The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Monday, September 25, 2017 — 3A
October 9, 2017
for this.”
The initiative allows people aged
21 and over to purchase and possess
up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana or 15
grams of marijuana concentrate
and grow up to 12 marijuana plants
in their homes for personal use.
If passed, municipalities would
be permitted to ban marijuana
retailers and businesses within
their
jurisdictions,
and
public
consumption and driving under the
influence of marijuana would be
forbidden.
If the initiative makes it onto the
ballot in 2018, Hovey feels confident
it will pass. National support for
recreational marijuana is at 61
percent, according to a CBS poll
from April of this year, and Hovey
says the numbers in Michigan
are about the same. A Michigan
Daily poll of 71 randomly selected
students found that 72 percent of
respondents would support such an
initiative, with 13 percent opposed
and 15 percent unsure. 96 percent
of respondents said they supported
medicinal
marijuana,
with
4
percent unsure.
Hovey said the group’s primary
motivations for pushing to legalize
recreational marijuana are the
ineffectiveness
of
the
current
marijuana laws and the resources
wasted on enforcement of these
laws.
“We firmly believe that, just
like with alcohol, the prohibition
of marijuana has been a massive
failure,” he said. “One, it hasn’t
stopped people from using. Two,
it unnecessarily is a waste of law
enforcement resources and it puts
tens of thousands of people into
the criminal justice system every
year for using what is essentially a
plant that has been found to be less
harmful than tobacco, less harmful
than alcohol.”
Fifty-nine percent of respondents
to the Daily’s survey said they had
used marijuana for recreational
purposes at least once in the past.
The same percentage –– though not
necessarily the same respondents ––
said the legalization of recreational
marijuana would not increase their
likelihood of using. Thirty-one
percent said it would, and 10 percent
said they were unsure.
LSA senior Enrique Zalamea,
president
of
the
University’s
chapter of College Republicans,
said he supported the legalization
of recreational marijuana both for
ideological and practical reasons.
“My
main
reason,
coming
from a conservative background,
in supporting recreational use
is mainly because I don’t believe
that the government should tell
individuals what they can and can’t
do in certain regards, especially if
this is a plant that has been used for
medical purposes,” Zalamea said.
“There’s not very much scientific
background that it does cause heart
attacks or cause all of the different
medical complications that people
make it out to.”
Additionally, he said, the state
could save a substantial amount
of money if it did not have to
enforce the current prohibition on
recreational marijuana.
“There’s such a huge cost that’s
incurred when you try and police
marijuana and enforce the illegal
aspect of marijuana. We could
use the kind of money that states
spend on enforcing small amounts
of marijuana to keep real criminals
in prison, for infrastructure, for
education.”
And
funding
infrastructure
and education is precisely what
the proposal would do. In addition
to the state’s 6 percent sales tax,
there would be a 10 percent excise
tax levied on the sale of marijuana.
Thirty percent of the revenue from
that tax would go to counties and
municipalities
with
marijuana
retailers, 35 percent would go to
the state’s school aid fund for K-12
education, and 35 percent would go
to the state’s transportation fund,
which funds repairs of roads and
bridges.
Though passage of the law
would be a radical change for most
of the state, marijuana possession
has been decriminalized in Ann
Arbor since 1972. Public Policy
senior Rowan Conybeare, chair of
the University’s chapter of College
Democrats, said she thinks the
disparity
between
Ann
Arbor
and the rest of the state, and the
discriminatory enforcement of the
law, is unfair.
“It’s
a
low-level
drug.
It’s
decriminalized in Ann Arbor ––
you get a $25 fine and that’s it,”
Conybeare said. “And it’s crazy
that in other places people are
getting arrested and incarcerated.
I think it’s also important to look
at the racial disparities. We’re
destabilizing these people’s lives for
a low-level crime when other people
are just getting off with it.”
Rabhi
agreed,
adding
the
illegality
of
marijuana
pushes
people to use it in less-than-safe
conditions.
“People use marijuana now. The
prohibition on pot is not working
in the way that people are thinking
it’s working,” Rabhi said. “What
it’s doing is pushing people into the
shadows who are going to be using
marijuana anyway, which can lead
to unsafe conditions for marijuana
usage. By bringing it out of the
shadows, we can make sure that
people are using safe quantities,
that what they are using is as pure as
possible and as low of a health risk
as possible.”
Though the ballot initiative
appears to be on the brink of
success, at least in terms of clearing
the bar of required signatures, it
isn’t without opposition. Keep Pot
Out of Neighborhoods and Schools
is a coalition that emerged to oppose
the initiative. Gary Gordon, an
attorney for the group, did not
respond to requests for comment.
At a May meeting of the Board of
State Canvassers reported by the
Detroit News, however —where
the wording of the initiative was
approved by the board — Gordon
spoke in opposition to the bill’s
provision allowing homegrown
marijuana.
“They don’t have to be licensed
and they are not taxed,” he said.
“There’s not regulation at all on
that.”
According to a press release
from
the
group,
they
are
“committed to making certain
every
citizen,
especially
our
kids, are protected from the
unregulated
proliferation
of
pot being made available across
Michigan.”
PETITION
From Page 1A
have considered it, but I just
thought that was the best way at
the time.”
According to Austin McCoy,
Michigan Mellon Humanities
Postdoctoral
fellow,
tweeting
pictures of racially charged flyers
found on campus is just what
you shouldn’t do –– a lesson he,
too, learned the hard way after
posting pictures of racist flyers he
found.
“We posted them on social
media, mostly as a way to raise
awareness of what’s going on.
Like, ‘This happened, here’s
proof.’ But then, three hours, I
just started getting all kinds of
nasty tweets that were either
reinforcing the messages on
the flyer, or just attacking me
personally,” McCoy said. “But
then I was like, ‘Okay, I see what
they’re doing. They’re basically
using us trying to raise awareness
around this to basically hijack it.
They’re trying to demonstrate
what they’re doing through what
we post.’ And that’s when I was
like, ‘Okay, we just can’t reproduce
any of their fliers online.’ “
And the public incidents of
racism on campus have only
grown
more
frequent
since
students returned to campus.
Days before school commenced,
racially charged writing was
found on the Rock. On Sept. 17,
racial slurs were found written
on the dorm name tags of
several Black students in West
Quad. Hours earlier, graffiti was
found on a mural downtown.
During a protest of the incidents
Wednesday
night,
a
man
observing got out of his car and,
after shouting profanities and
racial slurs at students, got into a
physical altercation with at least
one student.
The 24-year-old man, who
was not affiliated with the
University according to Diane
Brown, Division of Public Safety
and Security spokesperson, was
arrested for disorderly conduct
and
later
released
pending
warrant authorization.
“When the investigation is
completed, it will be submitted
to
the
Washtenaw
County
Prosecutor’s Office for review
and
authorization
of
any
charges,” Brown wrote in an
email interview. “That should
take a few days to a few weeks.”
But more often than not in
these incidents, the perpetrators’
identities
go
completely
unknown.
Though
DPSS
opened an investigation into
the vandalism at West Quad,
nothing so far has come of it ––
perpetrators have not been found
for any of the racially charged
graffiti, posters or emails this
year or last.
Investigations were opened
into some other incidents as
well.
When
an
anonymous
source sent out a series of
emails to Computer Science and
Engineering
undergraduate
students, threatening to kill
Black
and
Jewish
students,
and “spoofing” the emails to
make them appear to be sent
by a University professor, DPSS
opened an investigation to find
the source, partnering with the
FBI.
“Spoofing
incidents,
particularly with email, can
be very complex and difficult
to investigate,” Brown wrote.
“Often
these
investigations
require
the
involvement
of
federal partners to work with
foreign governments to follow
the international trail.”
Sol Bermann, the University’s
interim
chief
information
security officer, agreed on the
difficulty of catching the people
responsible for emails like the
ones that were sent.
“It is very difficult to catch the
perpetrators of these sorts of acts
because of the wide availability
of anonymous IT services, like
email,” Bermann wrote in an
email interview.
Bermann explained how the
University goes about finding
and fixing holes in its online
network.
“The
university
routinely
monitors
and
responds
to
reports of new vulnerabilities
along with information from
intelligence sources and the
U-M IT community,” Bermann
wrote.
“We
determine
the
risk of any vulnerability that
could contribute to a serious
IT security incident, looking at
factors such as whether exploit
code
is
available,
whether
exploits are occurring, if U-M
systems are at risk, and more.
Alerts, advisories and notices
are then sent to the IT Security
Community and other IT groups.
Ultimately,
online
security
begins with every student, staff
and faculty member.”
The DPSS-FBI investigation,
however, remains open. For
Thomas
and
many
other
students, that fact doesn’t inspire
confidence in the ability of the
University to protect them from
such attacks.
ONLINE
From Page 1A
has been serving the University
since 1982. In 1992, it became
the University’s official retailer,
taking over a space in Yost Ice
Arena.
M Den owner Scott Hirth said
they are currently working to
further expand their retail space.
“We’ve been doing this a long
time and we’ve been trying to
address all parts of the Michigan
market,” Hirth said. “We just
were able to take over the space
above the Victors Collection, so
there’s about 4,500 square feet
that is under construction right
now that is going to become a new
expanded women’s department.”
Hirth says this new space should
be completed by homecoming
weekend on Oct. 27 and will be
revolutionary to the collegiate
apparel market for women.
“It’s going to be the biggest
women’s department in all of
college campuses,” Hirth said.
“It’s
the
women’s
segment
of the market that, frankly,
manufacturers
haven’t
done
a good enough job on. That’s
changing, and it’s not as good as
it needs to be yet but it’s certainly
moving in the right direction.”
The M Den has also recently
begun to bring in bigger brands,
including the University’s switch
to Nike and Pink by Victoria’s
Secret, the newest addition.
“The key driver to us doing
that expansion is the arrival of
Pink,” Hirth said. “For college-
aged women, that brand is highly
sought after. And if you’ve seen
the product, it’s great product.”
“It’s gonna be like nobody has
seen before,” Hirth added.
The M Den is not the only
retailer conscious of the failure to
provide equal quantities of sports
apparel to women. A League of
Our Own, a company founded by
LSA sophomore Gabrielle Gedeon
and
Engineering
sophomore
Lauren
Reynolds,
produces
University-inspired athletic hats
that are designed specifically for
women.
“I created a brand of hats
because I realized that there is
such a demand for ball caps for
women and there aren’t really
well-fitting
hats
out
there,”
Gedeon said. “It’s a relaxed fit, it’s
not as structured as a man’s hat.”
Gedeon and Reynolds were
roommates last year at South
Quad, where the idea initially took
off.
“I never used to wear hats
until I saw this lady come in with
her big box of hats,” Gedeon said
describing her first encounter with
Reynolds. “She got me a Michigan
hat and I’m obsessed with it, and I
wanted to create my own. I knew
what people were looking for.”
A League of Our Own is not
just a hat company. According to
their website’s mission statement:
“Baseball caps are usually made
for the male audience, A League
of Our Own has tailored hats
just for women. Our feminine
design starts with college women
who are in a position to evoke
change. We strive to influence
and empower our community to
create the lives that they want to
lead.”
Reynolds added their focus is
to empower women and disrupt
the male-dominated realm of
sports.
GAMEDAY
From Page 1A
that would require a $5 student
membership fee each semester
in order to provide funds for
the
scholarship
Leadership
Engagement
Scholarship,
Joe
Shea, former CSG communications
director, expressed his support for
the resolution.
“The idea behind this resolution
is one of solidarity,” Shea said
in January. “As students, we
understand how expensive it is
just to go here … I try to remember
that for some people at this
university, it is simply not possible,
and that is where something
like the Leadership Engagement
Scholarship comes into play.”
This $5 fee faced some backlash,
however,
as
several
students
and administrators felt it was
contradictory to the scholarship’s
purpose. When the resolution
was originally introduced, Andy
Snow, former Rackham student
representative,
articulated
his
displeasure with the idea of a
student fee.
“At the end of the day, I don’t
care that it’s generally going to
help students who need money —
I see the student fee as basically
a regressive tax for students the
most, in general, and I do find it
massively, massively insulting that
we just act like financial aid covers
it,” Snow said in January. “People
take out loans and pay, not only
that fee, but finally pay back quite a
bit when they finally get the money
to do it, so without reducing where
people pay, I will not be able to
support this.”
Those
organizing
the
scholarship hope to have its funds
available by the fall of 2018. These
funds, however, will no longer
come from the student fee. Griggs
stated while this method has been
discontinued,
fundraising
and
advocacy events will continue to
be utilized to raise both the monies
and advocacy.
“In
the
past
we’ve
done
fundraising on campus,” she said.
“We participated in Giving Blue
Day and that was really successful,
and we’ve also done fundraising
and
received
donations
from
alumni, students, people who
were heavily involved in student
organizations on campus while
they were students here. We use
a plethora of channels to increase
funding for the scholarship.”
As an endowed scholarship,
one with large contributions and a
permanent establishment, Griggs
foresees a long future of success
in
helping
students
achieve
their goals through leadership
and campus involvement. She
also thinks having students at
the forefront of the scholarship,
specifically
by
spreading
the
word and helping to organize
fundraising,
the
scholarship
will be one that will continue to
provide assistance for those who
need it most.
At the end of the 2016-2017
school year, and at the end of
Schafer and Griggs’ terms as CSG
President and Vice President,
Schafer, in an interview with the
Daily, spoke of his pride in the
initiative and his optimism that
its success will continue to affect
students in a positive way.
SCHOLARSHIP
From Page 1A
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