Pubdate: Sat, 21 Jan 2012 Source: Detroit Free Press (MI) Copyright: 2012 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 LEGALIZE IT, DON'T CRITICIZE IT, MARIJUANA PROPONENTS SAY They wore suits and ties and said they hope to raise $1,000 apiece from 1,000 people -- $1 million dollars -- while gathering 322,609 signatures by July 9 as the first step toward legalizing marijuana in Michigan. At a news conference Friday at Roberts Riverwalk Hotel & Residence in Detroit, a dozen members of the Committee for a Safer Michigan announced the kickoff of their effort to put their legalization question on Michigan's November ballot. "The time has come to end prohibition of cannabis in Michigan," said lawyer Tom Lavigne of Grosse Pointe Park, coauthor of the ballot language. The group said it expects legalization to create jobs in a new industry, allow law enforcement to focus on violent crimes, develop a new source of tax revenue for the state and take the business aspects of marijuana away from organized crime. Committee members said polls show Americans increasingly favor easing laws against marijuana, although drug-abuse prevention groups steadfastly oppose it. "We say no to legalizing marijuana," said Judy Rubin, executive director of the Tri-Community Coalition, a group that works to end youth substance abuse in Berkley, Huntington Woods and Oak Park. "Do we really want more harmful substances for our youth? We're already doing a pretty poor job with alcohol," she said. Detroit police spokeswoman Sgt. Eren Stephens said the department would adapt to legalization "if it's handled in an appropriate way, and this is what the people want." A marijuana bust Thursday in Detroit netted 800 large pot plants with a street value of $1.8 million. Secretary of State spokesman Fred Woodhams said the Board of State Canvassers approved ballot language for the legalization effort Friday. That means that if the 3-month-old Committee for a Safer Michigan gathers enough signatures, November ballots will ask Michigan voters whether state residents 21 and older should be allowed to possess and sell the drug for "religious, medical, industrial" and other uses. "Michigan led the nation in repealing prohibition of alcohol and now we can lead the nation in repealing the law against marijuana," said the campaign's director, Matt Abel, 53. The group held the news conference in a hotel that once housed the research laboratory of the defunct Parke-Davis pharmaceutical company, Abel said. Parke-Davis used to manufacture medicinal potions of marijuana, or "tinctures of cannabis," in the complex when marijuana was legal "and carried in every doctor's bag," he said. Abel and others said the group was pushed to try for full legalization of marijuana because law-enforcement authorities, led by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, restricted medical marijuana users' access to the drug. Schuette's office in Lansing had no comment Friday. More Details: Energy initiative gets the go-ahead, too The Board of State Canvassers approved Friday the wording of a ballot initiative that would raise the state's renewable energy standard to 25% by 2025. A coalition called Michigan Energy, Michigan Jobs backs the initiative. Supporters of the energy initiative and the marijuana initiative have until July 9 to collect 322,609 valid signatures for each and file the petitions with the Secretary of State. If the petition drives are successful, voters would decide the issues in the Nov. 6 election. If approved by voters, the initiatives would amend the state constitution. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.