Pot Drive Not Ended By Ruling

Although the Board of State Canvassers Wednesday rejected the technical legal form of an initiative petition aimed at legalizing marijuana in Michigan, backers of the petition campaign claim the rejection is now meaningless. Their reason is that the rejected petition is no longer in circulation anyway. It was replaced around mid-May with a new one after organizers of the Michigan Marijuana Initiative, which is sponsoring the campaign, learned that the petition should specifically state the proposed constitutional change in order to be acceptable. Thus, in its revised form, the petition seeks to add a new 24th Section to Article 1, the Declaration of Rights, which would in essence give the use, possession and cultivation - but not sale - of pot approval under the state constitution. Ann Arbor attorney W. Perry Bullard, who is representing the MMI in the campaign, said the new petitions are presently in circulation and their form will meet the requirements of the Board of State Canvassers. He explained most of the questionable petitions were recalled two weeks ago when State Atty. Gen. Frank Kelley wrote a letter to Bullard stating that the petition must declare exactly how it will change the present constitution. It was on this point that the canvassers turned down the old petition. In a separate statement, Linda Ross, co-coordinator of the Michigan Marijuana Initiative assured the "people who are circulating the petition that the petition does meet the guidelines set by the attorney general and is corrected as designated by the Board of Canvassers. "It was an old petition," she continued, "that the ruling was made on. That petition was withdrawn from the streets two-and-a-half weeks ago. There are no more of them around." She added that there are now 30,000 of the new, corrected petitions circulating in Michigan. It takes the signatures of some 265,000 registered voters to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot. The deadline for submission of signatures for the November election is July 10, but backers could continue collecting signatures for two more years and submit the measure for the 1974 ballot if they did not collect enough for the 1972 election. Bullard said the marijuana legalization drive was started by the Rainbow People's Party and that the Human Rights Party had provided office space. The proposed addition to the constitution says: . . "No person in the state of Michigan who is over 18 years of age shall be subject to arrest or criminal prosecution or be denied any right or privilege for any of the following actions: "Possession of marijuana; personal use of marijuana; cultivating, harvesting drying or processing of marijuana; in other ways preparing marijuana; or transporting marijuana for personal use This provision shall not be construed to repeal existing legislation or limit the enactment of future legislation prohibiting persons under the influence of marijuana from operating machinery or vehicles." Bullard said a similar signature drive was successful in California and that voters there will settle the issue in November. He said drives also are under way in some other states.