NEVADANS TO VOTE ON LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

A Ballot Initiative Would Make Small Amounts Of The Drug Acceptable For
Recreational Use.

CARSON CITY, Nev. -- The state that turned "sin" into "$in" is at it again.

With the unique history of having already legalized -- and profited from --
gambling, brothels and quickie divorces, Nevada voters will decide in
November whether their state should become the first in the nation to
legalize marijuana for recreational use and tax it.

The initiative also puts Nevada at the center of the ongoing battle between
the federal government and the states over who gets the last word about
marijuana laws.

"It begins a long-overdue serious debate on the legalization of marijuana,"
said Keith Stroup, executive director of the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). "If it wins in Nevada, my guess is we can
probably take it to other states and have them take a serious look at it as
well."

That is exactly what worries federal law enforcement, already in a fight
with several states over the use of marijuana as medicine.

"Let's not kid ourselves," White House drug czar John Walters told an
anti-drug convention in Las Vegas last month. "This (initiative) is about
helping the marijuana dealers by making it easier to buy and sell on a
wider scale and eventually legalize all drugs."

Twelve states, including California, have laws that penalize possession of
small amounts of marijuana with as little as a simple fine.

But Nevada's proposed constitutional amendment, Ballot Question 9, would go
much further: It would be legal for anyone over 21 to possess three ounces
or less of the drug.

It also would require the legislature to come up with a way to license
businesses to sell marijuana and to establish a tax and license fee
schedule equivalent to the tobacco taxes and fees.

Proponents have declined to estimate how much the state might reap from
marijuana sales. But Nevada, which like California is facing a gaping state
budget deficit, collected $43.6 million in cigarette taxes in the fiscal
year that ended June 30.

The measure would ban advertising pot or importing it from outside the
state and prohibit its use in a vehicle or public place.

Under Nevada law, even if voters approve the measure this year, they would
have to reconfirm it in 2004. It would not go into effect until January 2005.

Question 9 isn't the only marijuana-themed measure on U.S. ballots this
fall, although it is the most sweeping in scope.

In Arizona and the District of Columbia, voters are to decide whether to
join nine other states, including California, that already allow access to
marijuana for people with a doctor's prescription.

In Congress, a strange-bedfellow coalition of liberals and conservatives is
pushing a bill to grant federal approval to any state that adopts a medical
marijuana law.

Closer to home, a San Francisco ballot measure would direct officials to
investigate whether the city should grow marijuana on vacant city property
and distribute it to those with medical needs.

The Nevada initiative has its roots in the 2000 election, when state voters
approved legalizing the drug's use as medicine. Last year, the legislature
reduced penalties for possession of less than an ounce from a felony to a
$600 fine.

The hefty 69 percent "yes" vote for that measure encouraged national
pro-marijuana groups to push the electoral envelope.

"Nevada was the only state that had reduced penalties in more than a
decade," said Billy Rogers, on leave from the Washington, D.C.-based
Marijuana Policy Project to run the pro-Question 9 campaign. "So we thought
public support was here for this ... and we thought there was a track
record in the legislature here to make it work if it's approved."

There is also Nevada's history of being a step ahead or out of step with
the rest of the country.

Strapped for cash in the early 1930s, Nevada became the first state in the
20th century to legalize gambling. The state now gets 37 percent of its
operating revenue from the industry.

It also reduced the wait for a divorce to six weeks, attracting disaffected
spouses from all over the country and, for a time, generating $5 million a
year in divorce-related revenues.

In 1971, the state gave the green light to the "red light" business by
allowing all but the two largest counties to choose whether they wanted to
allow -- and tax -- brothels. Ten of the remaining 15 counties did.

"This state has always kind of done things its own way," said Joe Demma, a
political consultant and director of government and public affairs for a
Las Vegas advertising firm. "Politically, it trends toward the
conservative, but in its own way ... mostly people want government,
especially the federal government, to have a minimal role in their lives."

All that freedom has had a price: Nevada is at or near the top in the
nation in divorces, suicides, personal bankruptcies and tobacco and alcohol
use.

Opponents of the marijuana measure say it would add to those social costs
by encouraging the use of drugs in Nevada.

"It's our opinion, based on research our group has seen, that it's a
'gateway' drug and that most people who use harder drugs started with
marijuana," said Arthur Mallory, district attorney of Churchill County and
president of the Nevada District Attorneys Association.

"And there are federal laws already in place that present an automatic
conflict with this."

Federal law enforcement officials have warned that no matter what Nevada's
voters decide, they will enforce the 31-year-old federal law that
classifies marijuana with hard drugs such as LSD, PCP and heroin.

"It's against federal law to possess marijuana, and even if they pass this
initiative, it's still going to be against federal law," said Tom Hinojosa,
a Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman. "We don't speculate on what
kind of enforcement action we will or won't take, but the bottom line is
that it is against federal law."

The DEA has conducted raids in California on "cannabis clubs" that
dispensed the drug to patients with prescriptions. While the U.S. Supreme
Court has ruled that marijuana has no special protection as a medicine, the
California Supreme Court has found that state law can be used as defense
against criminal possession charges.

But Nevada's position would be unique in that the state would be both
regulating marijuana sales and profiting from them.

"I think that if the state itself is directly involved, the extent to which
federal authority could be exerted against the state ... is a significant
constitutional issue," said Gerald Uelman, a Santa Clara University School
of Law professor.

The kind of campaign that will be waged around the issue remains a mystery.
No organized opposition has surfaced, yet a survey done two weeks ago
showed voters evenly divided 48 percent to 48 percent on the measure, with
just 4 percent undecided.

Last week, the president of Nevada's largest police organization announced
the group's endorsement of the initiative. Two days later, he was fired and
the group announced it did not support the measure.

Proponents, who call themselves Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement,
spent about $375,000 to qualify the measure for the ballot, almost all of
it donated by the national pro-marijuana groups.

Rogers, chairman of the pro camp, expects to start running commercials
after Labor Day.

"We will have television and radio ads to get the truth out," he said.
"Just like a regular political campaign."

At least in Nevada.