Pubdate: Thu, 03 Nov 2016
Source: Reno Gazette-Journal (NV)
Copyright: 2016 Reno Gazette-Journal
Contact: http://www.rgj.com/letters
Website: http://www.rgj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/363
Author: Jim Hartman

QUESTION 2 - IT'S WRONG FOR NEVADA

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 "insiders business plan" to benefit Big Marijuana
"potpreneurs." The initiative would create a new state bureaucracy in
the Department of Taxation to regulate the drug and set wholesale
prices. It gives 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. The initiative gives all power for
marijuana licensure and administration to the Department of Taxation -
without local control. Proponents promise a tiny $20 million in
marijuana tax revenues for schools, but the reality is revenues would
be unlikely to cover the full public and social costs (including
regulation, enforcement, public health and safety and substance abuse
treatment).
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MAP posted-by: Matt