NEVADA PONDERS LEGALIZING POSSESSION OF MARIJUANA

Drugs: Voters will decide the issue in November. Police oppose the measure,
which, if it passes, could add millions to state coffers.

LAS VEGAS -- The state that legalized cathouses and craps is now
considering condoning cannabis.

A voters initiative on the November ballot would permit possession in
Nevada of up to three ounces of marijuana--enough for 100 to 200 joints--by
those 21 and older. They would be allowed to smoke it in the privacy of
their own homes, but not in their car or in public places.

While law enforcement officials are railing against the measure, state
officials are quietly pondering how the state-licensed sale and taxation of
marijuana might stoke the state's coffers by tens of millions of dollars
annually.

Legalizing marijuana by amending the state Constitution is a two-step
process. If a simple majority of voters approve the measure in November, it
would need to be reaffirmed by voters in 2004. The second vote could be
avoided if the measure is adopted next year by the Legislature, which
already has decriminalized possession of marijuana. That course is
considered unlikely because most politicians--including Republican Gov.
Kenny Guinn--are not taking a stand on the issue, saying they will defer to
the voters' wishes.

Nevada is one of nine states allowing use of marijuana with a doctor's
prescription, and one of 11 states that has lowered criminal sanctions for
marijuana possession. California also has done both.

Ohio has the nation's most lenient marijuana possession laws, issuing a
civil citation and fining $100 for possession of up to 100 grams (about 3.5
ounces) of marijuana, according to the National Organization for the Reform
of Marijuana Laws.

Only Alaska previously has attempted to legalize possession of marijuana
altogether. But even pro-pot proponents said the 2000 ballot measure went
too far, because it didn't ban smoking in public and it sought reparations
for jailed marijuana users. The ballot measure was defeated by 59% of the
voters.

State polls suggest Nevada voters are about evenly split on the question.
The state's largest newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, has
editorialized that the measure "would end the needless harassment of
individuals who peacefully and privately use marijuana."

Nevada may seem a logical place to test the issue because of the state's
renowned live-and-let-live philosophy, as already manifested through its
extensive gambling and rural houses of prostitution. And as a practical
matter, the debate can be financially waged in just one media market here.
Clark County is home to two-thirds of the state's residents. But it is also
its most unpredictable political audience because of the region's explosive
growth of non-Nevada transplants over the last decade. Most of rural Nevada
is conservative; Las Vegas is not.

The $375,000-petition drive, which collected more than 100,000 signatures
to qualify the measure for the ballot, was spearheaded by the Washington,
D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project. One of its policy directors, Billy
Rogers, took a leave of absence to head the local campaign under the
moniker Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement.

"Nevada is the only state in more than a decade to have passed
decriminalization legislation," Rogers said. "We believe we already have a
strong base of support in Nevada and that the Legislature would give a
good-faith effort to implement the necessary laws."

Among public officials, the most vocal supporter of the measure is Chris
Giunchigliani, a schoolteacher and Democratic assemblywoman in Nevada's
part-time Legislature.

"We shouldn't be making criminals out of casual, at-home adult users," said
Giunchigliani, who last year successfully rallied legislative support to
reduce the penalty for possessing small amounts of marijuana from a felony
to a misdemeanor.

"This measure is reasonably well-written and gets to the heart of the
matter: Our drug policy hasn't been working. We've created a subculture of
criminals among otherwise law-abiding citizens."

If the initiative becomes law, state officials would have to determine who
would grow the marijuana (some suggest the state's Agriculture Department),
and how to make it available through state-licensed retail outlets.

The notion of mining marijuana sales as a state revenue source, as the
initiative calls for, is enticing, Giunchigliani said. "If people are going
to smoke it, we might as well tax it and get some funding out of it," she said.

Nevada, which does not tax personal or nongambling corporate income, is
casting about for additional state revenue, and the casino industry is
resisting perennial suggestions that its gambling profits be taxed more.

Opposition to the marijuana initiative has not yet organized under a single
banner, but law enforcement officials throughout the state are criticizing it.

Among the most adamant is Dick Gammick, the Washoe County district attorney
in Reno.

"I don't support legalizing any drugs until the Food and Drug
Administration says it's a beneficial drug that can be allowed in the
system," he said. "But for now, it remains a Schedule One controlled
substance, right up there with the most dangerous drugs we have."

For a day or two, the pro-marijuana campaign rallied behind reports that
the state's largest police organization, the Nevada Conference of Police
and Sheriffs, had endorsed the initiative, as its president had announced.

Andy Anderson said that in telephone polling, the organization's directors
agreed that police officers believed it was a waste of their time to go
after small-time marijuana users. Immediately after the news of the group's
endorsement made local headlines, the board members denied such a vote and
said they were opposed to legalizing marijuana.

Anderson resigned in the controversy, but he maintains that he clearly
heard his colleagues' support of legalized marijuana. "When we endorsed the
proposal, a lot of pressure came down [from police brass], and our guys got
caught up in it," he said.

Gammick said he is troubled by the message the marijuana initiative sends
to children. "We've been telling our kids--with growing success--to stay
off drugs. We're even hearing kids talking proudly of drug-free schools.
Now we want to make it legal for adults to smoke pot? What are we telling
our kids now?"

But Giunchigliani countered: "People who raise that issue should be looking
at the parents who are smoking cigarettes in the home." As to smoking
marijuana in a home where children are living, "most people have told me
they wait until they put the kids to bed, sit down and have a drag on a
marijuana cigarette. They don't do it in front of the children. Most
parents are responsible."