SUIT FILED TO PUT POT INITIATIVE BEFORE LAWMAKERS

CARSON CITY -- Backers of an initiative petition to allow adults in Nevada
to legally possess up to one ounce of marijuana on Wednesday filed a
federal lawsuit in Las Vegas asking for emergency action to place the issue
before the 2005 Legislature.

The Marijuana Policy Project and the American Civil Liberties Union of
Nevada seek a preliminary injunction to force Secretary of State Dean
Heller to send the petition to the Legislature, which goes into session on
Feb. 7.

The lawsuit alleges Heller illegally disqualified the petition based on a
ruling that it did not have enough signatures.

"This motion is filed as an emergency motion in order to prevent the
irreparable harm that is already ongoing, but will accrue with particular
force on Feb. 7," the lawsuit notes.

The complaint is signed by New York lawyers Matthew Brinkerhoff and Sarah
Nethburn for the policy project and Allen Lichtenstein for the ACLU of Nevada.

A lawsuit has also been filed in state district court in Carson City by a
group that supports an initiative petition to limit smoking in public
places. And that suit makes the same allegations, that Heller was wrong in
refusing to send that petition to the Legislature.

Supporters of the marijuana petition gathered 69,261 signatures, the
American Cancer petition had 64,871 and another petition on smoking
supported by casinos and bars collected 74,348 signatures of registered voters.

They said they were told they needed 51,337 valid signatures, based on the
requirement of 10 percent of the voters in the 2002 election. But after the
petitions were submitted to Heller, the state Attorney General's Office
said they needed 83,156 signatures based on the results of the 2004 election.

Neal Levine, the Washington, D.C.-based director of state policies for the
marijuana project, said "We followed all the state's rules from day one.
Then, without warning, they changed the rules after we turned in the petition.

"It's not fair and we expect to win in federal court," Levine said.

Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU in Nevada, said the decision by
the attorney general's office "disenfranchises tens of thousands of voters
and deprives the petitioners of their due process rights under the 14th
Amendment."

The complaint asks that the marijuana petition be sent to the Legislature
as soon as it convenes. The Nevada Constitution, said the suit, requires
these initiatives to take precedent over other issues and the Legislature
must act within 40 days.

Failure of the Legislature to approve the measures within the time limit
would put them on the 2006 ballot for voters to decide.

The attorneys ask for an expedited briefing schedule so the case can be
resolved by Feb. 7.

The suit said there is "no rational basis" for Heller treating these
initiative petitions different than one involving medical malpractice in
2002. At that time, Heller qualified the malpractice petition based on the
2000 election figures.

There is nothing "that justifies the secretary of state's unequal and
different treatment," of the marijuana petition, the complaint said. And
Heller's "arbitrary conduct violates the equal protection clause" of the
U.S. Constitution, says the suit.

Heller has said he is bound to follow the advice of his legal counsel, the
state Attorney General's Office.