GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The citizen initiative that put marijuana decriminalization on the ballot – and passed it with 58-percent support at the polls – claims that the city now is trying to thwart the will of voters.

But City Attorney Catherine Mish said Grand Rapids is just trying to separate felony cases involving marijuana from the misdemeanor offenses that would become civil infractions under decriminalization.

DecriminalizeGR held a press conference Monday, April 8, calling on Mish to withdraw a legal motion that it claims would block decriminalization. A hearing on the lawsuit filed by Kent County Prosecutor Bill Forsyth is scheduled April 24.

“The city executed a 180-degree reverse change in course,” said Jack Hoffman, DCGR’s attorney. “Nothing will have changed (if Kent Circuit Judge Paul Sullivan accepts the motion). The whole election will have been for naught.

“It’s a very inappropriate way to treat the citizens of Grand Rapids, in my opinion.”

RELATED: Grand Rapids marijuana decriminalization: Watch Mayor George Heartwell explain delay

DCGR claims that Grand Rapids wants Sullivan to declare that the city may not prohibit police from enforcing state marijuana law. Hoffman derided the city’s approach as making “a government of the people, by the city attorney, for the police,” and he urged public opposition in the name of safeguarding democracy.

“This is a very pro-police request,” Hoffman said. “She’s giving the police maximum power, even more so than the prosecutor asks for.”

Mish this morning said DecriminalizeGR’s allegations are “not true at all,” and that Grand Rapids still intends to implement decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana.

“(DecriminalizeGR) is starting to sound like they don’t think felonies should be referred (to the county prosecutor),” Mish said. “I don’t think that’s what they told voters before the election.

“We’re trying to implement what they said this was all about before the election. We’re trying to make a distinction between felonies and misdemeanors (which would become civil infractions).”

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