A Livingston County Board of Commissioners subcommittee will vote on a resolution next week against the recreational use of marijuana.

The resolution, which will be heard by the General Government and Health and Human Services Committee on Monday night, is aimed against an initiative on the November ballot allowing the personal possession and use of marijuana similar to other states like Colorado and California. Currently only marijuana use for medicinal purposes is allowed in Michigan. The resolution cites what it says is (quote) “significant evidence demonstrating that non-medical or recreational use of marijuana has a profoundly negative impact on our youth, particularly teenagers.”

It goes on to detail statistics from Colorado that indicate a rise in school expulsions and marijuana-impaired driver related fatalities since that state legalized public use of the drug in 2014. The resolution then predicts that “increased consumption of marijuana would likely lead to higher public health and financial costs” while stating that “emergency room admissions for marijuana use now exceed those for heroin and are continuing to rise.” It ends by encouraging other entities to “oppose the recreational use of marijuana for general use including the adoption of similar resolutions in opposition to the general use of legalization of non-medical marijuana.”

The ballot proposal, which limits open usage to residents ages 21 and over, would legalize the possession and sale of up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana for personal use, while taxing its sale at 10% in addition to the state's 6% sales tax. (JK)