Michigan voters have cast their ballots and decided that they want access to legal cannabis in their state.
Early Wednesday morning results showed the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol’s (CRMLA) ballot initiative, Proposal 18-1 (Proposal 1) as passing 57% to 43% with 70% of precincts reporting.
“We did it,” wrote @regulateMI in a Twitter post on Tuesday evening. “Michigan is the 10th state to legalize marijuana for adults 21 and older!”
Proposal 1 will allow adults over the age of 21 to purchase and consume cannabis and cannabis products as well as grow up to twelve plants for personal consumption. The initiative limits the amount of marijuana that may be kept at a residence to ten ounces, requiring quantities over 2.5 ounces to be stored in locked containers.
The new law will create a state licensing system for marijuana businesses as well as allow municipalities to restrict or ban them.
Retail sales will come with a 10% tax which is to be used for the cost of implementing the law, clinical trials, schools, roads, and places that allow marijuana businesses. Tax monies will also fund research aimed at treating veterans and preventing suicides during the first two years of the Proposal’s implementation.
Several current criminal violations will also change from crimes to civil infractions under the new law.
The Proposal, which is set to go into effect ten days after the official declaration of the vote, cannot be vetoed by the governor and cannot be repealed or amended by the legislature without a three-fourths majority vote.
