Pubdate: Wed, 08 Jun 2016
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV)
Copyright: 2016 Las Vegas Review-Journal
Contact: http://www.reviewjournal.com/about/print/press/letterstoeditor.html
Website: http://www.lvrj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/233

A BAD BET

Nevada Voters Should Turn Down Legal Pot

At the same time Nevadans will help elect a president, they will also 
determine whether to legalize recreational marijuana

And while it may seem like a no-brainer in a free-wheeling state 
known for legalized gambling and a lax approach to prostitution, 
recreational weed comes with health, safety and social costs that 
make legalizing marijuana a dangerous proposal for Nevadans.

State ballot Question 2 in the November election would make it legal 
for people 21 and over to possess up to an ounce of marijuana for 
recreational use. A 15 percent tax would be applied to legal pot 
sales and revenues generated would be earmarked for education.

But that small bump in state tax revenues would come at an extremely high cost.

Legalizing weed would jeopardize the health of countless Nevadans, 
expose more people to drug abuse and addiction, put excessive stress 
on the state's health-care facilities and do little to relieve the 
state's bloated prison population.

The pro-pot lobby hails marijuana as relatively harmless. But that's 
misleading, at best.

Marijuana contains nearly 500 dangerous chemicals when inhaled or 
ingested, including about five times more tars and other 
cancer-causing agents than tobacco smoke. Cancer, respiratory 
diseases, mental illness, birth defects, reproductive problems and 
irreversible brain damage are all linked to marijuana use.

And no matter how much pot enthusiasts argue otherwise, marijuana is 
both addictive - one in 10 people who try pot will become hooked on 
it - and a gateway to more deadly drugs that kill more than 45,000 
Americans a year.

Weed advocates claim marijuana legalization is working well in states 
that have already adopted pro-pot policies. Many people in those 
states, however, tell another story.

In Colorado, where marijuana business licenses now outnumber 
McDonald's and Starbucks combined, legalization was supposed to bring 
in $40 million annually for schools. Those estimates, though, aren't 
panning out. Tax collectors are bringing in only about half that amount.

Marijuana legalization has also put a strain on Colorado's 
health-care facilities. A New England Journal of Medicine study found 
that marijuana-related emergency room visits by out-of-state visitors 
doubled in Colorado after the state legalized the drug.

If marijuana tourists are wreaking havoc on hospitals and health 
clinics in Colorado, imagine the potential problems in Nevada where 
millions of people go every year to engage in behavior they can't get 
away with in their home towns.

Backers of Question 2 argue that legalizing weed will help reduce 
Nevada's prison population. But that argument falls flat, as well. 
Only about 0.7 percent of all state inmates are behind bars for 
simple marijuana possession, according to the Bureau of Justice 
Statistics. In Nevada, that means the state's prison population 0f 
12,400 would decrease by roughly 90 inmates.

In 2000, Nevadans approved doctor-prescribed cannabis use for those 
suffering from multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, epilepsy, certain types 
of cancer, persistent nausea and other illnesses - and state laws 
protecting medical marijuana will remain in place regardless of the 
outcome of Question 2.

Expanding legal access to pot, however, would be a bad move for the 
Silver State. Voters should "just say no" to legalizing recreational 
marijuana on Election Day.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom