Pubdate: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 Source: Houston Chronicle (TX) Copyright: 2002 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst Newspaper Contact: http://www.chron.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198 Author: Kim Cobb NEVADA STIRRING THE POT WITH LEGALIZATION PROPOSAL How many joints can be rolled from 3 ounces of marijuana? This is a serious debate in Nevada. Residents of the Western state will vote Tuesday on a state constitutional amendment to legalize adult possession of no more than 3 ounces of pot. It may have looked quixotic at the onset, but the Nevada campaign has flourished at the hands of a Texas political handler the chief legalization foe calls a "carpetbagger." "Apparently she doesn't like Texans much," says Billy Rogers, ruefully. "He's running amok," is the way Nevada pot opponent Sandy Heverly puts it. Rogers may seem like a guy who's drawn to lost causes: He was manager of Garry Mauro's ill-fated campaign to unseat the incumbent Gov. George W. Bush in 1998. But legalizing recreational pot smoking is an issue with legs in Las Vegas, and that's where a majority of Nevada's voters are. Nevada requires that initiatives be approved twice before they become law. So if the pot vote passes on Tuesday, the debate continues and Nevadans will vote again in 2004. Meanwhile, federal drug czar John Walters is aggressively lobbying Nevada voters to just say no to Question Nine. And the local debate has taken on a surreal quality as Rogers and Heverly argue in front of the TV cameras over just how many joints you can roll out of 3 ounces of marijuana. "We got 250 joints out of 3 ounces!" Heverly crowed. "That's the greatest visual thing we have, because people are actually amazed at the amount of 3 ounces of marijuana," Heverly said. "It was worth the effort of all the hours it took to roll those joints." The Nevada referendum is being bankrolled by a Washington-based group called the Marijuana Policy Project, whose chief benefactor is former Progressive Auto Insurance CEO Peter Lewis. He and two other like-minded men, philanthropist George Soros and University of Phoenix founder John Sperling, are the deep pockets behind more than a dozen successful drug liberalization votes since 1996. Nevada's vote is one of several drug liberalization issues on Tuesday's ballot. Measures in Washington, D.C., and Ohio would give nonviolent drug offenders access to treatment instead of jail time. Voters in Arizona will decide whether to eliminate the penalty for possessing marijuana for personal use, and San Francisco voters will decide whether to authorize the city to grow and distribute marijuana for medical use. Every recent election cycle has featured a growing number of such votes -- evidence that attitudes about drug law, if not drugs themselves, are changing. Drug liberalization advocates across the country have been gleefully touting the results of a Time/CNN poll taken in recent weeks that found 34 percent of those surveyed nationally want pot to be totally legalized, 80 percent support marijuana for medical purposes, and 72 percent think recreational use deserves no more than a fine. Nevada voters already have indicated a willingness to rethink marijuana policy. They approved the use of marijuana for medical purposes in 2000, and the state Legislature reduced possession of 1 ounce or less to a misdemeanor last year. But opponents to Nevada's Question Nine were caught flat-footed by the 110,000 signatures Rogers and crew gathered in 40 days calling for the legalization vote. Heverly, leader of Nevada's Stop DUI advocacy group, didn't start fighting in earnest until September. Question Nine calls for removing criminal penalties for the possession for personal use of up to 3 ounces of marijuana by anyone 21 or older. It also would authorize the state of Nevada to provide a system to regulate, tax and sell the substance in state stores. Legalizing possession of even small amounts of marijuana would put Nevada in direct conflict with federal anti-drug laws. Midsummer polling showed people in Nevada were evenly split on the issue of legalizing small amounts of marijuana. But Heverly's coalition, Nevadans Against Legalizing Marijuana, began opposition advertising in recent weeks, and public sentiment appears to be shifting. The most recent statewide survey, by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research Inc. in late October for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, showed opposition for Question Nine has grown to 60 percent. Rogers dismisses the validity of the latest poll, saying demographics are on his side. "They were polling people who say they vote in every election," Rogers said. "That might make sense in Texas in an off-year election, but not here." Forty percent of the absentee ballots cast in Clark County, home to Las Vegas, have been by a much younger group of people than those who traditionally vote, Rogers said. People who vote in every election are usually over the age of 55, Rogers said, adding that his Question Nine draws support from every age group under the age of 55. "I can tell you right now Clark County is a dead heat," Rogers said. Unlike Heverly, Rogers says he is not surprised at the level of support he's seeing. He cited Time magazine's poll-based assertion, released this week, that as many as 100 million Americans have tried marijuana, and most of them are under 55. "They didn't go crazy, they didn't lose their job, and they're not 40 years old and still living with mom and dad," Rogers said. "The vast majority of those people are responsible adults, raising families. So we do well among people who may have tried marijuana in the past." Rogers freely admits he used to smoke pot. But he's passionate on the subject of decriminalizing marijuana, he says, because the punitive approach to the war on drugs has caused more harm than good. "I was fortunate when I was younger -- I didn't get arrested," Rogers said. "But a lot of my friends did. These are friends who've gone on to become responsible adults -- some of them work for the state of Texas. "It's just, to me, such a waste of law enforcement resources and such an unwinnable war," Rogers said. That's the party line behind most of the drug liberalization measures sponsored by Lewis, Soros and Sperling. But opponents say those kinds of statements deliberately cloud the real agenda. "They look at Nevada as being very fertile ground to reach their goal -- which is to legalize all drugs everywhere," Heverly said. Having spent the past 30 years trying to reduce alcohol-related traffic deaths, Heverly said she dreads a wave of marijuana-related fatalities. "If nothing else, haven't we learned anything from the senseless death and destruction that alcohol has caused our society?" Heverly said. "Why do we want to throw marijuana into the mix?" Heverly says she knows why the fight is being waged in her state. "I believe the image many people have of Nevada -- and specifically Las Vegas -- is one of `anything goes.' Many view us as the armpit of the world," Heverly said. "But the real Las Vegas, the real Nevada, goes beyond the glitz and glamour of the Strip and the downtown area. You have real families that go to work every day, raise their children, go to church and live what some people would view as normal lives." - ------------------------------------------------------------ The following summary was in a box within the article: VOTERS CONSIDER LENIENT POT PENALTIES Voters in Arizona and Nevada on Tuesday are considering measures that would reduce or eliminate penalties for marijuana possession. Nevada Allow the use and possession of three ounces or less of marijuana by people 21 years or older. Provide a system of regulation for the cultivation, taxation, sale and distribution of marijuana. Arizona Decriminalize marijuana possession for personal use. Require distribution of marijuana free of charge by the Department of Public Safety if a person's physician provides written documentation. Increase the maximum sentence for violent crimes committed under the influence of drugs. Eliminate mandatory minimum sentences. Require parole for people convicted of personal possession of a controlled substance unless they are a danger to the public. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens