Hundreds of people visited Lansing on September 7, protesting draconian measures by the state. Only two weeks ago, our legislators passed a law to close, Michigan dispensaries. The next day state police began raiding dispensaries and confiscating supplies, even before people could shut their businesses down. Licensed, Michigan people are treated as criminals. Known users are harassed. They make a very public presence for anybody they visit; putting yellow, crime scene tape across the property, and surrounding places with Cadillac Escalades, after flying helicopters with machine guns mounted on them.
People told their stories to the media and anyone who would listen. There were lots of professional people who came to visit. They talked about how Marijuana helps them manage illness and pain. Some people spoke about abandoning some addictive medications such as, Vicodine , Demerol, and Morphine. Nurses and doctors spoke about patients being turned away from hospitals and doctors, for using marijuana. People talked about spending years in prison for smoking a joint, or having possession of an ounce. Hundreds of licensed users have been and are being harassed by police who have obtained their license records.
The state of Michigan spends 1.4 million dollars a year in each county, searching for marijuana. They call it, Homeland Security. The money given to the state for license fees, is used to fly airplanes and helicopters around the back yards of known licensed people. People need to know that. Police have openly admitted to some people that what they are doing is illegal. They say that if people complain, they will harass them more. Intimidation is illegal in, Michigan, but it is OK for police to stock known licensed users.
People complain that they are treated as third class citizens. Companies will not hire known users. They want tax breaks, they want our Social Security and Medicade taken from us. They want our children to fight oil wars for them. Corporations want us to buy all drugs from them, except for illegal drugs – those drugs are smuggled by their mules (migrant workers) through their subsidized corporate farms – across the country.
We voted for medical marijuana. Legislators are passing laws to end it. They are stipulating that it should be grown in ways to make growing it too expensive. Our legislators are spending more time passing laws against marijuana, than they spend on the budget.
Dispensaries should be allowed to dispense medical marijuana. The state did nothing to assist people needing supplies. Licensed people needed to obtain medication. They formed dispensaries, while patients traded products. The state passed a law to prohibit sharing. They want to revoke all driving licenses for licensed users. In other words, it is the state’s intention to starve and intimidate users into submission.
CBS Evening News disclosed an investigation on hospitals, doctors, and nurses who routinely bill Medicade for procedures they do not perform. They overcharge for services. Some offices were designed solely to defraud, Medicade. They say that three-hundred, million dollars have been stolen from our Medicade fund. That is an understatement. As much as fifty percent or more of our Medicade is used for fictitious billing.
Our governor complains that, Social Security and Medicade are wasted expenditures. He wants us to invest in packaged IRA’s that are designed to lose money. That is supposed to be our retirement, on broken government promises and nothing else. He has the financial backing of drug companies to help pass his laws. This is a great time for corporations. It is a horrible time for people who are looking for work. Our governor wants to cut unemployment benefits. He is ending welfare in Michigan. The money saved to cut those programs will be given to the rich. He wants to eliminate our middle class and have only super rich, and dirt-poor people.
I believe our governor is heading in the wrong direction. Working class people should be assisted to start businesses in garages and small shops. We should give subsidies to small companies. Corporations contribute to ninety percent of all pollution. They spread chemicals on their corporate farms, that leach into our water supplies and pollute our air. They are subsidized to grown corn for ethanol , while growing less edible corn and raising corn prices for the working poor. They spread toxic chemicals, known to cause cancer. The Cheney Loophole protects them from prosecuton.
The future of Michigan needs to be decided by its citizens. We need to put the facts on the table and take the money and face out of our election process. Transparency in government is a necessity. We need to sign petitions to give our legislators a fifty percent pay cut. We need to cut medical benefits for them and make them use the same plans they draft for us. We need to cut lavish retirement packages that benefit whole families of politicians. The governor needs to be visiting mayors and township supervisors, to work with them and assist their needs. The governor needs to start with the poor areas and work to help them. We cannot end programs that help people, when there are no replacement programs in place. Our Michigan people deserve better. A governor should be a person who works directly with our citizens.
President Obama said he would like to reward companies that hire veterans and wounded veterans. He did not mention people who have been fired and laid off, of marijuana users. If President Obama is going to do that, it should be stipulated that these people should be hired for a period of not less than twenty years, and that they should pay benefits. That way companies will not be rewarded for having a revolving door. Most of Obama’s programs have failed because of corporate theft of services. I believe our president has some good plans, but they have been muddied by corporate Republicans. We need to send our Republicans a message in our upcoming Presidential election, and get rid of them all. We need to put all new people in our offices. Working class people built this country, not corporations. Working class people deserve to run this country.
One way to create jobs in Michigan is to abandon impersonal computer programs and replace them with live employees, creating an employment office and ending the unemployment office. Privatization of employment offices (manpower) works well for corporations. They hire people for ninety days and fire them without benefits. There are no retirement packages. There are no full time jobs for most, Michigan citizens. If we are going to change it, we need legislation that ends discrimination and promotes full time jobs. Privatization of government services is a waste of taxpayer money. It lowers our living standard and promotes poverty. The only war that ever made sense was the war on poverty. Our Michigan mission needs to be, the focus on jobs and medical benefits for everybody. The future of Michigan depends on our working class.
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