MARIJUANA CAMPAIGN TO USE VALLEY RESIDENTS

Lawmakers, Doctors Among Those Backing Ballot Initiative

Holly Brady began smoking marijuana 12 years ago after finding conventional
medications did little to quell the intense pain and nausea caused by her
multiple sclerosis.

The disabled Las Vegan rejoiced last year after the passage of a state
medical marijuana law that allowed her to legally grow her own. But her
happiness faded after several attempts at home production left her with
unsmokable dried weeds. She returned to breaking the law by going through a
dealer.

"It really is miraculous medicine," Brady, 49, said Thursday afternoon, a
few hours after toking through her morning dose of three joints. "That's
why I get it anyway I can. To me, it's survival."

Backers of Question 9, which if passed Nov. 5 would ease Nevada pot
possession laws and make the drug available for purchase in state-licensed
stores, hope Brady and others now being placed in the public eye will
convince voters that decriminalization is a good idea.

Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement, the group advocating passage of
Question 9, on Thursday unveiled a steering committee including Brady and
about 30 other Southern Nevadans who are lending their names, stories and
opinions to the campaign to pass the ballot measure.

NRLE campaign manager Billy Rogers said he believes the committee members,
some of whom will appear in television ads, will boost support for Question
9. A recent Review-Journal poll found public approval of the issue has
languished since earlier this year.

"Where our campaign failed during the summer was not putting a human face
on Question 9," he said. "This does that."

The group also hopes that filling the committee's membership with Silver
State residents, including a few high-profile Nevadans, will help erode the
perception that Question 9 is being jammed through the state by
out-of-state, pro-marijuana interests.

"This is by Nevadans for Nevada," said Rogers, a Texan whose salary is paid
by the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project.

The committee includes: Democratic Assemblywoman Chris Guinchigliani, who
serves as chairwoman; Democrat Wendell Williams, the chairman of the
Assembly Education Committee; Dick Carver, a Republican Nye County
commissioner; Bob Fulkerson of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of
Nevada; Andy Anderson, the former president of the Nevada Conference of
Police and Sheriffs; four area doctors and two attorneys.

"We're not talking about a bunch of hippies here," Guinchigliani said.

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 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.

Silver State voters already have approved the use of medical marijuana, but
Guinchigliani said stories such as Brady's show the law isn't helping
patients legally entitled to marijuana. The legislator said Question 9
should appeal to voters on a number of other fronts, including Nevadans'
traditional dislike for legislating against personal vice.

"If you're an adult in the privacy of your own home, who's the government
to come in and tell you what to do?" she said.

Anderson, who resigned as president of NCOPS last month, has argued that
pot possession cases waste not only the time of law enforcement officers
who patrol Nevada's streets but the limited resources of the state's
heavily clogged courts system.

Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Gary Booker, who has become a
leading opponent of Question 9, said that's untrue.

The prosecutor accused those who joined the committee of endangering their
fellow Nevadans.

"They're creating a public safety nightmare," said Booker, who has
prosecuted several high-profile driving under the influence cases involving
deaths. "I don't know what their motivations will be, but I think they have
to care less about kids, because if they did (care), they would recognize
the inherent danger of legalizing this drug."

Booker said the out-of-state proponents of marijuana decriminalization are
trying to use Nevada as a testing ground for a national drug legalization
battle.

"They want to use us as test rats and test monkeys, and I don't want to see
that happen to this community," said Booker, one of the several Question 9
opponents who frequently refer to Rogers as a carpetbagger. "If this is
such a good idea, why don't they take it to Texas?"

Booker and other opponents have formed their own group, Nevadans Against
Legalizing Marijuana, and plan to announce today their own steering
committee of anti-pot advocates.