, the Courts have stated otherwise, despite the clear language in the act.
Just because the face of the oppressed has changed, the play book appears to have remained exactly the same. They call this a war on drugs? I only see one side fighting, that is a slaughter. Sympathizers, please send help!