By John Lindstrom
Publisher
Posted: April 24, 2013 3:28 PM

Wednesday’s announcement of legislation to make personal possession of no more than one ounce of marijuana a civil infraction draws a number of interesting comparisons to perhaps the most famous attempt the Legislature undertook on reducing penalties for marijuana, back in 1977.

Begin with an eerie similarity to the bill numbers. The measure announced Wednesday by Rep. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) is HB 4623.

In 1977, the bill that endured three votes in the House before it failed was House bill 4603.

The 1977 measure was also introduced by an Ann Arbor Democrat, then-Rep. Perry Bullard. Mr. Bullard was 35 the year his bill went through the process. Mr. Irwin is also 35, though he turns 36 later this year.

The current bill treats marijuana a tad more liberally than did the 1977 measure. The new HB 4623 makes personal possession of one ounce or less of marijuana a civil infraction with a $25 fine for the first infraction.

The 1977 measure kept possession a misdemeanor, but reduced the penalty to $100 with no jail time or criminal record.

The current bill has bipartisan support, with Rep. Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake) and Rep. Mike Callton (R-Nashville) as co-sponsors. Likewise, the 1977 measure had then-House Republican floor leader Bill Bryant of Grosse Pointe as a co-sponsor. And when the 1977 bill came up for a vote on two famous days in June 1977, one of the legislators supporting it was a Mt. Pleasant-area House member, then-Rep. John Engler.

The current bill does not change penalties for selling marijuana (that would remain a felony). So too did the 1977 measure not affect felony provisions for sale of marijuana. In fact, that difference between the use and sale penalties was employed by some critics in 1977 to question how police were to treat situations when they arrested someone buying and someone selling in the same transaction.

Much of course has changed since 1977. That year, the idea of liberalizing marijuana was still novel and frightening to many as America was still coming to grips with the drug war.

A generation later, some 17 states have lower penalties than Michigan for personal use. Two, Washington and Colorado, have legalized its use for small amounts. And Michigan now allows the use of medical marijuana.

Another change: there’s no smoking in the Capitol. Mr. Irwin does not have to worry about being hit with an ashtray as Mr. Bullard was by then-Rep. Rosetta Ferguson of Detroit. He accused her of lying in a statement she made on the House floor, prompting Ms. Ferguson to leap up, punch Mr. Bullard and then hit him in the head with the glass ashtray, accusing him of being a pothead. Mr. Bullard had, in fact, been photographed taking a toke during one Ann Arbor Hash Bash.

The 1977 bill passed 55-52 on June 28, 1977. The next day, there was a motion to reconsider, and after several emotional speeches, one yes vote switched and five yes votes sat out and the bill failed, 48-53. There was one more attempt that October to pass the measure, but again it narrowly failed.

Mr. Bullard continued to support liberalization, though he let others take up the fight in his later legislative years.

The fight took its toll on him, though. During one effort on a marijuana bill (not the effort in 1977) he was seen at a legislative party, clearly in his cups. “How ya doin’ Perry?” a colleague asked. “Ah, this pot bill,” Mr. Bullard muttered. “It’s turning me into an alcoholic.”