QUESTION 9 OPPONENTS RALLY AGAINST EASING MARIJUANA POSSESSION LAWS

Making it legal to possess up to 3 ounces of marijuana would transform Las
Vegas into a haven for potheads, said one of several Question 9 opponents
who rallied campaigners Friday.

"We will have nothing but a continuous, 24-7 Grateful Dead concert here,"
Las Vegas Deputy Police Chief Bill Young told an applauding crowd of
volunteers who are campaigning against the ballot measure that would ease
Nevada's marijuana laws.

At an event that at times resembled a high school pep rally, opponents of
Question 9 clapped frequently as they heard fiery anti-marijuana comments
from speakers who said passage of the measure would erode public safety as
well as Nevada's overall quality of life.

The battle over the ballot initiative that would give Nevada the most
liberal marijuana laws in the United States is becoming increasingly nasty
in its tone.

Activists on both sides of an issue being watched nationally began slinging
serious mud Friday, calling each other liars misrepresenting the effects
Question 9 would have on Nevada.

With the election less than seven weeks away, pro- and anti-initiative
lobbyists expressed little surprise Friday that their campaigns were now
teeming with hot-blooded personal attacks.

"We're not a bunch of robots. It's a very emotional issue," said STOP DUI
Executive Director Sandy Heverly, one of several members of the newly
formed Nevadans Against Legalizing Marijuana. "It's something we can't
distance ourselves from, because we feel like we're all going to pay for it
if it passes. I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't become more heated."

At the rally inside Elks Lodge No. 1468, Clark County prosecutor Gary
Booker told about 75 fellow anti-initiative campaigners that passage of the
ballot question would harm all Nevadans with negative social effects, such
as increasing children's access to marijuana.

He accused the group backing the measure, Nevadans for Responsible Law
Enforcement, of lying about the nature of the initiative to get more than
100,000 residents to sign the petition that landed it on the November ballot.

Booker said the NRLE is financed by "rich fat cat guys back East" who want
to use Nevada as the laboratory for a drug legalization experiment.

"Go sell drugs in your own neighborhood. We don't want them here," Booker
said before urging NRLE spokesman Billy Rogers, a Texas native, to leave
the state. "If Mr. Rogers thinks this is such a great idea, why doesn't Mr.
Rogers go back to Mr. Rogers' neighborhood in Texas and pass this?"

If Nevada voters pass Question 9 in November and again in two years, people
21 and older will be able to legally possess up to 3 ounces of marijuana in
their home, but not in vehicles or public places.

Use of the drug by minors also would remain illegal, as would driving under
the influence of marijuana. The drug also would be sold in state-licensed
smoke shops and taxed.

Currently, possession of 1 ounce or less or marijuana in Nevada is a
misdemeanor subject to a $600 fine for the first two offenses.

In response to Booker's statements, Rogers said Booker has frequently
misled the public about the implications of the initiative, including a
blunder earlier this week in which he incorrectly stated during a televised
debate that medical marijuana patients have access to marijuana seeds
through the state Agriculture Division.

Many Question 9 backers say a flaw in the medical marijuana law passed last
year results in patients being forced to buy the drug illegally from street
dealers.

Rogers also said a recent legal opinion by Las Vegas attorney JoNell Thomas
contradicts Booker's assertion that passage of the initiative would nullify
current state laws that prohibit driving under the influence of marijuana.
Thomas concluded that those statutes would be unaffected by the
initiative's passage.

"They will say anything. They're desperate," Rogers said. "Gary Booker has
a long record in this short campaign of not telling the truth and just
making things up. He's a district attorney, in a position of authority and
people trust what he says, but it's simply not true."

In a speech at the rally, Sheriff Jerry Keller said passing the measure
would result in a "public safety nightmare" in Las Vegas.

Other speakers at Friday's rally made Biblical allusions in describing
their battle against what they view as a well-financed group run by
non-Nevadans jamming drug decriminalization through the Silver State.

Heverly compared the NRLE to a Goliath pouring giant sums of cash into
Nevada to campaign for passage of the initiative. But Heverly, clutching a
slingshot in her hands, said Nevada has 1,000 Davids who will work
tirelessly to ensure that marijuana laws are not loosened.

"Anybody with an ounce or 3 ounces of common sense is going to vote no on
Question 9," she told the cheering group.

A few made more personal appeals.

"This is a very personal issue for me because my son is an addict and it
started out with marijuana," said Cherrell Tarantino, a Las Vegas real
estate agent.

Stifling tears as she spoke, Tarantino said her 18-year-old recently
returned home after battling a drug problem for more than three years. She
said drugs devastated her family's life, as it has hundreds of other valley
families.

"He's partly alive because the law is there, because the law interceded,"
she said. "I applaud the legal system because, without that, he would be dead."