CHESTERVILLE — Proposals to legalize limited amounts of marijuana will be on warrants in at least three small Maine communities when they hold town meetings next month.

“This is a political action,” said David Wilkinson of Chesterville, one of the rural towns that will vote on the issue. “The idea here is to make a precedent, like the nuclear freeze movement in the ’80s.”

Even though towns could not ban nuclear weapons, several voted on proposals to establish nuclear-free zones.

Proponents “used the town meetings effectively,” said Wilkinson, a member of a group called Maine People for Hemp. “There were ordinances and resolutions against nuclear weapons.”

Maine Attorney General Michael E. Carpenter said the proposed marijuana ordinances also will have no legal teeth because they cannot pre-empt state and federal laws.

Voters in the rural towns of Chesterville, Solon and Starks will be asked whether criminal sanctions should be removed for cultivation of up to two pounds of marijuana. The proposal also asks whether helicopter surveillance by drug agents should be banned in their communities.

The proposals were added either through petition drives among voters or by getting permission of town officials.

Wilkinson said he knows of at least a dozen Maine towns where supporters of similar proposals are trying to get them on town meeting warrants.

The two-pound limit was chosen because it represents the volume to supply a family’s needs for a year, said Wilkinson. He also says the figure is a “benchmark” for prosecuting for trafficking in the state.

Wilkinson, 47, said the ordinances are a result of what he sees as militant police raids on marijuana growers during the past year. He said repeated, low-level flights by drug-agents’ helicopters are a waste of taxpayers’ money.

“We in central Maine are under a severe threat. We are being attacked by military forces. Last year 34 homes of Maine people were seized, $1.1 million worth of property.”

The deputy director of the Maine Bureau of Intergovernmental Drug Enforcement disagrees with Wilkinson’s figures.

David Kurz said BIDE last year made 351 marijuana trafficking arrests and seized six homes for marijuana trafficking. He said the owners of those homes “weren’t growing pot for their personal use.”

In one of the homes, more than 750 plants — enough to require a truck to haul them off — were seized, said Kurz, whose agency combines resources and information of state, county and local police forces.

“Marijuana is a small part of what we do. It’s an important part of what we do, but we are not targeting people for personal use. I don’t condone it, and we will arrest and prosecute them if discovered.”