Good questions all. They'll be addressed soon in another column.

People's initiative: Bringing medical marijuana to Michigan was the result of activists writing the proposed law and gathering enough signatures to put it on the ballot for a statewide vote. In short, it was a people's initiative rather than legislation from lawmakers. Well, here's another people's initiative that brought some populist justice to a pot arrest. According Montana's Billings Gazette, potential jurors staged a revolt in Missoula when the court tried to seat a jury to try a man for possession of about 1.5 grams of pot. The paper reported that one juror wondered out loud "why the county was wasting time and money prosecuting the case at all." The judge asked whether anyone else agreed, and five of 27 potential jurors raised their hands (several others had already been dismissed because they said they wouldn't convict). "I thought, 'Geez, I don't know if we can seat a jury,'" the judge said.

The judge called a recess and arranged a deal for the defendant to make an Alford Plea, which is a guilty plea in which the defendant does not admit to the act and maintains his innocence, but admits that the prosecution could probably prove the charge. The idea sounds crazy but there is a lot of legal stuff I don't understand. However, it's apparent that citizens are beginning to understand when enough is enough in the drug war.

> Email Larry Gabriel