Michigan voters will not get to decide in the upcoming November election whether the state should establish a taxed and regulated cannabis market similar to what is currently underway in Colorado.
That’s because the Michigan Supreme Court said on Wednesday that it would not hear a case brought forth by MILegalize begging to have hundreds of thousands of signatures reinstated.
"The application for leave to appeal is considered, and it is DENIED, because we are not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this Court," reads an order signed by seven Supreme Court justices.
MILegalize filed an emergency petition last week with the state’s highest court in a last-ditch effort to get its proposal seeking to legalize recreational marijuana in front of the voters later this fall. It was the group’s only hope of revitalizing its campaign after a judge with the Michigan Court of Claims dismissed its lawsuit, earlier last week.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court’s refusal to listen to the complaint all but guarantees the issue of legal marijuana will not go before the Michigan voters later this fall.
Not surprisingly, though, attorney Jeff Hank, who serves as the chairman of MILegalize, is still not ready to go down without swinging one final haymaker at the system that has done its best to keep them down.
According to the Detroit Free Press, the group plans to petition the U.S. Supreme Court in hopes that it will overturn the decisions made by the lower courts.
But time seems to have run out.
Court clerks around the state have already started to finalize the absentee ballots in order to get them in the mail before the end of the month.
But organizers with the MILegalize campaign remain confident that there is enough time left to try to resurrect this dead horse.
