NEW POLL FINDS OPPOSITION TO POT, SUPPORT FOR MARRIAGE LAWS

A poll of likely Nevada voters shows most have made up their minds on two
controversial state ballot initiatives, with large margins opposing a
measure to legalize marijuana and supporting a ban on gay marriage.

Only 4 percent of 625 people responding to the statewide poll for the Las
Vegas Review-Journal said they had not yet made up their minds on Question
9 or Question 2 on next week's ballot.

The poll found 60 percent against Question 9, which would legalize
possession of up to 3 ounces of marijuana by adults, while 36 percent said
they favored the initiative and 4 percent said they were undecided.

Sixty percent said they support Question 2, which would make the existing
statutory definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman part of
the Nevada Constitution. Thirty-six percent said they were opposed and 4
percent were undecided.

The telephone poll was conducted for the Review-Journal and
reviewjournal.com by Washington, D.C.-based Mason-Dixon Polling and
Research Inc. The sampling error margin was 4 percentage points.

The survey, taken two weeks before the election and reported by the
Review-Journal on Monday, found support for the marijuana initiative
continuing to erode since polls taken in July and August.

The question of whether Nevada should decriminalize marijuana has captured
national attention, and brought federal drug czar John Walters to the state
twice to rally opposition.

In August, 55 percent of likely voters said they opposed Question 9, while
40 percent said they backed the measure, and 5 percent were undecided. That
poll also had a sampling error margin of 4 percentage points.

In July, 44 percent said they favored decriminalizing pot, while 46 percent
were opposed.

"As people figured out what it was all about, support started going down,"
said Brad Coker, Mason-Dixon managing director. "People don't want legal pot."

The initiative would compel the state to set up a system to cultivate,
sell, tax and distribute marijuana. Low-cost marijuana also would be made
available for the 200 people in the state who now can grow marijuana plants
for medical reasons.

To change the state constitution, the initiative must be approved on Nov. 5
and again in 2004.

Billy Rogers, director of Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement, the
group that collected signatures to get the initiative on the ballot, said
his own surveys and other polls put the question much closer.

"I am not saying we are ahead," Rogers said, "but we are only slightly behind."

Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement is an offshoot of the Marijuana
Policy Project of Washington, D.C., which has funneled about $1.6 million
into the campaign to legalize marijuana in Nevada.

Sandy Heverly, executive director of Stop DUI in Nevada and a leading
opponent of the marijuana initiative, called the new poll good news.

"We have been pounding the pavement," Heverly said. "It is all very
encouraging."

Women oppose Question 9 at a much higher rate than men, according to the
survey. Only 31 percent of women back legal marijuana, while 63 percent
oppose it. Among men, 41 percent support Question 9, and 57 percent oppose it.

If voters approve Question 2, the anti-gay marriage initiative, it will
become part of the constitution. It passed in 2000 with nearly 70 percent
of the vote.

The 60 percent in favor of the measure in the new poll compares with a July
poll for the Review-Journal that found 55 percent in favor of the measure,
and 38 percent opposed, with 7 percent were undecided.

Richard Schlegel, executive director of Equal Rights Nevada, a group
opposed to Question 2, promised radio and telephone campaigns this week in
Las Vegas and Reno to urge voters to oppose the measure.

Richard Ziser, chairman of the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage in
Nevada, which gathered the signatures to place the measure on the ballot
two years ago, said he was encouraged by the poll results.

"We're holding our own," he said. "We're about where we were two years ago
at the same time."