NEW MEANING TO 'GRASS-ROOTS'

The next initiative petition to hit the streets of Toledo could be
circulated by Sandra Coty, who wants to establish the Ohio Marijuana
Party - and no doubt bring a whole new meaning to the phrase "high
voter turnout."

She showed up last week at the Lucas County Board of Elections to file
paperwork to establish a political action committee which will allow
her to raise money to pay for the work of circulating petitions - and
growing her "grass roots" organization.

"We have a lot of people in jail for a long, long time, who are
nonviolent," she said. "I am trying to make it not a criminal offense
to possess marijuana, so we don't have our jails full of nonviolent
people.

"The law basically needs to be worked with," she said. "I feel like
our narcotics control system is sidetracked on marijuana, while crack
is destroying our cities. [Police] might have a chance of defeating
crack if they didn't waste time on marijuana."

Ms. Coty has coordinated her efforts with the U.S. Marijuana Party,
which has added a page to its Web site explaining how Ohioans can sign
or circulate petitions.

"The [Marijuana Party] seeks to remove all penalties for adults 21 and
over who choose to consume cannabis in a responsible manner," states
the group's online mission statement.

"We demand an end to the war on productive and otherwise law-abiding
citizens by the powers that be who claim to protect us.

"We demand the right to use any medication our health-care providers
and we deem fit without government interference.

"We demand the release of all people imprisoned on marijuana charges
and that their criminal records be expunged.

"We demand that all property seized in marijuana raids be returned to
the rightful owners at once," the statement continues.

Will they next demand munchies at the polls?

The Ohio Marijuana Party must collect at least 33,563 valid signatures
from registered voters in Ohio, which amounts to 1 percent of the
number of people who voted in the last gubernatorial election,
according to the Ohio Revised Code.

It has been done before. The Natural Law Party and the Libertarian
Party both qualified as official political parties in Ohio in 2000.

But both parties' candidates at the top of the ticket failed to meet
the state's requirement that they receive at least 5 percent of the
vote in the general election in order to remain an unofficial party.
Which means that, if they want to regain official party status, they
must again go through the signature gathering process.

The last minor party to win official status in Ohio and retain it in
an election was the Reform Party in 1996, which ran Ross Perot as its
presidential candidate. He won 10.6 percent of the vote.

However, the 1998 Reform Party candidate for governor, John Mitchel,
failed to win 5 percent in the general election, knocking the Reform
Party off the ballot.