NEVADA JOINS TRENDS

Nevada voters closely adhered to national trends as they voted last week to
allow the medical use of marijuana, but also to restrict state-sanctioned
marriage to couples made up of a man and a woman.

As amendments to the Nevada constitution, both provisions have to be OK'd
by the voters in two successive elections. This marked the second OK for
the Nevada marijuana measure, which sailed to approval by a 2-to-1 margin.
The same-sex marriage ban -- which piled up even more impressive 69 percent
support -- must win voter approval again in 2002.

Generally -- though Alaskans turned down a chance to make the plant
completely legal -- state and federal laws against pot didn't stop a number
of states from voting to permit its compassionate, medical use under
certain circumstances.

In Mendocino County, Calif., 115 miles north of San Francisco, voters OK'd
a measure that allows residents to grow as many as 25 pot plants apiece.
The measure faced no organized opposition.

Voters in Colorado also OK'd a measure permitting doctors to prescribe
marijuana for the seriously ill, 53-47. In the past four years, similar
medical-marijuana measures have become law in California, Oregon,
Washington, Alaska, Maine and Hawaii.

The gay-marriage ban was actually more controversial, with opponents
contending it could limit the ability of same-sex couples to name each
other as beneficiaries in insurance policies, make hospital care decisions
or even visit their loved ones in the case of serious illness -- while
proponents argued it will do no such thing, but merely prevents same-sex
couples married in foreign jurisdictions from gaining special rights and
privileges in Nevada.

Lest we be accused of overt neutrality, the marriage ban is unnecessary.
However, Nevada's majority hardly stood alone on the issue. A similar
measure also passed handily in Nebraska, while The Associated Press reports
voters also "rejected civil rights protection for Maine's gays and lesbians."