Question 2 before Nevada voters asks whether marijuana should be fully legal and widely available for recreational, commercial sale. Our state has already decriminalized the drug for small quantity possession, and marijuana is now legally available for medical use. Question 2 is a 13-page initiative written by the commercial marijuana industry. It's an "insiders business plan" to benefit Big Marijuana "potpreneurs." The initiative would create a new state bureaucracy in the Department of Taxation to regulate the drug and set wholesale prices. It gives monopoly powers to existing medical marijuana retailers and liquor wholesalers, while criminalizing Nevada citizens growing marijuana within 25 miles of proponents' pot shops. [continues 76 words]
I oppose Question 2, the measure on the ballot to approve recreational use and possession of certain amounts of marijuana. Historically, in response to criminal justice and health issues, Nevadans have given marijuana policy a thoughtful and careful examination. Policy makers have reduced penalties for possession of small quantities of the drug and built a framework for legal distribution of medical marijuana to patients who have a recommendation from a licensed physician. Now, Question 2 asks Nevadans to legalize marijuana for recreational use. We should vote no on Question 2 for many reasons. [end]
Tom Hellmann ("Pot OK Would Be "Pouring Gasoline On The Fire," Voices, Oct. 21) is mistaken to believe Colorado has "regrets" regarding cannabis (marijuana) and our end to cannabis prohibition. Every subsequent poll indicates citizens continue supporting the end of that quagmire. There is every reason to believe when Nevada citizens end cannabis prohibition, citizens will not look back with regret either. It's time for America to stop caging responsible adults for using the relatively safe God-given plant cannabis. Stan White, Dillon, Colorado [end]
On Question 2: We're considering here a plant that has been used in every recorded civilization and I can't really believe that the U.S. of A. got onto a magic secret in 1930 that made it worthwhile to destroy lives for its possession. Even now, in many states, if police confiscate assets in a search, they don't need to return these assets if the case is lost or not pursued. While this often does not include actual plant material, it does often include cash. Legislation encourages state/federal tension. [continues 79 words]
Even as a business owner and father of two children, I am convinced that legalizing cannabis is the right choice for Nevada. TV ads decrying the dangers of edible cannabis for children miss the point: Cannabis-related hospitalizations in Colorado still make up a tiny fraction of total poisonings and have led to no reported deaths. Legalization will not change child endangerment laws or the importance of responsible parenting. And arguments that legalization will affect older children's educational development also ring hollow. [continues 89 words]
Hopefully the people of our state will have enough sense to vote against recreational marijuana. We already have terrible drug problems in this country and this would just be pouring gasoline on the fire. Marijuana may not be addictive per se but if someone is curious enough to try it the first time, many will be curious enough to try something harder later. We are just starting to hear some of the regrets coming out of Colorado and Washington (rime, DUI, health, etc.). [continues 77 words]
Just in the last year alone, Colorado has brought in $1 billion from the distribution of recreational marijuana. It is generally boosting the economy's revenue. Why wouldn't all states legalize recreational use of weed when it benefited Colorado so much? Christian Cox-Elander, Reno [end]
Nevada voters should now brace against millions of dollars from out-of-state "Big Marijuana" interests supporting Question 2 on the November ballot, the legalization of recreational marijuana. Voters need to realize that by voting "yes" on Question 2, they will be adopting all provisions of a 12-page initiative written by large corporate marijuana interests. Nevadans need to know what it is not. This initiative isn't a Nevada-based libertarian effort to "decriminalize" or "legalize" marijuana. Rather, the initiative is a special interest "business plan" crafted by and for large marijuana industry donors. It qualified for the ballot as a result of pot promoters paying $660,000 to mercenary signature-gatherers. Passage will give monopoly powers to existing medical marijuana retailers and liquor wholesalers, while criminalizing Nevada citizens growing marijuana within 25 miles of the proponents' pot shops. "Big Marijuana" wants to buy through an initiative that which they could not achieve in the scrutiny and compromise required by the legislative process. In reality, this initiative is phony "legalization." [continues 312 words]
Medical marijuana establishments authorized to cultivate or dispense marijuana products were authorized in 2013 by Senate Bill 374. They had to be in unincorporated areas. On Washoe County's website, look up the MME map and you will find almost every parcel in Old Washoe City has been so approved! We have several grow facilities and a proposed 6,500-square-foot grow and dispensary building. Why? Because we are centrally located, have a highway and lots of unused commercial zoning. [continues 92 words]
While Nevada looks to the prospect of legalizing recreational marijuana, the state is also gazing into a future that puts its teenage population at risk for higher drug use and high school dropout rates if what's happened in Colorado and Washington are any indication of what's destined to occur in the Silver State. According to statistics in those states, the legalization of recreational marijuana resulted in a significant increase in teen marijuana use - Colorado rose to 18.9 percent and Washington is at 17.5 percent. The 2013 Nevada Kids Count data indicate nearly one in five Nevada youth ages 12 to 25 already smokes marijuana one or more times a month. [continues 57 words]
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. [continues 406 words]
The long-awaited grand opening of Nevada's first medical marijuana dispensary happened Friday morning in Sparks. More than three dozen people arrived early to wait in line outside the doors of Silver State Relief, snaking their way along the building and into the parking lot. They filled out forms as they waited, eager to purchase the first legal, commercially sold marijuana in the state. Nevada's first medical marijuana dispensary opens in Reno on July 31, 2015. Andy Barron "I'm way more emotional than I thought I would be," said Aron Swan, general manager of the dispensary. [continues 265 words]
I am writing in response to "Pot dispensary will not ruin your neighborhood" [Letters, June 17]. Clearly the author of that letter does not understand the concerns of the community residing in the area of Mt. Rose Highway and Thomas Creek Road. We are opposed to a marijuana dispensary in that specific location. The proposed location is less than 1 mile from Galena High School and Hunsberger Elementary School. No community impact study was done to inform parents and homeowners that live in the neighborhood of the proposed facility. We were not given any notice of the marijuana dispensary being considered for this location before the license was granted. [continues 90 words]
Julie Hornsby lives in constant pain. She suffers from peripheral neuropathy, a painful condition that attacks the body's nervous system. She also has degenerative disk disease in her lower back, painful enough on its own. There's no cure for it, so Hornsby's life centers on managing her pain with strong narcotics, including morphine and Percocet. "I'm 49 years old, unable to work," Hornsby said. "I quit (working) full time in 2008 and have been on disability for almost four years now. I don't work outside of the home. I can't. I can't get out of bed." [continues 1501 words]
It's called Charlotte's Web and it is a strain of marijuana that won't get you stoned. Yet this particular strain of pot is considered a wonder drug by parents and doctors who use it to treat children with epilepsy and other seizure-causing conditions. For children like 8-year-old Samuel Brady of Carson City, getting access to the Charlotte's Web tincture and oil that is processed from the marijuana plant will be a matter of life and death. [continues 1434 words]
Nevada employers are facing a dilemma over how to treat employees who use medical marijuana - a drug that's still considered illegal under federal law and is not permitted by much of corporate America. Meanwhile, Nevada law requires employers to consider "reasonable accommodations" for those who have a medical marijuana card and test positive for pot in an employment drug test. "Nevada employers are really in a pickle," said Karyn Jensen of the Human Resource Connection in Reno. "There is a conflict for employers with what the federal law is telling them and what the state law is telling them what to do," Jensen said. "So from an HR perspective, this is a nightmare, to be completely candid. It's a nightmare." [continues 493 words]
Does Washoe County District Attorney Dick Gammick realize associating himself with the claim cannabis (marijuana) is a "Schedule I" substance is in fact the root of the farce ["Legal pot an uphill climb in Nevada," April. 24]? Cannabis prohibition is the "hoax" dependent on lies, half-truths and propaganda to perpetuate. Claiming heroin is no worse than cannabis and methamphetamine, and cocaine is less harmful than cannabis by insisting cannabis is a Schedule I substance alongside heroin while methamphetamine and cocaine are only Schedule II substances is disingenuous and dangerous. A sane or moral argument to continue cannabis prohibition doesn't exist. Stan White, Dillon, Colo. [end]
The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Wednesday filed a petition with the Nevada Secretary of State to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in the Silver State. The group, made up of investors who are entering Nevada's burgeoning medical marijuana industry, needs to get 101,667 signatures by Nov. 11 to move the process forward. The first stop would be the 2015 Nevada Legislature. It will be an uphill battle for backers of the petition because approval would take a two-thirds vote in both houses because the petition has a tax component. All tax hikes in Nevada need a two-thirds vote in the Legislature to pass. It would also need the signature of Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval to become law. [continues 2277 words]
Lyon County Sheriff Allen Veil is asking the Lyon County Board of Commissioners to propose an ordinance amending Lyon County Code to prohibit medical marijuana establishments in unincorporated areas of the county. During the recent session, the state legislature approved certain medical marijuana establishments. Under county code, one commissioner could propose the ordinance change at the Sept. 5 board meeting. The ordinance would return before the board at a later date for full action. Veil is asking the board to propose and ultimately approve an ordinance that would adopt Lyon County Code Title 10, Chapter 1, Part 3, Paragraph D, and amend Title 10, Chapter 1, Part 3, Paragraph C. [continues 367 words]
While medical marijuana dispensaries passed the Legislature, they were still a topic of debate at the Reno City Council meeting on Wednesday. How the new law translates to Reno is still being worked out, from where the dispensaries can be built to whether Reno will have them at all. The use of medical pot has been legal in the Silver State since voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2000, but until the Legislature approved dispensaries, no legal way existed to purchase the drug. [continues 220 words]
