Pubdate: Tue, 01 Jul 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/find?275 (Cannabis - Michigan)

BERKLEY IS NEXT MICH. CITY EXPECTED TO VOTE ON EASING MARIJUANA PENALTIES

Volunteers who've walked the streets of Berkley for the last month
said Monday they plan to turn in about 700 signatures today aimed at
putting yet another marijuana-legalization question before yet another
city's voters.

By the time the door-to-door campaigns end, similar questions likely
will appear on ballots in nearly 20 communities around the state, from
Utica to the U.P., said leaders of Safer Michigan, a Detroit-based
nonprofit group coordinating the far-flung petition drives.

Campaigners said they're hard at work in Berkley's neighbors,
Huntington Woods and Pleasant Ridge. They expect that the three towns'
November ballots will ask residents: Should the city allow "the use,
possession or transfer" of up to 1 ounce of marijuana on private
property that is "not used by the public" by those 21 and older.

The same volunteers recently won a court fight with Oak Park to put
similar language on that city's Aug. 5 ballot. Hazel Park voters will
also see the question Aug. 5.

While Colorado and Washington State fully legalized cannabis, Ohio and
other states have taken a middle road by passing statewide changes
that ease penalties for possessing small amounts. In Michigan,
authorities including Gov. Rick Snyder have either declined to discuss
marijuana or been steadfast in maintaining the war aaginst drugs.
Those include Attorney General Bill Schuette and most members of the
Republican majorities in the state Legislature.

"That's why we're going from city to city, trying to make it
impossible for the people in Lansing to ignore this any longer," said
Tim Beck, 63, of Detroit, a retired health-insurance executive who has
bankrolled many of the petition drives.

When such local ordinances pass -- as they have in Detroit, Ferndale,
Lansing, Jackson and other communities -- local police chiefs
typically vow that nothing will change because they say their officers
will enforce state and federal laws against possessing cannabis.

But those planning to turn in petition signatures in Berkley,
including Debra Young, 56, of Ferndale said passing such ordinances
sends a message that the community wants police to put a higher
priority on other crimes.

"This is not how people want their tax dollars spent," Young
said.

Berkley Mayor Phil O'Dwyer, director of mental health services at
Garden City Hospital in Garden City, disagreed. Passing the ordinance
"would send a certain level of acceptance of marijuana" to young
people, said O'Dwyer, who counsels drug abusers in his practice.

"And there's a variety of things that might go with this (including)
the use of marijuana when driving," he said Monday.

Local ordinances that ease penalties for possessing marijuna already
are on the books in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Ferndale, Flint, Grand Rapids,
Jackson, Kalamazoo, Lansing and Ypsilanti.
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