Pubdate: Fri, 16 Jul 2004
Source: Reno Gazette-Journal (NV)
Copyright: 2004 Reno Gazette-Journal
Contact: http://www.rgj.com/helpdesk/news/letter_to_editor.php
Website: http://www.rgj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/363
Author: Dave Sanford
Note: Item excerpted from longer column
Cited: Marijuana Policy Project http://www.mpp.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/marijuana+initiative
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion)

Morning Musings...

A TALE OF FIRES, SMOKE & YOUTH SPORTS

One thing that has indeed gone up in smoke that Nevadans need not
mourn is the initiative drive seeking to legalize possession of an
ounce or less of marijuana in the state.

Not once did those behind the initiative--the Marijuana Policy Project
based out of Washington, D.C.--give Nevadans the straight goods on the
measure, and it is fitting that, under those circumstances alone, the
initiative should fail to qualify for the November ballot.

The measure was couched, four years ago, as an answer to more
effective policing and, this year, as a move that would 'save' our
young people from the evils of the drug by 'regulating and
controlling' it. In the end, the initiative was doomed by its own
ineptitudes, including petitioners 'forgetting' to submit some 6,000
signatures collected in Clark County, which effectively eliminated
that county from the mix.

I would like to believe that had the measure qualified for the ballot,
Nevadans would still have recognized the scam and defeated it at the
polls. Still, I've believed that about measures on the ballot before
and have been wrong. Now the state doesn't have to worry about it
all--at least not this year. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake