QUESTION 9 BACKERS SPEAK OUT

Drug Czar Avoids Vocal Protesters

Sign-waving supporters of Question 9 gathered Thursday outside a local
television studio to confront the nation's drug czar, who was in Las Vegas
to campaign against the ballot initiative that would decriminalize small
amounts of marijuana.

John Walters, chief of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, slipped
out a back door at KLAS Channel, near the Strip and Desert Inn Road, but
the several dozen pot supporters took it in stride.

"We're not really protesting," Ralph Smith, 23, said. "We're supporting a
logical debate on the issue."

Holding signs that said, "Go back to Washington DC!" and "Vote yes on
Question 9!" and "Stop making sick people go to drug dealers 4 medicine,"
the group shouted: "Stop the crime! Yes on 9!"

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, who was behind the passage
of the state's medical marijuana legislation, came out of the building and
told the group that she tried to get Walters to debate her, but he declined.

"I didn't know I was that great of a debater," she said. "I'll take that as
a compliment."

She told the group, "We're trying to say in the privacy of your home, you
shouldn't be under the threat of arrest. If they care so much about the
safety of Nevadans, then why did the federal government dump the (Yucca
Mountain nuclear) dump on us?"

The group cheered, and Giunchigliani hugged a woman holding a sign.

April Huneycutt, 24, of Las Vegas, brought her pug puppy Magic to the
demonstration. Magic was wearing a little sweater with a pro-Question 9
button on it.

"I believe police officers shouldn't waste their time with nonviolent
crimes. I think it has a great chance of passing," she said, adding that
Magic is the unofficial Question 9 campaign dog.

A few Metro Police officers on bikes and U.S. marshals kept an eye on the
protest, but the pro-pot people remained peaceful.