Pubdate: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 Source: Daily Tribune, The (Royal Oak, MI) Copyright: 2013 The Daily Tribune Contact: http://www.dailytribune.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1579 Author: Michael P. Mcconnell FERNDALE MAN PETITIONS FOR POT RIGHTS, BALLOT PROPOSAL Ferndale may once again be at the front lines of the battle to decriminalize marijuana. Photo provided A man smokes a marijuana cigarette. A Ferndale man has recently filed a petition to put a proposal on the November ballot giving voters a chance to decide on the issue of decriminalizing marijuana in the city. Pot advocates filed petitions Tuesday in Ferndale to ask voters in November to decriminalize pot in the city. "This is America and I feel like freedoms are being taken away from of us every day," said Andrew Cissell, 25, of Ferndale, who submitted the petition signatures at City Hall. "People are going to smoke weed if they want." The move is part of a statewide effort and activists said they also were filing petitions for ballot proposals to decriminalize marijuana in Jackson on Tuesday, and in Lansing by Aug. 6. A recent University of Michigan Dearborn graduate, Cissell said he studied finance and is involved in a legal marijuana-related business. Cissell said he collected about 600 petition signatures - nearly twice the 364 required to get the pot proposal on the ballot in Ferndale. Cissell was joined at City Hall by former Ferndale Mayor Craig Covey and longtime marijuana activist Tim Beck, who was a prime mover in the statewide Medical Marijuana act that Michigan voters passed in 2008. Beck is chairman of the Safer Michigan Coalition, a pot advocacy group that wants to eventually legalize marijuana. Voters are ready to decriminalize pot, he said. "Public opinion is far, far ahead of the politicians," said Beck, a retired executive from Detroit. "The goal is to ultimately legalize marijuana like they have in Washington (state) and Colorado." Beck said the group's strategy is to pass local initiatives to pressure state lawmakers in Lansing to pass House Bill 4623, which would decriminalize pot statewide. Decriminalizing pot would make possession of an ounce or less a civil infraction, similar to a traffic ticket, if the violator is 21 or older. Expect for medical marijuana patients and caregivers, possession of small amounts pot in Michigan is currently a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. "We want to decriminalize it like they have already done in Ohio and New York and more than a dozen other states so that it's the equivalent of a traffic ticket," Beck said earlier. "If these three initiatives pass in Ferndale, Jackson and Lansing, I think it will be the tipping point for passage of the bill in the (state) House." This is the 15th pro-marijuana ballot proposal that Beck has been involved in. He said he has helped local residents such as Cissell with technical and legal assistance to make sure petition drives are done properly. He was involved in passing pot decriminalization proposals in Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids and Ypsilanti in 2012, and in Kalamazoo in 2011. Ann Arbor voters passed a similar local ordinance back in 1973. "The best political poll in existence is an election," Beck said, "and politicians pay attention to elections." Covey has been a longtime supporter of marijuana legalization. He collected some of the petition signatures for decriminalization in Ferndale. Marijuana has been irrationally demonized by government and law enforcement officials for decades, Covey said. "This is a citizen-led, grassroots effort," he said. "Politicians are afraid of the issue but the people aren't. I think this will pass in Ferndale." Covey said marijuana criminalization costs millions of dollars each year statewide, tying up police and courts. "Law enforcement should be focused on crimes like burglaries and car thefts," he said, "not worrying about individual marijuana use." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom