MARIJUANA ADVOCATES KEEP THE PRESSURE ON

DETROIT - Attorney and marijuana advocate Matthew Abel stood inside a
hotel located on the Detroit River and reflected back to the 1920s
when rum runners would smuggle booze into the United States from
Canada during Prohibition.

He and a group calling themselves the Committee for a Safer Michigan
are trying to end another prohibition - this time against marijuana.

"We are circulating petitions that would repeal prohibition of
marijuana for adults," said Abel, who works with Thomas Lavigne at
Detroit-based Cannabis Counsel.

The committee needs more than 333,000 signatures on petitions before
July 9 with the goal of amending the state's Constitution to legalize
marijuana.

Should enough signatures be obtained, Michigan voters would see the
proposal on the ballot in November.

The proposed amendment, which renders all anti-marijuana statutes
unconstitutional, will not apply to or change workplace or driving
issues regarding marijuana, organizers said.

In 2008, voters approved an initiative that spelled out how people
could obtain and use medical marijuana, but since then law
enforcement agencies have conducted raids and arrested many who said
they were caregivers and medical marijuana patients.

Michigan courts are still wrestling with issues surrounding medical marijuana.

Abel said the results of arrests and raids spurred the committee to
come together for change.

"We have a volunteer army upset about how the medical marijuana law
has been interpreted by the courts, and they're ready to move to the
next step," he said.

Asked how the committee would deal with the issue of marijuana being
regarded as an illegal, Schedule 1 drug at the federal level, a
position taken by law enforcement agencies, Abel said law en

forcement doesn't have the staff to deal with this matter.

"I relish the fight," he said.

"Are they going to put an FBI agent on every corner? Congress has not
been responsive. This is a first step to ending the federal prohibition."

Friday's press conference was held at the Roberts Riverwalk Hotel,
formerly the Parke Davis Research Laboratory, where cannabis
tinctures were developed and manufactured in the early 19th century,
organizers said. Several supporters spoke about the benefits they had
received by using marijuana.

Charmie Gholson, spokeswoman for the committee and the daughter of a
police officer, called the prohibition of marijuana a "failed public
policy" and that the sick and dying have been "targeted" by
government officials over the past few years in the fight against marijuana.

Legalizing the drug would "allow law enforcement to focus on violent
crime," she said.

Abel said the state's marijuana community backs the amendment.

Having legalized marijuana, he said, would be a "boon to the Michigan economy."

Lavigne, who co-authored the amendment wording with Abel, said people
were tired of "scare tactics" used by law enforcement over the past
three years.

"Truth is on our side," he said.

"This (marijuana) is a plant. Where is the harm in this?"

To learn more about the petition drive, visit www.repealtoday.org.