PETITION BACKERS WIN REPRIEVE

LAS VEGAS - Three state initiatives - including one that would make Nevada
the first state to legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana - were
revived Jan. 28 when a judge ruled that the secretary of state was wrong to
raise petition requirements while signatures were being gathered.

If the Legislature does not approve the initiatives, including two
anti-smoking measures, they will end up on the 2006 election ballot.

Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller's office had issued a guide that said
petition-gatherers needed to submit 51,337 valid signatures, based on 10
percent of the voter turnout in the 2002 election.

By November, organizers of all three petition drives submitted enough
signatures to meet that goal, but last month Heller decided the requirement
actually should be based on voter turnout in the November 2004 election.

None of the petitioners gathered the 83,156 signatures needed to meet the
new standard, but U.S. District Court Judge James Mahan, ruling in the
marijuana case, said the original standard still applied.

"The judge ruled they can't change the rules in the middle of the game,"
said Allen Lichtenstein, an attorney for American Civil Liberties Union of
Nevada, which backed the challenge by the Marijuana Policy Project.

Mahan referred not only to the petition guide, but also to a precedent
Heller established when he used the results of the 2000 election to qualify
a medical malpractice petition for the ballot in 2002.

Heller spokesman Steve George said the secretary of state would move all
three petitions forward to the Legislature, which convenes Feb. 7. It will
have 40 days to approve the measures, or they automatically go on the 2006
election ballot.

Heller had acted on state Attorney General Brian Sandoval's advice in
changing the signature requirement.

The marijuana initiative would allow adults to possess up to an ounce of
the drug for personal use. If the measure is approved Nevada, one of 11
states to allow medical marijuana, would become the first to decriminalize
marijuana among the general population.

Alaska voters in November rejected a measure to decriminalize marijuana,
although court rulings in that state have supported the right of adults to
possess small amounts of the drug.

Nevada voters in 2002 overwhelmingly rejected a measure to legalize up to 3
ounces of marijuana.

The latest initiative would increase penalties for providing marijuana to
minors or for causing a fatal accident while driving under the influence of
the substance. Marijuana would be taxed, with revenue earmarked for drug
and alcohol treatment and education programs.

The other two revived initiatives are competing measures that would limit
smoking in public buildings. The American Cancer Society and American Heart
Association support one, and a less-restrictive alternative is backed by
casinos and bars.