MARIJUANA-ENFORCEMENT MEASURE WON'T BE ON KALAMAZOO'S 2010 BALLOT

KALAMAZOO - Kalamazoo city voters won't be deciding a marijuana
enforcement ballot proposal until at least November 2011, after a
petition initiative to put it to a vote in November fell more than
700 signatures short.

Kalamazoo City Clerk Scott Borling said Friday fewer than five of
every dozen signatures appearing on the petitions were from Kalamazoo
residents who are registered to vote here.

Petitions circulated by the Kalamazoo Coalition for Pragmatic
Cannabis Laws sought to change the way small amounts of the drug are
dealt with by city law enforcement. The amendment proposed making
possession of 1 ounce or less of marijuana by those 21 or older "the
lowest possible priority" for law enforcement.

The coalition submitted 4,776 petition signatures on Aug. 9. Borling
said 2,017 signatures were from registered city voters, according to
those who examined the petition signatures.

Borling said 2,752 signatures were needed to place the City Charter
amendment proposal before voters in November.

"There were signatures from people who listed Florida addresses,"
Borling said. "The circulators can still go back and get more
signatures, but the deadline for having it on this November's ballot
has already passed."

Borling said the 2,017 certified signatures remain valid for one year
from their filing date. The coalition can continue to collect valid
signatures, Borling said, but state law says the earliest the measure
could go before voters is November 2011.

If the amendment came before voters and was approved, possession of 1
ounce or less of marijuana by those 21 and older in the city would
become the "lowest possible priority" for law enforcement.

When told of the news, Alexander Lanning, a member of Students for
Sensible Drug Policy at Western Michigan University and an organizer
of the petition drive, was stunned.

"Man, I thought we were golden," he said. "I'm kind of speechless
right now. I really don't know where we go from here."

Said Martin Chilcutt, political adviser for the coalition: "I'm
shocked. I'm speechless. But I'm not surprised because of the quality
of the signature gatherers."

Coalition members had said several times that the amendment would
pass easily. The petition drive began in the spring, but efforts
stepped up significantly in the summer when volunteers started
getting paid $1 per signature collected. The coalition had planned on
gathering many more signatures than was required in order to ensure
there was enough signatures if some were declared invalid.

About $4,500 raised from private donations was spent on the effort.

Borling said there were no apparent signs of wrongdoing on the petitions.

"It's not very often that it happens that way," Borling said, when
asked how often petition initiatives fall significantly short of
collecting enough valid signatures.

John Targowski, a Kalamazoo attorney who provided legal advice to the
coalition but was not involved in the petition drive, said he was
surprised by how many signatures the petition drive fell short.

"I don't know what went wrong," he said. "Some of the people could
have been confused. 4,000 signatures was really ambitious. But the
language was pretty straightforward and we expected it to pass easily."

In spite of the setback, Lanning, a senior at WMU, vowed to work to
get the issue before voters.

"This is only going to get better in the future," he said. "This is
just one step backward."