LEGALIZING MARIJUANA: BACKERS BLAME ELECTION LOSS ON FEAR

Columnist's Tragic Death Raised Issue of Driving Under the Influence

CARSON CITY -- The man who tried to make Nevada the first state with
legal marijuana said there was one overriding reason that Nevada
voters rejected Question 9. Her name was Sandy Thompson.

Billy Rogers, leader of Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement, said
his organization could not explain away the tragic Aug. 9 death of Las
Vegas Sun columnist and executive Sandy Thompson.

She was killed when a car driven by 21-year-old John Simbrat slammed
into her vehicle, which was stopped at a Las Vegas stoplight. Simbrat
had been smoking marijuana and has pleaded guilty to driving under the
influence of a controlled substance. He will be sentenced in December.

"The voters went into the polling places concerned that more people
would drive under the influence," Rogers said. "Clearly in Clark
County, the Sandy Thompson tragedy had a tremendous impact on voters.
The smartest thing the opponents did was enlist the support of the
Thompson family. You can't argue with a family that has gone through a
tragedy. That was an event beyond our control."

Sandy Thompson's husband, Gary, said his wife would be pleased that
the marijuana question was defeated.

He said he and his daughter, Kelly, are not prudes and support medical
marijuana, but believe a law legalizing marijuana for all adults would
lead only to more carnage on the highways.

"We get 36 million visitors a year to Las Vegas, and if 1 percent of
them bought marijuana that is 360,000 people," he said. "Some of those
people are going to drive under the influence. It is inevitable there
would be more deaths."

In Tuesday's election, 61 percent of voters opposed Question 9, which
would have allowed adults to possess as much as 3 ounces of marijuana
in private; 39 percent supported the initiative question.

The results were almost identical to a similar ballot question to
legalize marijuana in Alaska in 2000. Attempts to legalize marijuana
in California in 1972 and in Oregon in 1986 also failed.

The move to make Nevada the first state with legal marijuana captured
the attention of the nation's media, with many commentators touching
on the state's sin-friendly reputation.

For instance, talk-show host Conan O'Brien on Thursday joked that
opponents of the ballot question worried that "legalizing pot would
have sent the wrong message to Nevada's young gamblers and
prostitutes."

Prior to the election, dozens of reporters visited Nevada and
invariably mentioned that wacky Nevada, with its legal gaming and
legal prostitution, was preparing to add marijuana to its list of
legal vices. Most stories, including a cover story in Time magazine,
maintained that polls showed the marijuana question was a tossup,
ignoring the only unbiased polls on the matter, which were conducted
by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research for the Review-Journal and
reviewjournal.com.

The final poll indicated Question 9 had support from 36 percent of
voters, with 60 percent opposed and 4 percent undecided. A similar
Mason-Dixon poll in August also showed Question 9 failing
overwhelmingly. Only in July did the poll show nearly an even split.

"It has been dead since last summer when law enforcement came out
against it," said Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon.

Keith Stroup, executive director of the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws, said marijuana supporters learned from the
defeat of Question 9 and an unrelated marijuana initiative in Arizona.

"There is a lot of support to eliminate all penalties against
marijuana use, but the public does not yet support legal marijuana,"
he said.

He cited Time magazine studies that indicated 72 percent of Americans
believe people should incur only fines for using small amounts of
marijuana. But just 34 percent favor legalization.

Stroup speculated Question 9 would have passed in Nevada if Rogers'
group had limited the issue to adults possessing 3 ounces of
marijuana. But the question also called for the Legislature to
regulate marijuana through passing laws on the cultivation, sale and
taxation of marijuana. Pot would have been sold in state-licensed stores.

Backers of legal marijuana in Alaska made the same mistake in 2000,
Stroup said. That initiative called for legal marijuana and also
mandated reparations for people who previously had been busted for
pot.

NORML already considers Nevada among the 12 states with a
decriminalized marijuana law. The 2001 Legislature reduced the penalty
for possession of 1 ounce or less to a $600 fine. Previously it had
been a felony to possess any amount of marijuana in Nevada.

Rogers concedes that the legislative decision to reduce marijuana
penalties was one of the reasons that the Marijuana Policy Project
chose Nevada for its Question 9 initiative drive. No other state had
reduced marijuana penalties in more than a decade. MPP is the parent
organization of Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement.

Rogers, Stroup and High Times magazine editor Steven Hager all believe
the time will come when states will adopt legal marijuana laws. That
time, however, might be 10 years away and not necessarily in Nevada,
Rogers said.

Hager believes pro-marijuana advocates will return to Alaska in an
attempt to win voter approval for legal marijuana. Next time the
initiative will leave out language about handing out reparations for
past marijuana arrests, he said.

"People are gradually going to warm up to it," Hager said. "Marijuana
is not going away."

The vote against Question 9 will not affect Nevada's medical marijuana
program, said Cecile Crofoot, the Department of Agriculture employee
who manages the program. Now 237 people have their doctor's permission
to use marijuana for medical reasons.

Qualified users can grow up to seven marijuana plants. The state,
however, cannot advise them where to acquire seeds or how to grow
marijuana. Crofoot said participants just need to go on the Internet
and put the word marijuana in a search engine.

Dozens of Web sites sell seeds, including exotic sounding types from
the Netherlands, and offer growing tips. While some participants have
complained to Crofoot they cannot grow marijuana, others tell her they
are very successful.

Hager said pro-marijuana advocates have not given up entirely on
Nevada. "Your state wears the banner of a state that believes in
personal freedom," he said. "That's how Nevada looks to the rest of
the country. It looks like an environment that would be friendly to
change."