Pubdate: Fri, 21 Oct 2016
Source: Pahrump Valley Times (NV)
Copyright: 2016 Pahrump Valley Times
Contact:  http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1531
Author: Jim Hartman

VOTE NO ON QUESTION 2 - BIG MARIJUANA PUSH

Question 2 before Nevada voters asks whether marijuana should be fully
legal and widely available for recreational commercial sale. Our state
has already decriminalized the drug for small quantity possession and
marijuana is now legally available for medical use.

Question 2 is a 13-page initiative written by the commercial marijuana
industry. It's an "insider's business plan" to benefit big marijuana
"potpreneurs". Passage would create a state government-run marijuana
program, transforming the Department of Taxation into a large,
expensive bureaucracy.

It will give monopoly powers to existing medical marijuana retailers
and liquor wholesalers while criminalizing Nevada citizens growing
marijuana within 25 miles of proponents' pot shops.

Unlike medical marijuana, local jurisdictions will not be able to opt
out of recreational marijuana. Promised marijuana tax revenues would
be unlikely to cover the full public and social costs (including
regulation, enforcement, public health and safety, and substance abuse
treatment).

The initiative fails to include any provisions for the regulation of
edible marijuana products. It fails to place any limits on marijuana
pot potency. It fails to establish restrictions on
advertising.

Question 2 is opposed by law enforcement (sheriffs and chiefs, D.A.'s
associations) and the Nevada State Medical Association. The gaming
industry is opposed (Nevada Resort Association) as well as business
organizations and important faith leaders. The opposition is
bi-partisan-both U.S. Senate candidates, Democrat Catherine Cortez
Masto and Republican Dr. Joe Heck, are "No on 2". Governor Brian
Sandoval is "categorically opposed," joining the state's two largest
newspapers, the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Reno Gazette-Journal, as
"No on 2".

Jim Hartman

President, Nevadans for Responsible Drug Policy
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MAP posted-by: Matt