LOCAL RESIDENTS FIRST TO SIGN PETITIONS TO PUT MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION ON
STATE BALLOT.

A group hoping to let Michigan voters decide whether to legalize home-grown
marijuana for personal use kicked off its petition drive Saturday night
with a concert and rally in Kalamazoo.

A few hundred people turned out at the State Theatre in support of the
Personal Responsibly Amendment - a proposed addition to the Michigan
Constitution that would allow people to grow pot for personal use at home.
The proposed amendment forbids growing the plants where they are visible or
accessible to children.

The group supporting the amendment is organizing a grass-roots campaign to
collect the 302,000 signatures necessary to put the amendment to a vote in
November.

If passed, the amendment would also change forfeiture laws to make proceeds
from asset forfeitures related to drug-, alcohol-or gambling-related
charges available only for personal-responsibility education.

Lisa Hughes of Mattawan was among the crowd signing petitions, picking up
literature and checking out merchandise at the event.

"I believe that marijuana should be legal," said Hughes, who said she has
smoked it on occasion. "People should be able to choose. An individual has
to be mature enough to handle it responsibly."

Leading the charge and standing out Saturday night amid dozens of tie-dyed
T-shirts was Gregory Schmid, an attorney who was wearing a sport coat and
said he was a Republican.

And, no, he was quick to point out, Schmid does not smoke "weed." He said
he even took a drug test to prove it.

"I don't want this for any personal reason," Schmid said. "This is a
freedom issue."

As an attorney who has handled drug-related cases, Schmid says, he sees
laws preventing drugs as far more damaging to freedom and the principles of
democracy than the drugs themselves.

Anyone over age 21 should be able to choose whether to grow and use
marijuana, just as they now choose whether to use alcohol, he said. The
amendment also allows marijuana use for medical purposes under a
physician's direction for those under age 21 if they have written consent
of a parent or guardian.

By making it legal for Michigan residents to possess up to three mature
plants, seedlings and three ounces of ready-to-use, home-grown marijuana,
Schmid and his supporters say, the black market in drugs will virtually
disappear.

Law enforcement resources now dedicated to stamping out dope dealers and
users can be reallocated for other uses, he said.

Schmid said he thinks marijuana only leads people to use other illegal and
more harmful drugs because it puts the user into an atmosphere that fosters
such progression as drug dealers seek to increase their take.

"They've made it illegal, so they put the people who choose to use it into
a black market situation," he said. "Mark my words, marijuana prohibition
is about to go on the ash heap of history, and it someday will be seen as
the McCarthyism of the '90s."

Kerry Smith, a member of the Libertarian Party who had an information table
at the event, said the beauty of the petition drive is that it takes
decision-making power about this issue out of the hands of politicians and
allows voters to decide its fate.

"If it fails in November, then we have a decision made by the people,"
Smith said. "If it passes, then we'll have to continue the fight because"
politicians will continue to fight any effort to legalize marijuana, he added.

For more informations about the Personal Responsibility Amendment campaign,
call (517) 799-4641 or visit the Web site www.ballot2000.net, where a copy
of the petition can be downloaded.