FEDERAL JUDGE GIVES NEW LIFE TO NEVADA MARIJUANA PETITION

LAS VEGAS -- A federal judge ruled Friday that the Nevada Secretary of
State was wrong to disqualify a petition to legalize marijuana
possession, giving new life to the initiative and two proposed
anti-smoking measures.

An aide said Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller would comply with
the judge's order in the marijuana case and would concede a state
court case challenging his decision to reject the two anti-smoking
initiative petitions.

"We will move to drop the other court case and move the three
petitions forward to the Legislature," Heller's spokesman Steve George
said.

U.S. District Court Judge James Mahan's ruling on the Marijuana Policy
Project's petition came in a challenge filed with the backing of the
American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.

The ACLU supports letting adults possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana
for personal use. But Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU office
in Las Vegas, said the organization filed the federal lawsuit to
highlight a "lack of consistency, predictability and fairness in the
process."

The judge ruled Heller violated the marijuana petition-gatherers'
First Amendment, due process and equal protection constitutional
rights, ACLU lawyer Allen Lichtenstein said.

The ruling sends the measures to the 2005 Legislature, which convenes
Feb. 7 in Carson City. It will have 40 days to act on the measures, or
they automatically go on the 2006 election ballot.

In deciding Heller set the criteria for the number of required
signatures too high, Mahan referred to a precedent established when
Heller qualified a medical malpractice petition for the ballot in
2002, and to a petition guide Heller's office gave to
signature-gatherers this year.

"Both by precedent and governmental pronouncement, they were given the
information that they would need to get 10 percent of the 2002 total,"
Lichtenstein said. "The judge ruled they can't change the rules in the
middle of the game."

Similar arguments were raised by Robert Crowell, lawyer for the Nevada
Clean Air initiative petition. Supported by the American Cancer
Society, the American Heart Association and the American Lung
Association, it seeks to limit smoking in public buildings.

A third petition, with less restrictive anti-smoking rules, is
supported by casinos and bars.

The petition guide said backers needed to submit 51,337 signatures,
based on 10 percent of the voter turnout in the 2002 election.

Proponents of the clean air petition submitted 64,871 valid signatures
on Nov. 9 -- a week after the 2004 election. Advocates of the
marijuana proposal submitted 69,261 signatures, and the casinos'
smoking petition had 74,348 signatures.

Heller, acting on state Attorney General Brian Sandoval's advice,
decided the Nov. 2, 2004, general election had become the yardstick
for signatures, and said the petitions needed 83,156 valid signatures.

A spokesman for Sandoval declined immediate comment
Friday.

Crowell welcomed word that a Feb. 9 hearing on the Cancer Society
smoking petition may not be necessary in Carson City District Court.

"I would say it's over," he said.