Pubdate: Tue, 27 Aug 2002
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
37462.DTL
Copyright: 2002 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Tom Gorman, Los Angeles Times

NEVADANS WEIGH MAKING POT LEGAL

State Stands To Reap Tens Of Millions

Las Vegas -- The state that legalized cathouses and craps is now 
considering condoning cannabis.

A voters initiative on the November ballot would permit possession in 
Nevada of up to 3 ounces of marijuana by persons 21 and older. They would 
be allowed to smoke it in the privacy of their own homes, but not in their 
car or public places.

While law enforcement officials are railing against the measure, state 
officials are quietly pondering how the state-licensed sale and taxation of 
marijuana may stoke the state's coffers by tens of millions of dollars 
annually.

Legalizing marijuana by amending the state Constitution is a two-step 
process. If a simple majority of voters approve the measure in November, it 
would need to be reaffirmed by voters in 2004. The second vote could be 
avoided if the measure is adopted next year by the state Legislature, which 
already has decriminalized possession of marijuana. That course is 
considered unlikely because most politicians -- including Republican Gov. 
Kenny Guinn -- are not taking a stand on the issue, saying they will defer 
to the voters' wishes.

Nevada is one of nine states that allows the use of marijuana with a 
doctor's prescription, and one of 11 states that has lowered criminal 
sanctions for possession of marijuana.

Ohio has the nation's most lenient marijuana possession laws, issuing a 
civil citation and fining $100 for possession of up to 100 grams (about 3.5 
ounces), according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana 
Laws.

Only Alaska previously has attempted to legalize possession of marijuana 
altogether. But even pro-pot proponents said the 2000 ballot measure went 
too far, because it didn't ban smoking in public and sought reparations for 
jailed marijuana users. The ballot measure was defeated by 59 percent of 
the voters.

State polls suggest Nevada voters are about evenly split on the question. 
The state's largest newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, has 
editorialized that the measure "would end the needless harassment of 
individuals who peacefully and privately use marijuana."

Nevada may seem a logical place to test the issue because of the state's 
renowned live-and-let-live philosophy, as already manifested through its 
extensive gambling and rural houses of prostitution. And as a practical matter,

the debate can be financially waged in just one media market, here. Clark 
County is home to two-thirds of the state's residents. But it is also its 
most unpredictable political audience because of the region's explosive 
growth of non-Nevada transplants over the past decade. Most of rural Nevada 
is conservative, Las Vegas is not.

The $375,000-petition drive, which collected more than 100,000 signatures 
to qualify the measure for the ballot, was spearheaded by the 
Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project. One of its policy directors, 
Billy Rogers, took a leave of absence to head the local campaign under the 
moniker Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement.

"Nevada is the only state in more than a decade to have passed 
decriminalization legislation," Rogers said. "We believe we already have a 
strong base of support in Nevada and that the legislature would give a 
good-faith effort to implement the necessary laws."

Among public officials, the most vocal supporter of the measure is Chris 
Giunchigliani, a schoolteacher and Democrat assemblywoman in Nevada's 
part-time legislature.

"We shouldn't be making criminals out of casual, at-home adult users," said 
Giunchigliani, who last year successfully rallied legislative support to 
reduce the penalty for possessing small amounts of marijuana from a felony 
to a misdemeanor.

"This measure is reasonably well-written and gets to the heart of the 
matter: Our drug policy hasn't been working," she said. "We've created a 
subculture of criminals among otherwise law-abiding citizens."

If the initiative becomes law, state officials would have to determine who 
would grow the marijuana (some suggest the state's agriculture department), 
and how to make it available through state-licensed retail outlets.

The notion of mining marijuana sales as a state revenue source, as the 
initiative calls for, is enticing, Giunchigliani said. "If people are going 
to smoke it, we might as well tax it and get some funding out of it," she said.
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