Pubdate: Tue, 11 Feb 2014
Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Copyright: 2014 Detroit Free Press
Contact: http://www.freep.com/article/99999999/opinion04/50926009
Website: http://www.freep.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125
Author: Bill Laitner, Detroit Free Press Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?275 (Cannabis - Michigan)

MAN BEHIND FERNDALE MARIJUANA PETITION CONVICTED OF FRAUD; ORDINANCE TO STAY

A 25-year-old man who circulated petitions last summer in Ferndale to
put a marijuana-legalization question on the ballot has been convicted
of voter fraud.

But the city ordinance he promoted and that voters approved in
November will stay on the books, despite charges by critics that
voters were misled, Ferndale City Clerk Cherilynn Brown said. Brown
said he had no comment on a pledge by the city's police chief not to
honor the new ordinance and instead to arrest anyone found possessing
marijuana.

The chain of events, each seemingly more ironic than the last, points
out the escalating confusion surrounding marijuana laws, echoing what
historians have said was a similar situation in the early 1930s as
Michigan and other states moved haltingly toward legalizing alcohol.

The conviction Friday of Andrew Cissell had cannabis activists
praising him this week, calling Cissell a pillar in a multi-year
campaign to pass such ordinances across Michigan. Former Ferndale
mayor Craig Covey hailed Cissell as a hero in the struggle "to end
prohibition of cannabis."

But in a saga of local politics loaded with ironies, none of Cisssel's
supporters are mentioning the longstanding vow by Ferndale's police
chief, repeated Monday, not to honor the new city ordinance and
instead to enforce state and federal laws against posssessing
marijuana. Nor are supporters revisiting the fact that Cissell faces
trial in April, and possible prison time, on four courts of selling
marijuana.

Cissell said he is sure that most folks won't mind his electioneering
peccadilloes and so he'll stick to his plan to run for state
representative in the district for Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge,
Huntington Woods and Hazel Park.

"I'm still aiming for politics -- I want to make a difference, to be
influential," he said. "But it would also be nice to have a stable
income," Cissell added. Members of the Michigan House of
Representatives earn $71,685 per year, according to the state
Legislature's web site.

Last summer, Cissell walked door-to-door in Ferndale, claiming on
petition forms that he lived in the city -- a requirement in the
Ferndale city charter for anyone submitting an election petition.
Several weeks after he submitted the petitions at City Hall, before a
jubilant crowd of marijuana activists, Cissell was arrested for
selling marijuana in Detroit, after which investigators then found
persuasive evidence that he lived in Oak Park, Ferndale police Chief
Tim Collins said.

"He lied to get push his agenda and, in doing so, tainted the entire
process for that election," Collins said. Ferndale officers won't
hestitate to arrest marijuana users because "when you put on the
badge, you say you're going to enforce all the laws, not just the ones
you think you should."  
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