Pubdate: Thu, 10 Mar 2016
Source: Reno Gazette-Journal (NV)
Copyright: 2016 Reno Gazette-Journal
Contact: http://www.rgj.com/letters
Website: http://www.rgj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/363
Author: John Packham
Note: John Packham, Ph.D. is director of health policy research at 
the University of Nevada School of Medicine and president of the 
Nevada Tobacco Prevention Coalition.

WHAT'S MISSING FROM MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION? OVERSIGHT

This November, Nevada voters will not only help elect the next 
president and select our newest U.S. senator, we will also decide 
whether or not Nevada joins the small but growing ranks of states 
that have legalized recreational marijuana. I am not a gambling man, 
but would be willing to wager that Nevada voters will approve the 
Nevada Marijuana Legalization Initiative on the upcoming ballot.

If approved, the measure would legalize one ounce or less of 
marijuana or cannabis for recreational use for people at least 21 
years old. It would also levy a 15 percent excise tax on wholesale 
sales of marijuana and direct revenue generated from these taxes to 
support K-12 education.

Passage of the initiative stands to reverse the enormous social 
inequities and public costs of our largely failed war on drugs - in 
particular, the injustice and wasted expense of incarcerating 
thousands of nonviolent offenders in our state. The initiative also 
holds the potential of eliminating the illegal market for marijuana 
(and its associated crime, violence and social pathology), replacing 
it with a new industry whose products and services would be regulated 
and taxed like any other legal enterprise in Nevada.

As written, however, the ballot measure provides a minimalist 
approach to protecting public health. Worse, the initiative does not 
earmark one penny of anticipated tax revenue to the establishment and 
maintenance of a public health framework needed to restrict youth 
access, enforce clean indoor air statutes and reduce exposure to 
secondhand smoke, and address workplace and motor vehicle safety issues.

Proponents of legal cannabis argue that the measure allows Nevada to 
tax and regulate marijuana like it does alcohol and, presumably, to 
regulate youth access and other potential harms to health based on 
what we have learned from a half-century of tobacco prevention and 
control efforts. Our state's sorry track record on regulating these 
already-legal products suggests otherwise.

One need only consider the unacceptable number of Washoe County 
business establishments routinely cited for selling alcohol to 
minors, or the fact that Nevada recently received a failing grade of 
"F" from the American Lung Association for tobacco prevention and 
cessation funding, to recognize that public health concerns often 
play second fiddle to the priorities of our state's major industries.

Why would we expect the burgeoning marijuana industry in Nevada to be 
any different?

Fortunately, Nevada has a good deal to learn from the early, 
proactive experience of public health regulators in Colorado and 
Washington  the first states to legalize marijuana for recreational 
purposes. Both states have not only implemented comprehensive public 
health strategies aligned across most cabinet-level agencies of state 
government, they have begun to allocate revenue and resources equal 
to the task of regulating what was heretofore illegal and largely 
uncharted territory.

The marijuana industry and, I suspect, plenty of policymakers with 
any authority over a state budget are betting on the initiative's 
passage. We cannot, however, wait until Nov. 8 to figure out how to 
simultaneously respect the will of the voters and responsibly 
regulate this new industry if legal cannabis comes to pass.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom