Lawmakers, officials urge Wichitans to vote no on marijuana ballot issue (VIDEO)

State lawmakers and officials gathered in front of the Sedgwick County Courthouse on Friday afternoon to urge Wichitans to vote no to reduced penalties for first-time marijuana offenders on Tuesday.

The ballot issue seeks to reduce penalties to an infraction with a $50 fine for first-time marijuana possession for those 21 and over and with less than an ounce.

Rep. Mark Kahrs, R-Wichita, Rep. Steve Brunk, R-Wichita, Corrections Secretary Ray Roberts and Department for Children and Families Secretary Phyllis Gilmore told the media that they did not support the ballot issue and focused their message on how they thought the measure would affect the community and families.

“The citizens of Wichita should weigh heavily the potential outcome of moving towards the decriminalization and eventual legalization of marijuana in our community and its negative impact on our children and communities,” Kahrs said.

No local law enforcement, city or county officials spoke at the event. Kansas Reps. John Whitmer, R-Wichita, and Blake Carpenter, R-Derby, also attended.

Kahrs cited a recent opinion by Attorney General Derek Schmidt that the ballot measure is “unlawful.” If the ballot issue passes, its future is unclear. Schmidt sent a letter to the city saying his office would file a lawsuit – presumably against the city – to enforce state law.

“The city of Wichita lacks legal authority to adopt this ordinance that clearly conflicts with state law,” Kahrs said. “Despite the Kansas Attorney General’s request that the city of Wichita withdraw this illegal referendum, and knowing that a lawsuit against the city of Wichita would follow if this referendum prevailed, the city of Wichita refused to take the necessary steps to prevent this illegal referendum from being placed on the April ballot.”

The Wichita City Council voted 6-1 in January to put the measure on the ballot after backers presented a petition with thousands of signatures supporting it. Council members could have adopted the change outright, done nothing or put it on the ballot.

Esau Freeman, an organizer for Marijuana Reform Initiative-ICT, which gathered signatures for a petition to put the measure on the ballot, called the legislators’ actions to urge voters to vote no a “united and vulgar display of power.” He noted that Sedgwick County Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman certified the petition and the city’s legal department cleared it to be put on the ballot as well, even though interim city attorney Sharon Dickgrafe had concerns about the conflict with state law.

Brunk said he and Kahrs had repeatedly tried to give the City Council “friendly advice” that the referendum was illegal, and said local petitioners should have gone to state lawmakers for change.

Freeman said his group has been trying to push this effort at the state level for the past five years, to no avail.

“I don’t know why they’re so afraid to hear from the citizens on this issue,” said City Council member Jeff Longwell, who is running for mayor and was one of the six council members who supported putting the measure on the ballot. “Let the people share their voice.”

“Usually, we’d love to know where citizens stand on every issue. It’s not feasible in government on every issue, but this election is going to have the same cost whether this was on there or not. I don’t understand the concern over allowing citizens that went through proper channels to voice their concern and give us direction. If we’re a representative form of government, you’d think direction would be a good thing.”

The other mayoral candidate, retired advertising executive Sam Williams, did not return calls for comment.

In a previous interview, Williams has said he would have intervened earlier in the petition process and urged petitioners to go to the state about their concerns. He said he would have also helped voice their concerns to state officials.

Gilmore, the Department for Children and Families secretary, cited the infant hot car death last summer where a foster father left a girl in a car up to two and a half hours while he was smoking marijuana. He said he thought she was inside the house playing with other children.

“The ballot question before Wichita voters is one step closer to decriminalizing marijuana, making it that much easier for these sorts of tragedies to happen,” Gilmore said.

“Marijuana is a gateway drug that leads to abuse. Children are at risk of coming into contact with the substances through inhalation, breastfeeding, picking it up in the home and ingesting it. It creates an unsafe environment. There is an association additionally between drug abuse and violence. Mothers who use drugs may prostitute themselves in order to obtain their drugs.”

Freeman said that while the event last summer was a tragedy, at least 30 children nationwide died last year in hot cars and marijuana wasn’t to blame in those deaths.

This story was originally published April 3, 2015 at 2:38 PM with the headline "Lawmakers, officials urge Wichitans to vote no on marijuana ballot issue (VIDEO)."