COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri marijuana advocates whose efforts to put a legal pot initiative on the November statewide ballot fell short are now pursuing a decriminalization law in Springfield.

Show-Me Cannabis organizers say they’re targeting the city seen as conservative to demonstrate what they call broad support for new drug laws.

The pro-pot group says it plans to use a professional signature-gathering firm.

They need 2,101 signatures required for the fall ballot in Springfield.

In 2004, Columbia voters approved a similar law that classifies possession of 35 grams of marijuana or less as a low-level misdemeanor offense.

A 2008 effort to decriminalize marijuana in Joplin fell 531 names short, and the statewide measure failed to garner the roughly 144,000 voter signatures needed before an early May deadline.