VOTING ON DOPE

This time, the law really was a ass.

But, thanks to a pro-marijuana group, the American Civil Liberties
Union and U.S. District Judge James Mahan, the law won't frustrate the
will of Nevada voters.

Mahan's ruling last week overturned a decision by Secretary of State
Dean Heller, who'd ruled that a trio of ballot initiatives, including
one to legalize up to 1 ounce of marijuana, failed to get enough
signatures to qualify.

All three initiatives had far more than the 51,337 signatures required
under Nevada law, which says initiatives must collect enough valid
signatures to equal at least 10 percent of the votes cast in the "last
preceding general election." But because all three initiatives were
turned in and certified after the record-setting Nov. 2 general
election, Heller ruled that a new standard had been set: 83,156
signatures, which meant that all three petitions failed.

Don't be too hard on poor Heller, however: He made his ruling based on
an opinion from the attorney general, which in turn was based on
rulings from Supreme Courts in Nevada and Arizona.

"It's like you changed the laws in midstream," Mahan
said.

Thanks to the ruling, Heller said he'd send the marijuana petition
that was the subject of a federal lawsuit filed by the Committee to
Regulate and Control Marijuana and the ACLU to the 2005 Legislature
for consideration. If the Legislature votes the marijuana-legalization
concept down (and what are the odds that's going to happen?) it will
appear on the 2006 ballot.

And, Heller said, he'll also send the Legislature a pair of smoking
initiatives felled by his ruling. One would ban smoking in most public
places, including bars that serve food and areas of a casino not
devoted to gambling. The other would keep smoking legal in most places
where it's currently allowed.

One final word of praise for Mahan: He put his personal feelings aside
to issue his ruling. "I personally don't have any use for marijuana,
but that's not the issue here," he said. And he's right: The issue is
the right of Nevadans to decide what their state laws should say.