Recreational marijuana expected to be legal in Michigan by Dec. 6

WZZM-TV (Grand Rapids) | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Proposal 1: Michigan's marijuana ballot proposal in 60 seconds Marijuana legalization: The Michigan ballot proposal in 60 seconds

Recreational marijuana will become legal on the books in Michigan starting Dec. 6, according to an official with the Secretary of State office.

Fred Woodhams with the Secretary of State office in Lansing tells 13 ON YOUR SIDE, the State Board of Canvassers will meet Monday, Nov. 26 and the new law will officially take effect Dec. 6.

The law takes ten days after the election results are certified. But marijuana won’t be commercially available for sale until probably early 2020.

The Detroit Free Press reports this in part because the state must still put regulations in place and issue licenses for recreational sales. “It’s not going to be an earth-shattering change,” said Jeffrey Hank, the East Lansing attorney who was one of the leaders of the effort to get the legalization question on the ballot. But after certification, “Adults will no longer be arrested for simple possession and use of marijuana.”

The recreational proposal once certified will:

Allow individuals age 21 and older to purchase, possess and use marijuana and marijuana-infused edibles and grow up to 12 marijuana plants for personal consumption.

Impose a 10-ounce limit for marijuana kept at residences and require that amounts over 2.5 ounces be secured in locked containers.

Create a state licensing system for marijuana businesses, including growers, processors, transporters and retailers.

Allow municipalities to ban or restrict marijuana businesses.

Permit commercial sales of marijuana and marijuana-infused edibles through state-licensed retailers, subject to a new 10-percent tax earmarked for schools, road and municipalities where marijuana businesses are located.

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Proposal 1 was approved by voters in Michigan on the Nov. 6 election.

Michigan will become the 10th state in the nation and the first in the Midwest to legalize marijuana for recreational use, joining California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Colorado, Nevada, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine and Washington, D.C.

Some college campuses in Michigan have been reminding students that marijuana is still banned on their campuses.