Pubdate: Sun, 24 Nov 2013
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV)
Copyright: 2013 Las Vegas Review-Journal
Contact: http://www.reviewjournal.com/about/print/press/letterstoeditor.html
Website: http://www.lvrj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/233
Author: Glenn Cook

MEDICAL MARIJUANA GOING TO POT?

It took medical marijuana advocates more than 12 years to persuade 
the Nevada Legislature to enable the lawful sale of the drug through 
dispensaries. It might take as long for Southern Nevada governments 
to allow those dispensaries to actually open their doors.

It's clear the valley's three mayors are not excited about the 
prospect of prescription marijuana being sold in their 
municipalities. During the Review-Journal's third Hashtags &Headlines 
policy luncheon, held Monday at Texas Station, Henderson's Andy 
Hafen, North Las Vegas' John Lee and Las Vegas' Carolyn Goodman 
indicated they're not excited about the industry.

Hafen wants patients to have access to the THC in marijuana, as 
opposed to the entire plant. Lee is very much worried about continued 
federal crackdowns on medical marijuana, and Goodman remains 
committed to giving the sick access to the drug - provided 
dispensaries agree to price controls. (Educated guess: They won't.)

I moderated a discussion with the mayors about a variety of issues, 
and their thoughts on the marijuana issue run counter to voter 
sentiments. Last month, for the first time, a Gallup poll showed a 
clear majority of Americans favor total legalization of the drug, 
with 58 percent in favor and 39 percent opposed. Last year, you'll 
recall, Colorado and Washington state voters approved recreational 
use of marijuana.

Nevada is still trying to get medical marijuana infrastructure in 
place. In 1998 and 2000, voters overwhelmingly supported the lawful, 
medicinal use of marijuana, amending the Nevada Constitution to allow 
it. But it wasn't until this spring that state lawmakers finally 
provided "appropriate methods for supply of the plant to patients 
authorized to use it," as required by the amendment. For the past 
dozen years, patients suffering from cancer, chronic pain, glaucoma 
and other ailments have been allowed to grow a few plants for 
themselves, but buying the plants or the seeds to grow them were 
against the law.

This year's legislation was supposed to remedy that. However, 
although the law allows up to 40 dispensaries to open in Southern 
Nevada, no Southern Nevada government is obligated to open even one. 
State Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, who sponsored the dispensary 
bill, said lawmakers did not intend to force local governments to 
allow dispensaries.

"The intent was, if a city doesn't want them, they can keep them out 
through zoning," Segerblom said last week.

Although the state is moving forward with marijuana dispensary 
regulations, the valley's cities are not in a hurry. Americans 
finally are recognizing the failure of the country's costly war on 
drugs, especially the pointless fight against marijuana, but many 
elected officials still see any embrace of the narcotic as a 
political liability.

Lee's concerns about federal intervention in the medical marijuana 
industry were validated Thursday when law enforcement engaged in a 
sweeping crackdown of Colorado dispensaries, the biggest since that 
state legalized medical marijuana in 2000. Sources told the Denver 
Post the businesses are being investigated for possible connections 
to Colombian cartels.

So a criminal enterprise might be selling its otherwise illegal 
product in a legal, taxpaying fashion? If that's true, then it helps 
make the case for full legalization of the drug. There is no putting 
the drug trade out of business, no matter how many assets are seized 
by authorities, no matter how many people are arrested. Better to 
bring it out of the gray economy and into the light. Our jails and 
prisons are too crowded as it is.

Is it possible that potheads will fake symptoms to get marijuana 
prescriptions? Is it possible that some doctors will be more willing 
to write marijuana prescriptions to said potheads? Of course. It 
won't be any different from the schemes that enable prescription drug 
abuse. Authorities will be watching.

Voters have spoken. Medical marijuana is legal in Nevada, but it has 
a long way to go before it can be lawfully sold.

School construction

The 2014 election conversation soon could include a school bond issue.

Clark County School District spokeswoman Kirsten Searer told me the 
School Board is expected to discuss funding for school construction 
at its Jan. 8 work session. That conversation could lead to a bond, 
where the district takes on long-term debt to fund capital projects, 
or another pay-as-you-go property tax proposal - the kind rejected by 
Clark County voters last year.

The School Board has little choice but to put something before voters 
next fall. The district's enrollment of almost 315,000 is growing 
again, elementary schools are over capacity, and the system has no 
money to build the schools it needs to address crowding and growth. 
As I wrote last week, the school district could need at least 20 new 
schools by the end of the decade. And if the board waits until 2016 
to put forward a school construction ballot question, no new schools 
could be completed before 2018 - when it might have 15,000 more 
students to teach.

The construction question continues to come up as the district 
carries out the process of redrawing attendance zone boundaries and, 
perhaps, convert campuses to year-round schedules. Trustee Patrice 
Tew says more parents are realizing that, while shifting students 
between schools might work this year, it isn't a long-term fix. 
"Certainly, we need to go forward with the discussion," she said. 
"Everything is on the table. All of us are gearing up."

I hope everything is on the table, because if the school district 
puts forward a bond proposal that asks for too much money, it's 
almost certain to lose at the ballot box. To win over beleaguered 
voters, the system needs to show it has given proper consideration to 
bold, cost-saving ideas, such as converting rented office buildings 
into schools and better utilizing under-capacity middle schools. And 
it needs to get its maintenance issues figured out, because 
neglecting structures and equipment, then replacing broken systems 
with new ones is no way to take care of the public's buildings.

It would be interesting to see how a school bond question would 
compete against the margins tax question already put forward by the 
state teachers union. The backers of the awful margins tax aim to 
reduce class sizes and expand kindergarten and pre-kindergarten 
programs - even though the Clark County School District doesn't have 
the building space to accommodate any of those initiatives.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom