HILO, Hawai'i — The off-and-on political struggle over eradication and enforcement of anti-marijuana laws on the Big Island is moving to the fall election, when voters will be asked whether law enforcement officials should make busts of small-time marijuana users the county's lowest policing priority.

The proposed ordinance advanced by a group called "Project Peaceful Sky" — and ordered onto the ballot by a split vote of the County Council — would also prohibit the county from accepting any further state or federal money for marijuana eradication operations.

However, County Corporation Counsel Lincoln Ashida said the proposed ordinance to be placed on the ballot may be unenforceable even if the voters do approve it because it apparently violates the pre-emption doctrine arising from the U.S. and Hawai'i state constitutions.

That doctrine says legislative bodies such as the County Council cannot dictate to executive branch agencies such as the police and prosecutors how to run their day-to-day operations.

The initiative to de-emphasize marijuana enforcement appears to do just that, Ashida said, and he will ask the state attorney general's office to rule on whether the ordinance is legal if the voters approve it.

Marijuana eradication and police efforts to enforce marijuana prohibition have been perennial political issues on the Big Island, where the noise from low-flying eradication helicopters often infuriates residents in otherwise quiet rural neighborhoods.

POLICE OPPOSED

Arguably, marijuana use is more accepted in some Big Island communities than it is elsewhere in the state. The Big Island has by far the largest number of legally registered medical marijuana users of any county, and has long been home base for political activists seeking legalization of marijuana for medical, religious or recreational use.

Cannabis is also a significant part of the underground economy, with police seizing millions of dollars worth of marijuana plants last year alone.

Police and county Prosecutor Jay Kimura oppose the proposed ordinance. Police Maj. Sam Thomas, who oversees police operations in East Hawai'i from Volcano to Hamakua, said the proposed ordinance creates "gray areas" that will hamper police officers' anti-drug efforts.

"There is so much gray in there, and police officers, we don't do well in gray. We need to have a lot of black and white," he said.

The current proposal was advanced by Project Peaceful Sky, which has registered as a nonprofit and calls itself a "grassroots" organization advocating for the initiative.

The proposed ordinance would require that "the cultivation, possession and use for adult personal use of Cannabis shall be the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority for law enforcement agencies in the county of Hawai'i."

The proposal would apply to adult personal users on private property, with "personal use" defined as people who have less than 24 plants or 24 ounces of cannabis.

BALLOT ATTEMPT INVALID

Project Peaceful Sky needed to submit signatures of 4,848 registered voters to get the proposal on the ballot. Volunteers collected 4,954 signatures, but County Clerk Casey Jarman ruled that only 2,214 of those signatures were valid.

More than 1,500 of the initiative supporters could not be confirmed as registered voters, 200 other signatures were invalid because signers failed to list a home address, and nearly 1,000 gave addresses that did not match their voter registrations.

Rather than let the issue drop, the council last week voted 5-4 to accept the petition anyway and deem it sufficient to place the question on the ballot.

Councilman Bob Jacobson, who introduced the council resolution to put the proposal on the ballot, said he wants to see the issue put to a public vote. Jacobson said a variety of people told him privately they wanted to sign the petition, but were embarrassed or were afraid to sign for fear they would suffer repercussions at work.

"Personally, I just believe it needs to be done," Jacobson said of the proposed ordinance. "There are better, higher priorities for police than running around trying to find a few casual marijuana users."

Adam Lehmann, board director of the Peaceful Sky effort, said his group collected the nearly 5,000 signatures in about two months, proving there is significant support for the idea.

"People are really tired of seeing money misappropriated away from education and healthcare to fund a military-style war on a plant," said Lehmann, 30.

"It's clearly going to give law enforcement more time and resources to focus on serious crimes. It's going to provide lots of space in our prisons, it's going to help courts run smoother, and it's going to essentially save this county's taxpayers millions of dollars every year," because they will avoid the costs of strict marijuana enforcement, he said.

Lehmann, an organic farmer in Kalapana, said he smokes marijuana himself as a sacrament for religious purposes.

Thomas said his read of the proposed ordinance is that when police come across small quantities of marijuana, "it pretty much tells us we have to ignore it."

He said 24 marijuana plants might not sound like a lot, but fully mature plants cultivated by an experienced farmer can yield up to a pound of usable marijuana. With a street value of $6,000 per pound, that crop would be worth $144,000, and Thomas said it would be "pretty tempting" to cash in.

TOOL AGAINST METH

Many people don't understand that marijuana raids can be a tool police use to snare methamphetamine dealers or other kinds of criminals, he said. When police see pot plants growing outside a suspected meth dealer's home, they use that evidence to obtain a search warrant to look for harder drugs.

"In this case, if I wanted to use the marijuana as the basis for a search warrant, no, I won't be allowed to do that," Thomas said.

Another problem is the state and federal anti-marijuana funds are used for "demand reduction" programs such as DARE and youth athletic events as well as for eradication, he said.

Thomas said he doesn't know if the measure will pass, but "one would have to question why they couldn't even get 4,000 qualified people to sign the petition."

Jacobson said he isn't sure which way the November voting will go.

"If people work really hard and get the message out, it has some chance of passage," Jacobson said. "The real work really begins now to try to educate the voters and get them out to the polls in November."

"I've had many very conservative people who are just completely fed up with this helicopter war that's going on. Many sensible people have recognized that the drug war was lost on marijuana many years ago," he said.

The Big Island County Council voted to reject federal or state grants for marijuana eradication programs earlier this year and in 2000, but the eradication program continued. This year, the funding for eradication was included in the county budget.