Pot-signature drive kicks into gear w/ links Sensible Sentencing Initiative info, audio, video & petition language

By Dave Woods

dwoods@joplinglobe.com

Four months after Kelly Maddy stood on the sidewalk outside Joplin City Hall, flanked by supporters of his effort to decriminalize marijuana use in the city, the campaign is kicking into high gear.

Maddy, president of the Joplin chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, spent several hours Sunday in front of Dillons grocery store, soliciting signatures for the Sensible Sentencing Initiative. He met with a couple of less-than-friendly responses.

Jerry Creech, 69, said the idea of decriminalizing possession of marijuana in Joplin is a no-go for him.

“It’s against the law,” he said. “It has no purpose. It just leads to the next step. ... All drug laws should be tougher than s---.”

Another shopper, Casey Weathers, 27, wouldn’t sign the petition either.

“I believe that it’s a gateway drug that leads to harder things, particularly with young kids,” Weathers said. “It opens a doorway that doesn’t need to be opened. I think that is stupid.”

Since announcing the campaign on Sept. 22, Maddy and his pot proponents have collected about half the signatures needed to put the issue before voters in November.

“Right now, we are right around 2,700 rough signatures,” Maddy said. “We are just starting to verify the signatures we have collected with Newton, Jasper County and Joplin voter lists. I think we are well on our way to putting this on the ballot as long as we keep up the momentum.”

Maddy said the group will collect more than the number needed because signature-validity rates hover around 55 percent.

City Clerk Barbara Hogelin has estimated that the group will need close to 5,000 signatures of registered Joplin voters to get the initiative on the ballot, but the exact number will not be known until after April’s municipal election.

Maddy attributed some of the success in gathering signatures so far to training provided to the organization’s volunteers.

“At our meetings that we hold biweekly, we walk through typical rebuttals that people would give you, like role-playing,” he said. “We teach people how to present themselves respectfully and professionally, because this is a stigmatizing issue, and we don’t want people going out there being totally unprofessional and being counterculture.

“A lot of people have turned away from this issue because of that.”