Pubdate: Thu, 09 Sep 2004
Source: Rebel Yell (Las Vegas, NV Edu)
Copyright: 2004 Rebel Yell
Contact: http://www.ryunlv.com/main.cfm?include=submit
Website: http://www.ryunlv.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1362
Cited: Marijuana Policy Project ( www.mpp.org )
Cited: The Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana (CRCM) 
http://www.regulatemarijuana.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/props.htm (Ballot Initiatives)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/marijuana+initiative
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Note: Title by MAP Editor

MARIJUANA INITIATIVE IS A CRUCIAL MATTER

The ultimate praise of Nevada - the incomparable state in which adults 
enjoy the freedom to drink, gamble and have sex like the great hedonists of 
ancient cultures - is that its constitution permits adults to be just that: 
adults.

With its permissive framework, Nevada deems adults - that is, grown men and 
women who, despite their various levels of maturity, have reached the age 
of accountability - as capable of handling certain freedoms that other 
states prohibit.

And so it is unsurprising that advocates from the Committee to Regulate and 
Control Marijuana group, a child of the Marijuana Policy Project, strove to 
make Nevada the first state in which adults could possess the hemp plant 
free from the fear of persecution.

The story of the marijuana initiative, which is narrated in the Features 
section in this issue of The Rebel Yell, presents several critical issues 
of political, historical and literary value.

We allotted the marijuana topic such inordinate space in this RY edition 
with absolute consciousness; for we believe that no topic more germane or 
imminent has risen from Nevada soil this year.

The marijuana initiative is a crucial matter for a variety of reasons - 
none of which have to do with smoking pot.

First and foremost: Underscoring the text of the marijuana initiative is 
the principle of responsibility. If America deems its grown men and women 
capable of the responsibility required to drive cars, own guns and eat 
immoderately - as it should; and if Nevada deems its grown men and women 
capable of the responsibility required to gamble and buy sexual consent - 
as it should; then grown men and women must be allowed to smoke marijuana 
in the privacy of their own homes.

Another reason is the harvest of money the state would reap from tax 
revenues if it regulated the manufacture and distribution of marijuana. In 
a study conducted at UNLV in October of 2002, just before the original 
effort to legalize marijuana in Nevada was devitalized in the November 
election, researchers found that the state of Nevada would make $28.6 
million a year in tax revenues if it were to regulate marijuana. In a time 
when the fiscal pool of one of our state's most fruitful programs, the 
Millennium Scholarship, is desiccating, $28.6 million a year would be the 
redemptive downpour we need.

Furthermore, a Nevadan doesn't need to have any inclination toward 
marijuana to appreciate the indomitable fight the CRCM and MPP have put up 
over the past two years.

The groups deserve commendation, not because they battled for an initiative 
but because they refused to give up on a belief they deemed pure and 
inviolable.

We neither condone nor condemn an adult's use of marijuana, just as we 
remain neutral in regard to alcohol and tobacco. For there is no doubt that 
vices - whether they are called joints, beer, cigarettes or Big Macs - are 
pernicious to the health of the public, especially when consumed 
immoderately, but no one - not us, not university officials and certainly 
not the government - owns the right to prohibit individuals from 
endangering themselves. That is his or her choice.

Unfortunately, the marijuana initiative was cut down on Wednesday. Our only 
hope is that those unconquerable supporters of the initiative will continue 
the good fight in Nevada.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D