[420 Girl]

A group that advocates for the decriminalization of marijuana sees the city of Kalamazoo as fertile ground in its push to liberalize marijuana laws in Michigan.

MINORML, the Michigan chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, is beginning to organize a petition drive to push for a local ordinance that would make the possession of small amounts of marijuana the "lowest possible priority" for law enforcement.

The ballot language has not yet been drafted, but organizers are hoping to have the issue voted on as early as November. If adopted, Kalamazoo would be the only city in Michigan to have such a law.

Ann Arbor has an ordinance that makes it a civil infraction to use or possess small amounts of marijuana.

"The government has no right to tell us what we can put in our bodies," said Steven Thompson, executive director of MINORML.

Organizers will have to submit a total of at least 1,273 signatures of registered city voters to the Kalamazoo city clerk by Aug. 14.

The issue would then go before the Kalamazoo City Commission, which would have 14 days either to adopt the ordinance or to put the question to voters.

Louis Stocking, 21, of Kalamazoo, is leading the petition drive.

"I'm sure we'll get enough signatures," Stocking said.

Capt. Joseph Taylor, commander of the Kalamazoo Valley Enforcement Team, which targets illegal drug use in Kalamazoo County, called the proposal "ludicrous."

"This is a silly idea," he said. "It's a roundabout way of circumventing the more difficult process of getting marijuana legalized."

"We shouldn't be prioritizing which laws we enforce and which ones we don't," Taylor added. "The law is the law."

Proposal 1, the new state law that shields people with certain debilitating diseases from criminal prosecution if they use marijuana to treat their conditions, passed in every precinct in the city in November.

Marijuana use and possession is still illegal according to state and federal law, however.

Taylor said marijuana is a gateway drug. He said the violence associated with marijuana dealing has increased over the past 10 years as drug dealers moved away from crack cocaine and toward marijuana because of the lower criminal penalties.

More than half of the drug arrests made in the city are related to marijuana, he said.

Greg Francisco, director of MINORML's Southwest Michigan chapter, said Kalamazoo was chosen for the petition drive because it is "a progressive city with motivated activists on the ground."

"Anyone who wants to use marijuana can already find it," Francisco said.

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