Wichita considering request by marijuana proponents

Wichita marijuana proponents told the City Council on Tuesday that they’re launching another petition drive to relax penalties for pot possession, unless the council saves them the trouble.

This is their third try at cutting the penalty for simple pot possession by people over 21 to $50, with enforcement by citation rather than arrest. A version of that was approved by the city’s voters in 2015 but was overturned on a technicality by the state Supreme Court.

Because the concept has already been approved by voters, proponents Janice Bradley and Esau Freeman asked the council to negate the need for another petition drive.

“The best way to do this change is through the City Council passing a charter ordinance based on constitutional home rule,” Bradley said.

Mayor Jeff Longwell said later that he’d prefer the state take action, and the city has urged the Legislature to consider the matter.

But, he said, “It doesn’t look like the state is going to take this up anytime soon at this point, so we may very well come out with some ordinance of our own making.”

At present, the maximum penalty for a first-time marijuana conviction is $1,000 and six months in jail. A second offense could bring a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

The number of signatures to put an initiative on the ballot is based on the votes cast in the last municipal election. This year, proponents would need 9,522 signatures, more than three times the 2,881 needed when they started three years ago.

But the advocates say they’re also better at signature gathering than they were then.

“We will work on that,” Bradley said. “We have six months.”

They plan to start soon, gathering signatures outside the polling places for next Tuesday’s special election to replace Rep. Mike Pompeo.

The group’s first petition fell a few names short of forcing the measure to a vote. The second petition got enough names, and voters approved the initiative.

But the state government challenged it and the Supreme Court struck it down over a technical issue in the original petition filing.

“I would publicly apologize to you as well as to the public that we made the mistake this last time not to turn in the full wording of the ordinance,” Freeman said. “We will not make that mistake this time.”

Advocates interested in circulating petitions will have a campaign kickoff meeting at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Peace and Social Justice Center, 1407 N. Topeka.

This story was originally published April 4, 2017 at 10:40 AM with the headline "Wichita considering request by marijuana proponents."