EFFORT UNDERWAY TO REFORM MARIJUANA LAWS

Hello, my name is Josh Montgomery and I'm the director of the
Coalition for a Safer Escanaba.

We are circulating a petition to get our LLEP initiative question on
the November ballot. LLEP stands for Lowest Law Enforcement Priority.

This initiative would amend the city charter making use and
possession of 1.1 ounces of usable marijuana by a person 21 or older,
the lowest priority of law enforcement officers in the city of Escanaba.

There have been many towns that already have passed such initiatives,
Seattle, Wash., being the first back in 2003. All the cities that
passed it report a drop in marijuana arrests. I know Marquette and
Kalamazoo are working on the same thing. People in Detroit will be
voting on legalizing the possession of one ounce ore less of
marijuana this November.

With the passing of our initiative we feel that public safety
officers will be able to save time and a lot of tax payers money.
Considering the current state of our economy and our city budget
crisis along with the fact that pubic safety gets over 10 percent of
our cities total budget, we feel this would be a great option to consider.

Not only will this free up police officers time it will also free up
the courts, the jails and the crime labs time and money so they can
work on solving more serious crimes, crimes where there are victims,
such as the child molester problem in our city!

To make it to the ballot we need 5 percent of Escanaba's 9,000 some
registered voters. Around 500 good signatures are needed by early
August to make it on the November ballot. Right now we have over 50
petitions out and we plan to have a voter registration drive and go
door to door. We feel there will be no problem getting the needed
signatures; so far the public has been very positive about the idea.

Anyone wanting to help please e-mail me at saferescanaba@yahoo.com.
All it takes is 10 friends to fill up a petition.

It's time for change, come be a part of history!

Joshua Montgomery

Escanaba