VOTERS SAY NO TO LEGALIZING MARIJUANA, YES TO HIKING MINIMUM WAGE AND
EMINENT DOMAIN

Nevada voters were just saying no to legalizing marijuana, welcoming a
hike in the state's minimum wage and keeping alive eminent domain
reform, among other decisions on ballot initiatives on Tuesday's ballot.

With at least 1,620 of 1,913 precincts statewide reporting, Question
7, which would have allowed Nevada residents 21 years of age or older
to possess an ounce of marijuana or less, was being rejected by 56
percent of voters. Only 44 percent were in support.

Las Vegas police Lt. Stan Olsen, who oversees legislative affairs for
the department and who worked against Question 7, said the measure,
the latest in a string of failed efforts to legalize the drug here,
was pushed by outsiders rather than Nevadans.

"They were trying to use us as a social experiment, as lab rats.
Voters are engaged. They're bright. This was a bad bill of goods, and
they knew it," Olsen said. "The voters didn't want it. The community
didn't want it. There's nothing good that can come out of legalizing
marijuana."

Despite the apparent loss, backers of the measure were heartened by
the turnout in favor of the measure.

"This will be the all-time biggest vote for ending marijuana
prohibition in the history of this country," said Neal Levine,
Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana campaign manager. "This is
an enormous amount of progress. Unfortunately, we fell a little bit
short."

Levine said his group would continue its efforts to win over Silver
State voters and "it is a 100 percent certainty this will be back on
the ballot" in 2008 or 2010.

Outside a Henderson polling place, Jim Taylor, a 50-year-old Henderson
Republican, said he was strongly against Question 7.

"They want to legalize marijuana, but I think that's not a solution,
it actually makes more of a problem," he said.

But 25-year-old Larry McKenzie, a Henderson voter who described
himself as independent, said he wanted the measure to pass.

"They waste so much time arresting people who smoke weed when they
could invest that cop time and jail space in worse crimes," McKenzie
said. "I have friends who are potheads. They're not going to change,
and they're not hurting anybody. My friends are very harmless."

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