Pubdate: Wed, 19 Mar 2014
Source: Morning Sun (Mt. Pleasant, MI)
Copyright: 2014 Morning Sun
Contact:   http://www.themorningsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3938
Author: Michael P. McConnell
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?275 (Cannabis - Michigan)

OAK PARK, HAZEL PARK AMONG CITIES STATEWIDE TARGETED FOR POT 
DECRIMINALIZATION

Marijuana proponents are gearing up to get pot decriminalization
proposals on ballots in about a dozen cities statewide this year,
including Hazel Park and Oak Park in Oakland County.

The effort comes after the Safer Michigan Coalition successfully
passed similar proposals last year in Ferndale, Jackson and Lansing.

"Our goal is to create confusion and chaos between state and local
laws so our legislators in Lansing with step up to the plate and do
the will of the people," said Tim Beck, co-founder of Safer Michigan.
"Ultimately there needs to be marijuana legalization like they have in
Colorado, where it is legal and regulated."

An EPIC-MRA poll last year showed 65 percent of state residents
approve of marijuana decriminalization, according to Beck.

Beck, a Detroit resident and retired executive, said his group plans
to announce April 2 all the cities it will target.

Others on the list include Utica, Port Huron, Mount Pleasant and East
Lansing.

Safer Michigan organizers are lining up volunteers in each targeted
city to collect enough petition signatures to get the pot proposals on
local ballots, Beck added.

The efforts in Hazel Park and Oak Park will be to get the issues on
the ballot for the August primary election.

Beck said some state-office candidates are running in support of
decriminalizing or legalizing pot, including Andrew Cissell, who got
the issue on the ballot in Ferndale last year but was found guilty
last month of listing a false address on his petitions, a
misdemeanor.

Cissell, 26, also faces trial next month in Oakland County Circuit
Court on several felony counts of illegal delivery and manufacture of
marijuana. He is running in the August Democratic primary as a state
representative candidate for the 27th District, which includes Royal
Oak Township, Huntington Woods, Berkley, Ferndale, Oak Park and
Pleasant Ridge.

Cissell could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The decriminalization effort is different from the state medical
marijuana law passed in 2008, which allows registered patients and
caregivers to possess larger amounts of pot for patients use.
Marijuana decriminalization measures typically reduce possession of an
ounce or less of pot by adults to a civil infraction or make it legal.

However, state and federal laws still prohibit the non-medical use and
possession of any amount of marijuana. And that's where the confusion
and chaos Beck hopes to create for law enforcement comes into play.

In Hazel Park, Police Chief Martin Barner said local pro-pot ballot
initiatives cannot supersede state and federal law.

But he agrees with Beck about the outcome of such initiatives.

"I think this is all just a way to cloud the issue even more," Barner
said. "My personal opinion is either make it all legal or all illegal."

Barner said even medical marijuana has resulted in armed robberies of
caregivers at their homes in Hazel Park because they are allowed to
grow up to 12 plants each for as many as five patients.

About 17 states in the U.S., including New York, Kentucky,
Mississippi, Ohio and California, have decriminalized small amounts of
marijuana.

Voters will have the ultimate say on how or whether marijuana laws
change at the local, state and national levels, said Hazel Park City
Manager Ed Klobucher.

"Based on the results of the decriminalization ballot proposals in
other cities it appears attitudes about marijuana legalization are
changing," he said. "If they succeed in bringing a proposal to the
ballot in Hazel Park it will be up to voters on what kind of message
they want to send to Lansing."
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MAP posted-by: Matt