The latest Reno Gazette-Journal/KRNV-News 4 poll shows a majority of voters in support of Question 1 - the Education First Amendment - but the numbers have tightened from a poll taken more than a month earlier.

The latest statewide poll of 600 likely voters, taken Oct. 23-25, showed 53 percent in favor of the amendment, which would require the Nevada Legislature to fund the state's public education system before any other spending bills are passed. The poll, which has a margin of error of 4 points, showed 34 percent of voters against the measure and 13 percent undecided.

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Professionals Explore Proposed Change to State Marijuana Laws

A debate last week on the pros and cons of decriminalizing marijuana brought out more than 50 students and community members wanting to hear more about the issue before voting in next weeks election.

Six panelists from the medical, political and educational communities debated Nevada ballot initiative seven, which would legalize the sale and possession of up to one ounce of marijuana for people 21 and older.

The University of Nevada, Reno's Center for the Application of Substance Abuse Technology, Student Organization of Providers of Addiction Services, and the Substance Abuse Treatment Program hosted the forum, which featured three panelists in support of Question 7 and three in opposition.

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One of the things I like best about Nevada Day is that it always reminds me that I don't live in California. As a great philosopher once said, Thank the Lord for small blessings.

Nevada Day is sort of a hometown celebration of our state's unique history and traditions, and I always enjoy the parade and other related activities including the political chili feed at the Nugget, where politicians of all known persuasions rub elbows with the voters. It's a truly democratic (small "d") event where you can shake and howdy with the U.S. Senate minority leader and city supervisors at the same time in the same place. It's a Nevada thing.

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The Nevada Appeal recently ran an editorial against Question 7, the marijuana initiative. Unfortunately, the authors attributed many claims to our campaign that we have never actually made.

We have always been straightforward with our argument: Our marijuana laws don't work because anyone who wants to use marijuana can. In the meantime, the criminal market for marijuana is financing the activities of violent gangs and drug dealers. The Appeal claims marijuana can be harmful, and we've never disputed that. But we do state that marijuana is safer than alcohol - a regulated substance that kills nearly 20,000 Americans every year by overdose - while no one has ever died of a marijuana overdose.

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The White House has stepped up its use of taxpayer funds to conduct a political campaign in Nevada against Ballot Question 7.

A deputy drug czar has been dispatched to the state to attack the drug reform measure, which would regulate and tax marijuana. White House drug czar John Walters has already campaigned in Nevada along with an elaborate entourage.

Walters' deputy Scott Burns spoke Monday at the community center in Dayton. Protesters at the event objected to his use of tax dollars for political purposes.

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I'm writing to respond to an Oct. 21 letter from Lee Gliddon, who opposes Question 7, the initiative to tax and regulate marijuana in Nevada.

Mr. Gliddon is apparently not familiar with the specifics of Question 7. Public consumption of marijuana is explicitly prohibited under the initiative, therefore the scenario he paints of unsuspecting passers-by getting a "contact high" from public marijuana use would be illegal if Question 7 passes.

Citizens who support regulating marijuana are not focused on "getting high no matter what the effects may be on others." Last year Nevada spent $42 million arresting nearly 5,000 people for marijuana possession, while nearly 10,000 violent crimes went unsolved in 2005.

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Pro-Marijuana Legalization Protesters at Panel Discussion

In a battle of the outside interests, an official from the federal government came to Dayton Monday and warned the audience that Washington, D.C., interests were behind the Question 7 ballot initiative that would legalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana.

Scott Burns, deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy for State and Local Affairs, said the power behind the initiative was using Nevada as a "guinea pig" to see if it can legalize all drugs.

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Maybe the folks who want to legalize marijuana think the rest of us are stupid. I, for one, am not. They seek to liken the use of marijuana to alcohol and tobacco use. Nothing could be further from the truth than that.

If a person has one or two beers or alcoholic drinks, the chances are they do not become impaired in any way. Have a cigarette or a cigar, no likelihood of intoxication. Light up a marijuana "joint" and the very first inhalation gets you high. Not only does the person who lights up the joint get high, but so does anyone in the immediate area. That is called, by anyone who knows facts, a "contact high." Without giving any consent whatsoever, a person within mere feet of a marijuana smoker gets intoxicated.

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The Nevada ballot initiative to legalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana is being orchestrated by interests in Washington D.C., according to a Bush Administration official.

But a backer of Question 7 pointed to the clear Capitol connections of Scott Burns, who's deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy for State and Local Affairs.

"The reason this is on the ballot is because 86,000 Nevadans signed petitions to put it on the ballot," Patrick Killen of Las Vegas said.

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Proposal Would Let Adults Buy Up to an Ounce of Pot, Which Would Be Taxed

RENO, Nev. -- Gambling, prostitution and now pot? Organizers of a Nevada ballot measure hope voters in a state where almost everything goes will go one better and legalize marijuana.

If the measure passes Nov. 7, Nevada will be the first state to allow adults to possess up to an ounce of pot that they could buy at government-regulated marijuana shops.

The Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana, which has pushed medical marijuana and decriminalization laws, thinks Nevada -- with its embrace of certain vices and its streak of Western independence -- is a perfect venue.

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LAS VEGAS (AP) - Sponsors of a Nevada ballot initiative to legalize marijuana asked a state court Thursday to order elected officials and a police lieutenant to stop speaking out against the measure.

"Nobody's tax dollars should be used to tell people how to vote," said Neal Levine, manager of the Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana, which backs Question 7 on the Nov. 7 ballot. The measure would make Nevada the first state to tax and regulate the legal sale of up to an ounce of marijuana to those 21 and older.

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Dear Editor,

UNLV students need to vote yes on Ballot Question No. 7. If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents. The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican migration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best.

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To the Editor,

As the debate takes place on October 17th, keep this in mind.

As an organization of hundreds of law enforcement professionals, we support the Nevada effort to have the governement, not criminals, regulate marijuana. Marijuana prohibition reduces public safety. Road officers in Nevada will spend about as much time searching for a baggie of pot, as they do searching and arresting DUIs. Detectives/narcs who bust those who sell adults an ounce of pot are not at that moment searching for child molestors, rapists and those breaking into our homes.

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Name: Captain Allen Veil

Age: 46

Hometown: Yerington

Occupation: Law Enforcement: Field Services Commander, Lyon County Sheriff's Office

Family: Daughters Veronica, 21, and Erica, 18, both attend the University of Nevada; son Clint, 13, eighth-grader in Yerington; parents John and Mona of Yerington; three brothers, all live in Yerington.

Political Background: This is my first campaign for an elected office.

What is Lyon County's most pressing law enforcement issue, and what do you intend to do to address it?

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Ballot Initiative Gets Heat At Meeting

"This is a joint," Regent Stavros S. Anthony said.

The Board of Regents was one vote shy Friday of the seven needed to adopt a resolution stating the Board's position opposing ballot Question No. 7, which proposes to amend the Nevada Revised Statutes to allow and regulate the sale, use and possession of one ounce or less of marijuana by persons 21 or older.

"It's going to send a very bad message to the youth of this state that it's OK to get high," Anthony said. He opened the discussion, which was heated at times, with some statistics that explained why he feels the board should take a position on the issue.

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To the Editor: As a Christian, your story, "Clergy Members Support Efforts To Legalize Marijuana," (Oct. 6, 2006) is encouraging news because when churches and parents/mothers speak out, cannabis prohibition will end. Colorado churches should support Amendment 44, legalizing small amounts of cannabis in my state the same way.

One reason to support re-legalizing cannabis that doesn't get mentioned is because it is Biblically correct since Christ, God Our Father, indicates He created all the seed-bearing plants saying they are all good, on literally the very first page (see Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30). The only Biblical restriction placed on cannabis is that it be accepted with thankfulness (see 1 Timothy 4:1-5).

It's time to stop caging humans for using what God says is good.

Truthfully,

Stan White, Dillon, Colo.

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The proponents of Question 7, marijuana legalization, would like you to believe it's a black and white issue. And it is if you believe the following:

. Pot is not harmful.

. Legalizing it would not lead to any more pot smokers than we have now.

. The prevalence of marijuana would not lead to any more addiction problems than we have now.

. Our prisons are full of inmates guilty of no other offense than smoking pot.

. Our police officers spend most of their time chasing down people guilty of no other crime than smoking an occasional joint.

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CARSON CITY -- Sister Toni Woodson believes Nevada's marijuana laws encourage criminal activity.

The Roman Catholic nun, who lives in Henderson, would like to see those laws replaced with a system in which the state regulates sales of marijuana. Such a change would remove the drug from the criminal market and restrict sales to adults older than 21, she said.

"Marijuana should be categorized with alcohol and cigarettes, rather than with meth and horrible drugs," said Woodson, a member of the Community of the Holy Spirit. "Kids can get drugs today because the people who are selling them don't card. It is time for a change. I would like to see dealers removed from the street corners. I don't see people selling beer on the streets."

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A dozen Northern Nevada religious leaders plan to announce today they support the initiative to legalize marijuana.

"I know of no place else in the country where a group of religious leaders is coming together to speak with a unified voice with regulating marijuana," said Troy Dayton, associate director of the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative.

The Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative addresses drug policies issues nationwide and is working with the Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana. Dayton said he called many religious leaders to get their support on the initiative.

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As a Colorado voter having a similar amendment on the November election ballot, I'd like to see Nevada citizens re-legalize cannabis ( "Smoke screens," Sept. 21). Otherwise, law-abiding responsible adults are sick and tired of the federal government's reefer madness mentality over a plant that is considerably less harmful than alcohol and less addictive than coffee.

Another reason to re-legalize cannabis that doesn't get mentioned is because it is biblically correct, since Christ God Our Father indicates he created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they are all good, on literally the very first page of the Bible (see: Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30).

Regardless of what John P. Walters of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy says about cannabis; it's time to stop caging responsible humans for using what God says is good.

Stan White

Dillon, Colo.

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