Grosse Pointe Park vote could ease marijuana law

July 14--Just outside Detroit, in a lakeside Eden of mansions, blue blazers and yacht shoes, Michigan marijuana advocates are testing the waters.

Since 2010, they've seen voters pass ballot proposals to ease marijuana laws in nine cities across the state. This year, they have similar measures headed to election ballots in as many as 18 other cities, from Oak Park to Onaway.

Now, they've trained their sights on one town they say could be the tipping point in Michigan's cannabis debate -- affluent and conservative Grosse Pointe Park.

"Frankly, Grosse Pointe Park is an experiment with us because we've never taken on this economic and cultural demographic before," said Tim Beck, 62, of Detroit, a retired health-insurance executive, who said he has spent $150,000 to bankroll many of the marijuana votes.

Although not everyone in Grosse Pointe Park is wealthy -- some streets near Detroit have modest homes and rental duplexes -- the median household income is about $100,000, according to the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments. The city of just over 12,000 residents was for decades predominantly Republican, but it's trending left; in 2008 Grosse Pointe Park voters gave a 52.8% edge to Barack Obama over Mitt Romney.

Still, if the pro-marijuana question makes the ballot this fall, and these Grosse Pointers pass it, it would mean that even professionals and corporate types are ready for dramatic change in how Michigan deals with marijuana, Beck said. His goal? To see cannabis users treated more like beer drinkers and less like criminals.

A nonprofit group that Beck co-founded, the , has a 100% success rate in elections, including wins last year in Ferndale, Jackson and Lansing.

"We're expecting that to continue," Beck said last week, as he and an assistant gathered the last of 622 petition signatures they hope will put the proposal on Grosse Pointe Park's November ballot. According to the Grosse Pointe Park City Clerk's Office, they needed 485 signatures of registered voters.

Many residents seemed too rushed to hear the marijuana spiel, some declined to sign and others were downright hostile, Beck said.

"But some people are very happy to sign this, and some even say thank you," said Eugene Telan, 33, of Royal Oak, a professional petition circulator who earns $2 for each signature.

On her way into the library, Tricia Hexter, 40, of Grosse Pointe Park said she planned to "listen to both sides" before voting. She signed the petition because "it's important that everybody has a voice," Hexter said.

In late June, Grosse Pointe Park police told Beck and Telan they'd have to leave the spot where they were gathering signatures outside the city's Ewald Branch of the Grosse Pointe Public Library, on East Jefferson near Alter Road. Beck's short walk to the Grosse Pointe Park City Hall turned up Mayor Palmer Heenan, a retired lawyer, who called the city's police chief to affirm their constitutional right to gather signatures on a public walkway.

That didn't mean they'll get a "yes" vote from Heenan, 92, who has been mayor since 1983.

"I think marijuana is very bad for people -- it disturbs their memory and reduces their IQ -- but if Mr. Beck wants to stand up for this, that's what America is all about," Heenan said.

Added City Councilwoman Laurie Arora: "It's unfortunate that our community has been targeted as a test case for this ballot proposal. As a councilwoman, mother and resident, this is not what I want our community to be known for."

The ballot question would amend the Grosse Pointe Park city charter, stripping it of its current ban on using marijuana for any reason, including medical marijuana.

The strategy of Michigan's marijuana advocates is to use local elections as a lever to pry action from recalcitrant state lawmakers or, failing that, to build voter support for a statewide ballot initiative, said Karen O'Keefe, director of state policies for the Marijuana Policy Project, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C.

"We're continuing to see dwindling opposition around the country to handling marijuana like alcohol," but Michigan is lagging other states in making statewide change, said O'Keefe, who grew up in Grosse Pointe Farms. There are 16 states that have decriminalized the simple possession of marijuana, making violations the equivalent of traffic tickets, "but Michigan isn't among them," O'Keefe said.

If voters pass the proposal in Grosse Pointe Park, that along with ballot-box wins for similar measures around the state might nudge Lansing lawmakers into action, state Rep. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, said Sunday.

Irwin's bill to decriminalize marijuana possession statewide has languished for 14 months in the House Judiciary Committee

"I think it would give my colleagues the confidence to say, this is safe ground -- people in our state want to have a conversation about a smarter approach" to marijuana, Irwin said.

Marijuana has made its way into the gubernatorial race.

Democratic candidate Mark Schauer said on Michigan Public Radio last week that he supported decriminalizing the possession of cannabis in Michigan and was even willing to consider its full legalization, as passed by voters in Colorado and Washington state.

Gov. Rick Snyder has repeatedly declined to comment on marijuana, saying his focus is on Michigan's economy.

Already, there are five Oakland County communities that have or likely will have proposals on ballots this year -- Berkley, Hazel Park, Huntington Woods, Oak Park and Pleasant Ridge. That has Berkley City Manager Jane Bais-DiSessa stunned at the prospect of change.

"I really hope that people will think about the consequences -- are you going to let your kids do this? What happens if people are driving (when they're) on marijuana?" Bais-DiSessa said.

Yet, similar questions faced policy makers and police when alcohol prohibition was repealed, said John Claxton, a 20-year resident of Grosse Pointe Park. In 1933, Michigan was the first state to ratify the 21st Amendment that repealed the prohibition of alcohol.

Claxton is director of the Ewald Branch library in Grosse Pointe Park, although he said he spoke about marijuana merely as a resident when he stepped outside the library last week to check on the petition circulators.

Marijuana seems headed for legalization, Claxton said.

"I don't have any desire to smoke it, but I don't see what the fuss is about. Just like with alcohol, people need to be educated," he said.

Contact Bill Laitner: [email protected]

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