FAILURE TO FILE PETITIONS FITTING END TO DOPEY IDEA

The leaders of a campaign to legalize possession of marijuana
inadvertently disproved their own case last week when they failed to
turn in a box of petitions that likely would have secured the
initiative a place on the ballot in November.

Somehow members of the Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana
forgot, misplaced or otherwise spaced out a box of petitions with
6,000 signatures until four days after the deadline for submitting
them had passed. Now they are trying to get the courts to order the
state to accept the late petitions but aren't having much luck. You
snooze, you lose.

If the committee comes up short of signatures in the final tally it
will be perhaps a fitting end to a dopey idea. Tardiness and losing
things are common occurrences in the pro-dope crowd.

Supporters of legalizing marijuana like to describe cannabis as a
harmless, naturally-occurring herb that is nontoxic, not addictive and
produces no short-or long-term health effects. Some argue that pot
"isn't as bad as alcohol" and that it helps people cope with stress,
depression, pain and eating disorders. Decriminalizing its possession,
they say, would eliminate the black market for illegal drugs and free
up police to pursue "real criminals" while farmers and the government
rake in big bucks growing and taxing weed.

Anybody who believes that smoking dope has no harmful effects on human
health simply has not examined the facts. The National Institutes of
Health and others have conducted extensive research on these claims
and found just the opposite =D0 that smoking marijuana poses serious
health risks, including depression, anxiety, personality disturbances
and memory loss. People who smoke marijuana are four times more likely
to suffer a heart attack and three times more likely to come down with
head, neck or lung cancer. They are more likely to call in sick, turn
work in late or be involved in an accident. Contrary to popular
belief, some people can become addicted to marijuana to the point that
it interferes with family, school, work and recreational activities.

The nation's prisons, treatment centers and mental hospitals are full
of people who started down the wrong path by smoking dope. This does
not seem like the kind of activity that is in the best interest of
Nevada or an activity the people should endorse by making it legal.

As mind-altering substances go, maybe marijuana isn't as dangerous as
alcohol, although that is debatable. It's like comparing Ted Bundy to
Charles Manson - who's to say which one is worse; they're both killers.