MARIJUANA BACKERS TO WEED OUT TRASH ON HIGHWAY

ROSEVILLE -- Michigan's Adopt-A-Highway program has a new partner: the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Signs went up last month on the median of Gratiot Avenue at 12 Mile and 14
Mile roads announcing that the pro-pot organization's Macomb County chapter
will work for free to pick up litter on that two-mile stretch of road.

Donna Paridee, a New Baltimore homemaker and mother of three, said her
chapter's cleanup campaign is, in part, an effort to counter the stereotype
that NORML is made up solely of pot-smoking burnouts who live to get high.

"We are your neighbors," she said. "We have jobs and families like everyone
else."

The Michigan Department of Transportation, which runs the cleanup program,
doesn't make judgments on groups, spokeswoman Brenda Peek said.

"We don't get involved in that. The main thing is that they're working to
help beautify Michigan," she said.

Allen Johnson, president of the Crime Prevention Association of Michigan,
which opposes marijuana law reform, said, "We can be sure all the marijuana
butts will be cleaned up on that road."