AG WON'T CHANGE OPINION ON POT, SMOKING PETITIONS

LAS VEGAS -- Despite mounting pressure and the threat of a lawsuit, the
Nevada attorney general's office will not change an opinion that led to the
disqualification of initiative petitions to limit smoking in public places
and legalize marijuana.

Attorney General Brian Sandoval "stands by the opinion," Tom Sargent,
spokesman for Sandoval, said Monday. Sargent said reversing the decision
would defy a precedent the Nevada Supreme Court set in a similar case in 1994.

A Washoe District Court judge will review the issue Feb. 7 in Reno.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada said Monday it will represent
the Marijuana Policy Project, a group that wants the Legislature to
consider letting adults possess up to one ounce of marijuana for personal use.

"What we have is an utter mess," said Gary Peck, ACLU executive director.
"It disenfranchises the thousands and thousands of people who signed onto
these petitions with the expectations that the state was going to follow
its own rules, respect voters their first amendment rights and have a fair
process."

Peck said ACLU lawyers planned to file a federal lawsuit this week.

"Unfortunately, we seem to be headed inexorably into federal court and
another costly lawsuit for the people of the state of Nevada," he said.

Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller had asked Sandoval to reconsider
after an appeal from Robert Crowell, attorney for the Nevada Clean Air
initiative petition that seeks to limit smoking in public buildings.

Backers of the clean air petition submitted 64,871 valid signatures Nov. 9
- -- a week after the 2004 election. They maintain they needed 51,337
signatures, based on 10 percent of the voter turnout in the 2002 election.

Heller, acting on Sandoval's advice, said the petition needed 83,156
signatures -- or a number equal to 10 percent of the turnout in the Nov. 2
election.

Advocates of the marijuana proposal had 69,261 valid signatures.

An initiative supported by the casinos to impose smoking limits gathered
74,348 valid signatures.

Crowell said Heller accepted an initiative petition to change medical
malpractice laws after the 2002 November election, and determined the
measure qualified for the ballot based on 10 percent of the voters in the
2000 election.

Heller said there were enough signatures to qualify the malpractice
petition based on 10 percent of the voter turnout in 2000 and 2002.

Crowell said the health coalition relied on the advice of the secretary of
state in its initiative petition guide that only 51,337 signatures were
needed and then agreed to the request by county officials not to file the
petition before the election because the officials had too much work facing
them.