Effort Underway To Legalize Recreational Use Of

Pubdate: Wed, 23 Apr 2014
Source: Reno Gazette-Journal (NV)
Copyright: 2014 Reno Gazette-Journal
Contact: http://www.rgj.com/letters
Website: http://www.rgj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/363
Author: Ray Hagar

EFFORT UNDERWAY TO LEGALIZE RECREATIONAL USE OF MARIJUANA IN NEVADA

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Wednesday filed a petition with the
Nevada Secretary of State to legalize the recreational use of
marijuana in the Silver State.

The group, made up of investors who are entering Nevada's burgeoning
medical marijuana industry, needs to get 101,667 signatures by Nov. 11
to move the process forward.

The first stop would be the 2015 Nevada Legislature.

It will be an uphill battle for backers of the petition because
approval would take a two-thirds vote in both houses because the
petition has a tax component. All tax hikes in Nevada need a
two-thirds vote in the Legislature to pass. It would also need the
signature of Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval to become law.

But a loss in the Legislature would automatically set up a vote by the
people in the 2016 general election. And there, proponents of the
petition feel they have a very good chance of getting recreational
marijuana use legalized in Nevada.

"You have a component in the presidential election that would favor
us," said Joe Brezney, spokesman for the Campaign to Regulate
Marijuana. "You'll have a bump in young people turning out to vote for
a president and young people overwhelmingly support us."

Brezney feels strong get-out-the-vote efforts by both major parties
during presidential elections will also help get the petition to
legalize recreational marijuana approved. He notes Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is up for re-election in 2016 and that
should also drive up turnout among young people.

"That is the demographic and we have been strategic about putting this
on the ballot at a time when we know there is likelihood that we know
who is going to show up," Brezney said. "We are a battleground state.
We have the Senate majority leader and there is a lot of money focused
on turnout. And so we think we got it right by waiting until now and
filing this for a president election."

If the petition is eventually approved, Nevada would join Colorado and
the state of Washington as states where pot is legal for recreational
use.

Assembly Minority Leader Pat Hickey, R-Reno, said if the measure makes
it on the ballot for the 2016 election, Nevadans will have the luxury
of seeing how legal recreational use of marijuana plays out in those
states before they would be voting on the issue.

"I think Nevadans need to consider what the social and financial costs
of legalization are," Hickey said. "And by 2016, we will be able to
look at the examples of Colorado and Washington state to look at the
benefit, or otherwise, of legalizing (recreational) marijuana."

Washoe County District Attorney Dick Gammick, who is strongly opposed
to the legalization of marijuana, noted that others have tried to get
marijuana legalized for recreational use in Nevada before and have
failed. Gammick said he is concerned this time might be different.

"At one time, I would have said, absolutely not," Gammick said,
referring to the chance that recreational marijuana use might be
legalized in Nevada. "And that has been proven. They have tried this,
I think, about a half-dozen times by now. But now, with the changes we
have had in this state, with all of the out-of-staters that have come
in, I won't bet one way or the other."

The news of the petition comes when local governments in Washoe County
and across Nevada are putting together ordinances and zoning
requirements to accommodate the medical marijuana industry that was
approved by the 2013 Nevada Legislature.

Nevada legalized medical marijuana in 2001 but provided no legal means
to acquire it. Monday, Clark County received more than 200
applications by its deadline to apply for licenses to run either a
medical marijuana dispensary, grow house, kitchen for edible products
or testing facility in the unincorporated areas of the county.

The fees necessary to apply for licensing were a big boost for the
county, said state Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas.

"For the unincorporated areas down here (in Clark County), they had
206 applications with $5,000 for each application," Segerblom said.
"So they got more than $1 million in fees just to accept these
applications."

Yet Gammick said the state would suffer if a few wealthy individuals
were able to profit from legal recreational marijuana use.

"The whole medical marijuana hoax - and now this - is based on the
money," Gammick said. "It is turning green into green. It is still a
Schedule One controlled substance (with the federal government). It is
subject to abuse and it is also addictive, so what is the message we
are sending to the kids?

"They (sponsors) say that kids can't have it. Yeah right, there was
also a bill that said kids could not have alcohol," Gammick said. "But
what is the message we are sending to kids, one of a total permissive
society? And I'm not a super history buff but didn't Rome fall from
the inside? I just don't know where we are going with all of this."

The Marijuana Policy Project, based in Washington D.C., is assisting
the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana with the petition drive, Brezney
said. The Marijuana Policy Project also tried to get small amounts of
marijuana legalized in Nevada in 2002 and 2006. The measures failed
both times, getting 39 percent of the vote in 2002 and 44 percent in
2006.

Yet Brezney points to recent polling that shows Nevadans are changing
their minds.

During the 2013 Legislature, Public Policy Polling polled Nevadans
about the legalization or recreational marijuana and concluded 54
percent of Nevadans were in favor of the legalization of recreational
marijuana and 42 were opposed. That shows the measure to legalize
recreational use of pot would have momentum going into the 2016
general election, Brezney said.

"The 54 to 42, from a purely mathematical point of view, I love being
handed a campaign with a 12-point advantage," Brezney said. "What that
is telling me that this time, we have the majority, a 12-point spread.

"We are now bringing medical (marijuana) on line and it is time (for
recreational marijuana)," Brezney said. "The Colorado tourism market
is exploding and I think we have a better tourism destination than any
other place in the country."

Others agree legalization of recreational medical marijuana would have
a strong positive impact on Nevada's tourism industry. Segerblom, who
was the leader in getting the medical marijuana bill passed in the
2013 Legislature, has said if the recreational use of marijuana was
legal in Nevada, Las Vegas would become "the Amsterdam of the West."

"If we went with full legalization, it would be an absolute boon to
the tourism industry and to gaming," Sergerblom said. "I think it
would add another element to what we are now - a place where you go to
have fun, get crazy for two or three days or a week and then go home
and tell your friends how much fun you had and I stand by that."

4 p.m. update

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana on Wednesday filed a petition with
the secretary of state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana
in Nevada.

The group, made up of investors who are entering Nevada's burgeoning
medical marijuana industry, needs to get 101,667 signatures by Nov. 11
to move the process forward.

The first stop would be the 2015 Nevada Legislature.

Backers of the petition feel it might not pass legislative muster
because approval would take a two-third vote in both houses because
the petition has a tax component. All tax hikes in Nevada need a
two-third vote in the Legislature to pass.

But a loss in the Legislature would set up a vote by the people in the
2016 presidential general election. And there, proponents of the
petition feel they have a very good chance of getting recreational
marijuana use legalized in Nevada.

Brezney feels that strong get-out-the-vote efforts by both major
parties during presidential elections will also help get the petition
to legalize recreational marijuana approved.

He notes that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is up for
re-election in 2016 and that should also drive up turnout among young
people.

"That is the demographic (young people) and we have been strategic
about putting this on the ballot at a time when we know there is
likelihood that we know who is going to show up," Brezney said. "We
are a battleground state. We have the senate majority leader and there
is a lot of money focused on turnout. And so we think we got it right
by waiting until now and filing this for a president election."

If the petition is eventually approved, Nevada would join Colorado and
the state of Washington as states where pot is legal for recreational
use.

Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick, who is strongly
opposed to the legalization of marijuana, noted that others have tried
to get marijuana legalized for recreational use in Nevada before and
have failed.

Gammick said he is concerned, however, this time might be
different.

The news of the petition comes when local governments in Washoe County
and across Nevada are putting together ordinances and zoning
requirement to accommodate the medical marijuana industry that was
approved by the 2013 Nevada Legislature.

Nevada legalized medical marijuana in 2001 but provided not legal
means to acquire it.

The Marijuana Policy Project on, based in Washington D.C., is
assisting the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana with the petition drive,
Brezney said.

The Marijuana Policy Project also tried to get small amounts of
marijuana legalized in Nevada in 2002 and 2006. The measure failed
both times, getting 39 percent of the vote in 2002 and 44 percent in
2006.

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4:30 p.m. update from Associated Press

A pro-marijuana group hoping to ride a wave of mounting acceptance for
cannabis filed an initiative petition Wednesday seeking to legalize
recreational pot use in Nevada.

The measure backed by a group called Campaign to Regulate Marijuana
would allow adults 21 and older to possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana.
It also sets up a regulatory structure for cultivation and
dispensaries similar to what's being implemented for medical marijuana
in the state.

Only two states - Colorado and Washington - currently allow pot
consumption for fun. Medical marijuana has been enacted in 21 states
and the District of Columbia, according to the Washington, D.C.-based
Marijuana Policy Project.

Giving or selling marijuana to minors, driving under the influence or
using pot in public would remain illegal under the Nevada measure.

The proposal would impose a 15 percent tax on wholesale pot sales,
while retail transactions would be taxed at existing sales tax rates.
Net revenues would go into the Distributive School Account to support
public schools.

Nevada voters rejected efforts to legalize small amounts of marijuana
in 2002 and 2006. A bill with the same goal died in the 2013
Legislature.

Backers of the latest effort will need to collect about 102,000
signatures to send the matter to the 2015 Legislature. If lawmakers
reject it or take no action, it would go to voters the following year.

Joe Brezny with the Nevada campaign said acceptance of marijuana use
has been growing in recent decades, and supporters believe the time is
right to pass it in Silver State.

"For the past 20 years it's been this slow upward tick," he said. The
move also is strategic, with a goal of getting the proposal before
voters during the 2016 presidential election when more young voters
tend to turn out than in midterm elections.

The initiative comes as Nevada is implementing a taxing, regulatory
and distribution structure for medical marijuana. Voters approved pot
for medicinal purposes in 2000, but the only way patients with medical
cards could obtain it was to grow it.

That changed last year, when state lawmakers approved and Republican
Gov. Brian Sandoval signed a bill setting up a medical marijuana
supply chain. Last month the state health division approved
regulations for cultivation operations, testing laboratories,
processing kitchens and dispensaries.

Sandoval does not support decriminalization of marijuana for
recreational use, his office said Wednesday.

Brezny was the Republican state Senate caucus director under the late
Sen. Bill Raggio from 2002 to 2007, and was state director for GOP
presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2008.

"Coming from that side of the aisle, it's very clear now that cannabis
legalization is no longer a left-right issue," said Brezny, who is now
registered as a nonpartisan. He added the goal of legalization is to
tax an underground industry, regulate it and "keep it away from kids."

Brezny said the new initiative leaves the state's medical marijuana
structure in place, though licensed medicinal establishments could
apply for separate licenses to offer recreational products.

Cities and counties are finalizing their own zoning requirements for
medical pot operations or deciding whether they want to allow them at
all. In Clark County, 206 applications from people seeking to start
medical marijuana-related businesses in the Las Vegas area were
submitted to the Business License Department by a Tuesday deadline.

The county will decide which applications to accept and forward to the
state for final licensure.

Like medical marijuana regulations, the initiative carries hefty
application fees for recreational pot businesses.

It calls for one-time application fees of $5,000, in addition to
initial licensing fees ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 depending on
the type of facility, with annual license renewals from $3,300 to $10,000.
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