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GROUP TARGETS CITY OF SUMMER MARIJUANA VOTE

Marijuana proponents are gearing up to get pot decriminalization proposals on ballots in about a dozen cities statewide this year, including one in Macomb 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.

One of those believed to be on the list is Utica.

Dave Faber, Utica police chief, is unfazed by the potential of marijuana in his city.

"Our department will enforce the federal and state laws as well as the ordinances of the City of Utica," he said.  "A well-known fact is that local ordinances cannot supersede state and federal laws.  Because of this caveat I believe the efforts of the Safer Michigan Coalition are misdirected and should be addressed at the higher level.  If and when Michigan changes the law to correspond with that of Colorado, and setting aside mine or anyone else's personal opinion, our department will enforce any law adopted."

Utica Mayor Jackie Noonan could not be reached for comment.

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 group's efforts 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 south Oakland County's Hazel Park, which like Utica is being targeted by the group, 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.