Forget patchouli-soaked treatises on civil liberties, or the “stock du jour” featuring eternal jam sessions in farmers’ fields. The latest campaign to change Maine’s marijuana laws – the Maine Marijuana Policy Initiative – talks more Brooks Brothers than Birkenstock.

In three towns – Sumner, Farmington and Paris – MMPI petitioners have secured a spot on the upcoming town meeting warrant for an unique ordinance to make marijuana laws within each community’s boundaries the “lowest law enforcement priority.” (This would apply to adults, only.)

Though legally problematic, the ordinance and MMPI are nothing to giggle about. Jonathan Leavitt, the executive director of MMPI, lives in Sumner. “This is a place to start,” he said about the petition drive in his hometown. “Even if [the ordinance] is not perfect.”

Leavitt’s spiel on the MMPI is polished and intelligent. He explains the ordinance language is a placeholder that – once enacted – can be tailored to the community. It shouldn’t be a burden, he said, adding the MMPI is uninterested in forcing their views on reluctant towns.

For a state whose marijuana advocates make more headlines for their legal troubles than politics, the MMPI has a slick – and under-the-radar – campaign going in rural Maine. Few knew of the organization’s lobbying efforts until Leavitt rose on Monday to speak to selectmen in Sumner.

The MMPI has a fair chance of success, as well, as it was a citizen initiative in 1998 that led to the enactment of Maine’s medical marijuana law. A companion effort to the MMPI is also soliciting signatures to alter the medical marijuana law to create a state-sanctioned marijuana distribution system for patients.

Lynne Williams, a Bar Harbor attorney and an MMPI advisory board member, said the state needs to make the medical marijuana law more practical, and criticized a 2000 state task force for failing to recommend a method to deliver marijuana to patients eligible to use it. It’s a valid argument.

Citizens of Maine petitioned to enact the law, and the Legislature did fail in its effort to implement it. If either of the recently defeated taxation referendums were treated similarly, howls of injustice would been heard from Kittery to Fort Kent. The medical marijuana law – as a citizen initiative – should be treated the same.

If Maine’s going to have any law, it should try to make the law relevant.

De-prioritizing ordinances are not unique, Williams added, and has been considered for other laws, such as immigration. She also admits the MMPI ordinance has implementation issues, with the best strategy likely being a city-by-city or agency-by-agency approach.

Leavitt, however, said there is a “whole groundswell” of support for MMPI in rural Maine, and points to the success of his petitioners. All MMPI wants, Leavitt said, is for the ordinance to be voted so “democracy can happen.” The voters now have the final say.

But regardless of outcome, the MMPI is fielding an impressive and professional grass-roots effort.