Pubdate: Sat, 05 Oct 2002 Source: Salt Lake Tribune (UT) Copyright: 2002 The Salt Lake Tribune Contact: http://www.sltrib.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/383 Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1838/a03.html Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1099/a06.html Cited: www.mpp.org (Marijuana Policy Project) Author: Jimmy Boegle, Newsday Note: Jimmy Boegle is news editor of Las Vegas CityLife, a weekly newspaper. Original pubdate in Newsday (NY) was Sun, 30 Sep 2002. A few days before this article was published in Newsday, an updated statewide poll, the first in over a month, showed the public likely to vote favoring the 'Question 9' initiative by 56% to 43%. Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?163 (Question 9 (NV)) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?162 (Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/props.htm (Ballot Initiatives) NEVADA NOT THE FERTILE GROUND POT PUSHERS WERE SEEKING If you ask the folks from the Marijuana Policy Project why they chose to make Nevada the nation's first battleground in the war to legalize marijuana, you won't get a straight answer. "Nevada is the only state in the last decade that's enacted marijuana decriminalization legislation," says Billy Rogers, the man the Marijuana Policy Project sent to Nevada. He's referring to a move by the 2001 state legislature to make possession of an ounce or less of pot a misdemeanor. Until then, it was a felony to possess any amount. So, the marijuana advocates have come to a state whose pot laws were among the harshest in the nation less than two years ago. They must have been counting on Nevada's reputation as a libertarian-thinking, live-or-let-die, anything-goes state. Their reasoning is understandable. Nevada was the first state to give gambling a home, and look how well that worked out. Nevada's rural counties are the only in the nation to legalize prostitution, and Nevada has one of the nation's highest smoking rates. When the federal government wanted a place to dump its nuclear waste, Nevada was the only place seriously considered. Are you looking for a place to legally indulge all of your vices? Nevada's the place to be. Or, at least it used to be. Yes, Nevada still has the gambling, the prostitution, the smoking and, soon, the nuclear waste. But it also has a growing and increasingly powerful right-wing movement. And that is why the marijuana legalization effort will almost surely be voted down come November. Conservative groups once viewed as fringe have gained power, seemingly overnight. The right wing now controls the Republican Party in Clark County, the area around and including Las Vegas, where more than two-thirds of Nevada's population lives. The county Republican chairman, Steve Wark, has been doing his best to drive moderate-thinking or libertarian-minded Republicans out of politics. As an example, the party failed to endorse moderate Republican state Sen. Mark James for re-election; he ended up running for another office instead and is rumored to be considering a party switch. Not surprisingly, the marijuana ballot question has drawn the ire of some of these same right-wingers. Law-enforcement officials , led by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Detective Todd Raybuck and Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick, have spoken out strongly against the initiative, using the fact that the ballot question would legalize the possession of the equivalent of 60 to 120 joints. That's a lot of marijuana. And an initial endorsement by the Nevada Conference of Police and Sheriffs was reversed following a huge outcry from some law-enforcement officials and the resignation of the organization's longtime leader. Polls now show that the marijuana ballot question is doomed. July polls by the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Reno Gazette-Journal, the state's two largest daily newspapers, showed voters were evenly split. But an August poll by the Review-Journal, taken after the Conference of Police and Sheriffs debacle, revealed that 55 percent were opposed and 40 percent were in favor. The Marijuana Policy Project may have picked the right state to start its marijuana legalization effort. But it seems to have picked the wrong time. - --- MAP posted-by: Jackl