JUDGE ASKED TO SETTLE FEUD OVER INITIATIVE PETITIONS

CARSON CITY -- A coalition of health groups and the state attorney
general's office today were to file a court document to determine if
anti-smoking and marijuana initiative petitions qualified to be presented
to the 2005 Legislature.

Bob Crowell, the American Cancer Society's lawyer, and Senior Deputy
Attorney General Josh Hicks prepared what is called a "submission of
controversy without action" to District Judge Bill Maddox of Carson City.
It was to be filed today.

Crowell called the action the "most expeditious way" to get a court ruling
on the controversy over the number of signatures required on initiative
petitions.

Hicks wrote a legal opinion last month that the initiative petitions to
limit smoking in public places and to permit adults to have one ounce of
marijuana failed to qualify because they did not have the required 83,156
valid signatures.

Based on this legal opinion, Secretary of State Dean Heller rejected the
three petitions. The Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the
American Lung Association gathered 64,871 signatures; the anti-smoking
petition supported by casinos and bars submitted 74,348 signatures and the
Regulation of Marijuana initiative had 69,261 signatures.

A schedule for submitting briefs to the judge has been set and arguments
are expected during the week of Feb. 7.

Meanwhile the National Marijuana Policy Project intends to file suit in
federal court by the end of this week challenging the state's ruling. Bruce
Mirken, director of communications for the group, said it also submitted a
letter to Heller on Monday asking him to reconsider his decision.

Mirken also said his group is coordinating with Crowell, who thinks Maddox
may allow the petitions to be submitted to the Legislature.

The groups circulating their petitions believed they had to submit only
51,337 valid signatures. That was based on the requirement of 10 percent of
the voter turnout in the preceding election. They felt that meant the 2002
election when an estimated 512,000 voters turned out.

They submitted their petitions after the election last month. The attorney
general's office said the most recent election had to be used on
calculating the 10 percent of the turnout. More than 830,000 voters went to
the polls last month.

The attorney general's opinion relied in part on a 1994 decision by the
Nevada Supreme Court that the most recent election figures must be used,
meaning the three groups needed 83,156 signatures of voters.

In its petition to Heller to reconsider his decision, the marijuana
organization and the American Civil Liberties Union said Heller's own
publication on initiatives "expressly provides that the number of
signatures needed in each county and statewide is 10 percent of the votes
case in the 2002 election."

Those groups and Crowell also point out that in 2002 Heller used the 2000
election figures in qualifying the initiative petition on medical
malpractice to be presented to the Legislature.

"The secretary's prior conduct constitutes official policy and cannot be
reversed arbitrarily and without notice," said Matthew D. Brinckerhoff, the
lawyer representing the Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana and
Allen Lichtenstein, an attorney for the ACLU of Nevada.

Brinckerhoff and Lichtenstein each said the 1994 decision of the Nevada
Supreme Court does not apply to this case. And they said the county
election officials asked that the petition not be filed before the election
because they were too busy with setting up the 2004 election.

Crowell said his first brief to Maddox is due Jan. 18; the attorney
general's office will submit its argument on Jan. 28 and Crowell will
submit his final brief Feb. 4.

If Maddox rules that any or all of the initiatives should be submitted to
the Legislature, the Legislature has 40 days to approve them or the
initiatives go on the 2006 election ballot.

If Maddox rules in favor of the initiatives, Hicks may appeal such a
decision to the state Supreme Court. That court had issued the 1994
decision, which Hicks relied upon.