The Detroit branch of the NAACP is joining law enforcement officials and health professionals in Michigan in urging a "no" vote on Proposal 1, which would legalize recreational marijuana in Michigan.

With 14 days to go to the Nov. 6 Midterm election, the opposition to Proposal 1 has started its final campaign push.

"Prop. 1 supports the very issues that are harming our neighborhoods and killing our families," said Kamilia Landrum, deputy director of the Detroit branch of the NAACP, at a press conference Tuesday at the Detroit headquarters of the opposition campaign, Healthy and Productive Michigan.

"This ballot initiative adds another layer to the systematic racism that has held our communities of color -- particularly African Americans -- in bondage for hundreds of years," Landrum said.

To date both sides of the recreational marijuana issue have led relatively quiet campaigns, with many joint appearances at sponsored debates and community town halls. So far 68 county sheriffs have joined the opposition, as well as health officials.

"How do I tell young people about the dangers of drugs if it's now legal?" said the Reverend Horace Sheffield of the Detroit Association of Black Organizations at the press conference.

Sheffield said he's a recovering addict, and the first drug he tried was "a puff of marijuana."

Proposal 1 would legalize marijuana for recreational use for adults 21 and over, and would require the state to launch a licensing system for retail stores and their supply chains. Both marijuana flower and products made from extract like edibles, lotions and vape cartridges would become legal. The state estimates tax revenue would bring in about $287.9 million by the time the industry matures in 2023.

Tuesday afternoon, Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) -- a national nonprofit that is bankrolling the entire opposition campaign in Michigan -- wasted no time in getting to his racial disparity argument.

"If you want rich white guys to sell pot gummy bears in your community, you should vote for this initiative," Sabet said at the start of his remarks.

Hours earlier at the Healthy and Productive Michigan headquarters -- in an unmarked office near Seven Mile and Greenfield -- paid workers were on the phones for the campaign.

Sabet rallied the canvassers Tuesday by telling them they were saving lives.

"This isn't just a political campaign," Sabet said to the group of African American canvassers. " This is about the health, safety, and prosperity of your own communities."

African-Americans are disproportionately arrested for marijuana possession in Michigan. Black men age 18 to 24 are almost 10 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana offenses compared to white women that age, even though marijuana usages rates between the two groups are only fractionally different, according to an MLive analysis of Michigan State Police data.

"I actually don't care if an adult smokes a joint in their own home," Sabet said. "This [Proposal 1] is for commercial sales, for advertising and promotion."

Sabet said the big business interests behind tobacco and liquor unfairly target communities of color -- and claimed Proposal 1 would fuel the same kind of predatory behavior from the marijuana industry.

"There's this initial thinking -- maybe we should legalize because we don't want people to go prison, maybe we can make some money off of it," Sabet said to MLive.

But Sabet said he's seen minds change -- especially in "urban" areas like Compton, California -- when they hear SAM Action's message that rich, white people are the ones that make money off of legal marijuana. Sabet also leans heavily on reports out of Colorado, where the recreational marijuana program hasn't solved racial disparities in arrest rates -- and where there's been a spike in marijuana arrests among African American and Latino teens.

However, marijuana arrest rates have fallen among all races and age groups in Colorado since legalization in 2012, according to the Colorado Department of Public Safety.

In addition to urban communities, Sabet said they're targeting families with children and "soccer moms."

"We were approached by a lot of people in urban Detroit where people said, 'Please don't neglect us. Please don't make this a suburban campaign, please don't make this only for the politicians,'" Sabet said to MLive. "So we answered that call."