STATE VOTERS REJECT LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

Question 9 Loses By Wide Margin

CARSON CITY -- The drive to make Nevada the first state with legal
marijuana failed overwhelmingly Tuesday as voters decisively defeated
Question 9.

Nearly complete statewide returns showed 61 percent of the voters opposed
Question 9. Passage would have allowed adults to possess as much as 3
ounces of marijuana. Thirty-nine percent backed the initiative placed on
the ballot through petitions circulated by Nevadans for Responsible Law
Enforcement.

"We are elated," said Sandy Heverly, one of the leaders of the Coalition
Against Legalized Marijuana. "I think the message we have sent to these
people is never underestimate the power of good people who have a lot of
passion."

Heverly, executive director of STOP DUI, had emphasized throughout the
campaign that Nevadans did not need another legal drug added to the
problems already associated with alcohol abuse. She said 57 people have
died in the last five years in accidents involving Nevada motorists who had
used marijuana and that with legalization that number would increase.

"Once you leave the glitz and glamor of the Las Vegas Strip, you will find
families who go to work every day, go to church and who do not want their
children subjected to more drugs in our society," she said.

The move to make Nevada the first state with legal marijuana captured the
nation's attention. Media flocked to Las Vegas to write accounts of the
latest sin in Sin City and national drug czar John Walters made two trips
to Nevada, calling marijuana a gateway drug that can destroy lives.

Billy Rogers, leader of Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement, said the
question recognized the reality of today's world. Although the drug is
illegal, Rogers said, many people will continue to use it and they should
not be considered criminals. He pointed to studies that show 11 million
Americans regularly use marijuana and 80 million have tried the drug.

If approved Tuesday and again in 2004, Question 9 would have obligated the
Legislature to regulate, cultivate, sell and tax marijuana. Low cost
marijuana would have been made available to people with permission to use
marijuana for medical reasons.

Rogers attributed the defeat to the strong national wave of support for
Republicans and the high quality television commercials produced by Walters
in his move to defeat the question.

"Obviously, I thought we were going to do better," Rogers said. "Clearly
there was a conservative wave that caught us. We knew we were going to get
clobbered by Republicans. I think we won among Democrats."

But he said he advised his staff not to give up and predicted that
eventually marijuana use will become legal for adults.

"I don't think the voters were saying we should throw people in jail for
smoking marijuana in the privacy of their homes," he said. "I think they
were afraid that more people might drive under the influence of marijuana
and more children might use marijuana."

He added that high profile deaths involving drivers who had used marijuana
also may have contributed to the defeat of Question 9.

"These tragic events were beyond our control," Rogers said. "In hindsight,
we could have been more clear about the safeguards in Question 9 to protect
people on the road from anyone under the influence of marijuana."

Voters interviewed at the polling places in both rural and urban Nevada had
strong viewpoints about Question 9.

"I don't think it is any more dangerous than alcohol or tobacco," said
George Schmidt, a middle-aged man outside a polling place in Douglas
County. "If you got them, smoke them."

But Wes Stephenson, a voter at Dean La Mar Elementary School in Las Vegas,
said he was very conservative and voted against Question 9.

"It's the way I believe," he said. "It's my core values."