PETITION FOR MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION RECYCLED

Last year, supporters of legalizing marijuana didn't collect enough
signatures to get a measure on the 2000 ballot. This year, armed with a
larger and wiser group of volunteers, they're trying again.

Saginaw attorney Gregory Schmid, the leader of the Personal Responsibility
Amendment effort, began collecting signatures last weekend for a 2002 ballot
measure.

If the proposal gets on the ballot and voters approve it, anyone over 21
could buy the drug without penalty, and adults could grow small quantities
of marijuana in their homes. Michigan residents also could use marijuana for
medical purposes.

Passage would make Michigan the first state to allow recreational marijuana
use. Eight states already allow marijuana use for medical purposes.

Including recreational marijuana use could doom the proposal, said Chuck
Thomas, a spokesman for the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project in
Washington, D.C.

"Voters, according to most public opinion surveys, have a much higher
support for medical marijuana rather than non-medical marijuana," Thomas
said.

"If the voters really have the opportunity to think about and hear the
issues, I'm confident that they would support this particular initiative.
But will people have that opportunity?"

Schmid believes frustration with the country's expensive drug war could
persuade many voters to pass the measure.

"We had to make a choice: Do something or do nothing. So we decided to be
inclusive about this whole issue and take the next step," Schmid said.

Last year, Schmid collected only about half of the signatures necessary to
get the measure on the ballot. He was working with a small, unexperienced
group of volunteers who tried to collect most of the signatures during
winter.

This year, Schmid said, he already has 3,000 volunteers and is recruiting
more on trips to college campuses. Volunteers plan to collect most of the
signatures over the summer, he said.

Volunteers have collected more than 5,000 signatures so far, including from
many who attended last weekend's annual Hash Bash in Ann Arbor. The group
needs to collect 302,711 valid signatures by October for the measure to get
on the ballot.

Thomas and Schmid say lifting the ban on marijuana use would decrease crime
and addiction because people would not have to buy marijuana from dealers
who may introduce them to harder drugs. They also say police resources are
being wasted in the fight against drugs.

"This is not a way of coddling marijuana users," Thomas said. "It's a way of
better using our limited law enforcement. Do we want to be targeting rapists
and violent criminals or do we want to be targeting the 40-year-old man
sitting at home smoking a marijuana cigarette on a Friday night?"

But state Rep. Paul DeWeese, R-Williamston, said he is troubled by the
attitude that marijuana is a harmless drug.

"I've known quite a number of people that regularly smoked marijuana, and I
really am of the opinion that marijuana removes something that is essential
in the human person," said DeWeese, a physician. "Regular use of marijuana
takes away the ability to sustain a long-term, arduous effort toward a
significant goal."

DeWeese said he doesn't want to legalize recreational marijuana use, but is
open to the idea of allowing marijuana use for medical reasons.

"I am convinced that marijuana, from a medical perspective, does help many
patients," he said.

"So I don't have any problem saying, if the marijuana has real medical
value, maybe that's something we should be taking a look at."