CROWD RALLIES IN FLINT FOR LEGALIZED POT

FLINT - Flint could follow Detroit and Ann Arbor in symbolically legalizing
the use of marijuana for medical purposes, if leaders at a march and
festival Saturday in downtown Flint get their way.

Charles Synder III, 28, of Flint, chairman of the Flint Coalition for
Compassionate Care, said a drive to put the issue on the Nov. 8 ballot
could begin June 1. Synder said the group would have 60 days to collect
about 1,500 valid signatures in order to present the issue to voters in a
referendum.

"We think it will pass and hope it will open the door to bringing the
compassionate-care and sick-and-dying issues more before the public," the
University of Michigan-Flint junior said.

He and Brian Morrissey, 23, also a UM-Flint student, were designated as
petition leaders. Morrissey heads the Flint chapter of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and is a member of Students
for Social Change at UM-Flint.

About 60 mostly young people rallied at the downtown University Pavilion
for music, speeches and support of liberalizing marijuana laws. They later
walked eight blocks to the City Hall lawn for more talks and to announce
the petition drive. The total of valid signatures needed is based on the
number of people who voted in the last Flint mayoral election.

Detroit in August became the first city in Michigan to authorize use of
marijuana for medical purposes. It was approved by a 60 percent majority,
said Tim Beck of Detroit, executive director of NORML in Michigan.

It was followed in November in Ann Arbor, with a 74 percent approval, Chuck
Ream, a 33-year kindergarten teacher and five-term Scio Township elected
official, told the placard-carrying audience on the City Hall lawn.

Beck, who said similar petition drives will be launched this year in
Ferndale and Traverse City, said the law would authorize marijuana to be
prescribed for medical purposes.

Morrissey, who carried a makeshift sign declaring "No more drug wars," said
authorities are not telling the truth about marijuana use.

"If people want to smoke it, they should have the right to," he said.

A group based in Sterling Heights has started a petition drive to legalize
marijuana in Michigan. It wants the drug treated the same as alcohol, a
move supported by Mike Whitty, a University of Detroit-Mercy labor law
professor who spoke at the rally on behalf of the Drug Policy Forum of
Michigan.

"Lots of arthritis sufferers might use whiskey or vodka to medicate the
pain as a home remedy," he said. "Marijuana also is a home remedy."