Pubdate: Sun, 20 Oct 2002
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
Copyright: 2002 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc
Contact:  http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/340
Author: Dick Polman
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?163 (Question 9 (NV))
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?168 (Lewis, Peter)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?162  (Nevadans for Responsible Law 
Enforcement)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John)

DRUG WAR'S NEW FRONT: BALLOT BOX

Nevadans To Vote On Legalizing Marijuana.

LAS VEGAS - The dawn sky above Sin City was streaked with pink as John 
Walters' bodyguards scanned the street for marijuana terrorists.

Satisfied that the perimeter was secure, they put the federal drug czar in 
his van. They were just being careful, an aide said. Their intelligence 
indicates that some Nevada freedom-lovers don't appreciate Walters' coming 
out here to inveigh against the current movement to legalize marijuana.

But because Nevadans might soon try to end pot prohibition - something that 
has never happened in America, not in 30 years of sporadic drug reform - 
Walters says that "it's my responsibility to push back. We can't allow 
major government institutions to become facilitators for drug-dealing and 
drug addiction."

Nevadans, who already treat most vices as revenue, are weighing a serious 
plan that a group bankrolled by insurance magnate Peter Lewis has put on 
the Nov. 5 ballot: Legalize adult possession of 3 ounces or less, and allow 
the state to grow it, distribute it, sell it and tax it.

Under state rules, a ballot item must pass twice to become law. This means 
that a yes vote on legalization would need to be repeated in 2004, but 
Nevadans have already approved the medical use of marijuana by saying yes 
twice - the second time, in 2000, by a larger majority.

Early voting in Nevada's elections began this weekend. And with money from 
Lewis and two other billionaire businessmen, marijuana initiatives are also 
on the ballot in Ohio (steering offenders to treatment, not prison) and in 
Arizona (reducing small possession from a felony to a civil fine).

Walters thinks this is dream-world stuff, "a 2 a.m. dorm-room 
conversation," but Nevada's polls are dead even - and not just because the 
state already hosts 214 medical marijuana patients. It's also because 
legalization advocates are painting themselves as wholesome Americans, not 
party animals anxious to put the Grateful Dead on the state seal.

They chose a mainstream name, Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement 
(even though no police agencies support them). They're championed by a 
Vegas assemblywoman who looks like a soccer mom from central casting. And 
they urge their followers to wear "business casual."

At a rally the other day, organizer Tyler Whitmire wore a nice pair of blue 
Chaps and pinned his ponytail under his cap. And when a security guard 
bellowed that some demonstrators were standing on private property, they 
nudged their shoes onto the sidewalk and genially cried out, "No problem, 
sir!... Thank you, man!... Please don't hate me!"

Campaign manager Billy Rogers, a veteran Texas Democrat, declared in his 
office: "This is not a pothead operation. This isn't about wanting to get 
high. This is about clear eyes and clear minds. It's not like six months 
ago I had hair down to my ass. I didn't. This is about changing laws that 
are wrong."

Their beef is that, under current law, Nevada's authorities can slap you 
with a felony and four years in prison for possessing more than an ounce. 
And how is that fair, they say, when so little else in Nevada is illegal?

It's not illegal to drive without a seat belt; or to promenade on the Strip 
with an open bottle of beer; or to summon a "private dancer" to your hotel 
room, simply by dialing a phone number posted on a billboard.

Besides, they say, why should firing up a doobie in the privacy of home be 
deemed unacceptable in a town like Vegas, where, just the other day, the 
mayor was strolling around with some zaftig showgirls, swilling gin from an 
oversize martini glass?

It's rumored that a lot of police silently support the pot push; one 
retired officer, Andy Anderson, shows up in a pro-pot TV ad. Another 
ex-cop, Richard Mack, says he junked his hard-line attitude while working 
undercover. He became golfing buddies with one suspect - "a law-abiding guy 
who worked, took care of his family, and just liked to take the edge off at 
night by lighting a joint."

"We should leave those people alone. I'm a conservative guy, and isn't that 
what Republicans say they want - limited government? But is the Bush 
administration any different from the big-government types? Only difference 
is, they don't party as much in the White House as the other side did."

But to Rick Barela, a well-muscled sergeant with the Vegas Metro Police, 
legalization would sow chaos: "We'd have vehicular traffic from all the 
border states, people driving in just to purchase and party. Your line cop 
already has enough problems.

"We see what alcohol does; we're the ones pulling the bodies out of cars. 
We already can't keep drugs out of the hands of children. Yet somehow these 
legalization folks seem to think that throwing another drug into the mix is 
a good thing."

That's what bothers Erin Breen, a university worker with a teenage 
daughter: "Look, there's still something to be said for keeping it on the 
books as illegal. It gives parents a tool, it sets some limits, because the 
child thinks, 'I'm going to get my butt kicked if I get caught.' "

Actually, pot would remain illegal for teens, but everyone seems to be 
fudging the facts as passions run high. At legalization headquarters, Billy 
Rogers complains that 3,742 Nevadans were busted for pot in 2000, but omits 
that, last year, state lawmakers reduced possession of an ounce or less to 
a misdemeanor and a $600 fine.

Drug czar Walters, meanwhile, says that "more people are coming into 
[addiction] treatment for marijuana than for any other illegal drug," yet 
that is contradicted by his own office. Nevada treatment admission 
statistics show that in 2000, methamphetamine topped the list by a wide margin.

Then there's the squabble over how many pot cigarettes would be permitted 
by law. Rogers says 3 ounces equals 80 joints (if rolled tightly). Police 
and prosecutors, at various times, have said 90, 120, 250, or 300 (if 
rolled loosely). Rogers fears that Nevadans will vote no if a big number 
sticks.

That debate sounds comedic, but not to Holly Brady. A longtime Vegas 
resident, she smokes 3 ounces a month to ease the pain of multiple 
sclerosis. She and her husband, Tom, a former pit boss at Bally's in 
Atlantic City, view marijuana as "a plant that God put on this Earth for 
us" - and they want easier access.

Nevada has a Catch-22. Like eight other states, it allows ailing adults to 
smoke pot under a doctor's care - but it doesn't provide it. Patients must 
find it on their own, from illegal sources, or grow their own with seeds 
illegally obtained. Tom Brady said, "You've got to ask around, same as 
you'd do it in Cherry Hill." But they can't count on a steady supply.

"All I know is, the pain goes away immediately," said Holly Brady, who has 
toked for 10 years. "I can get myself together enough to go with Tom to 
watch football at the sports parlors. Like, it's noon now, and I've had 
three joints already. It doesn't make me act like Cheech and Chong. It's 
about survival."

For drug czar Walters, the medical patients are a PR problem; as he said in 
his motorcade, "nobody wants to deny comfort to suffering people." But he 
dismissed marijuana as "snake oil," and said the legalization crowd was 
trying "to use suffering people for political purposes. It's immoral."

So the feds cede nothing. Walters figures that if legalization wins Round 
One in Nevada, he can still work to defeat it in 2004. And even if it wins 
twice, he says the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration would move in and 
shut down any sales operation.

"I respect the frontier spirit," he said, "but we're not raised by wolves. 
We can't act as if we're all on our own individual islands. A civilized 
society has to maintain the public health and safety. Society has to 
provide some direction. There has to be a partnership between freedom and 
responsibility."
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MAP posted-by: Tom