DOPE VOTE LIGHTS UP LAS VEGAS

Through a thickening haze of arguments, Nevada voters do battle to legalise
pot for private use. Timothy Pratt reports from Las Vegas

As the fall elections draw near in this non-presidential year, an unlikely
battleground in America's war on drugs has appeared in the middle of the
desert, like a shifting mirage -- Las Vegas. Home to 1.4 million of
Nevada's two million residents, the city's greater metropolitan area has
the chance, come November 5, to vote on what would be the most far-reaching
reform to America's drug laws since marijuana was made illegal in 1937.

'A lot is at stake here,' said Krissy Oechslin, spokeswoman for the
Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project, the organisation putting up more
than $1 million to mount Nevada's campaign. 'People are looking at this to
see if the reform of marijuana laws is possible nationwide.'

Arguing that the police are too busy chasing reefer when they could be
chasing robbers, a group, calling itself Nevadans For Responsible Law
Enforcement, convinced more than 100,000 of the state's citizens to place a
question on the ballot that would legalise possession of less than three
ounces of marijuana and earn the state taxes from its regulated sale to
adults over 21.

The number of signatures gained in July's 100!F heat broke records in the
quick-growing state's political history, said Billy Rogers, director of the
campaign. Early polls showed a near-even split. Then, in a move that caught
observers by surprise, the Nevada Conference of Police and Sheriffs
(NCOPS), the state's law enforcement organisation, announced its support
for the initiative.

'Violent crime is on the rise and terrorism remains a real threat,' said
Andy Anderson, the organisation's president. Our priorities have changed
and, with our limited resources, so should our laws.'

In a matter of days, police accused Anderson of misinterpreting the will of
his members. NCOPS reversed its position and Anderson resigned. By this
time question nine had attracted national attention from the media and the
federal government.

Nevada has already seen reform of the marijuana laws. By popular vote in
2000, it one of nine states where it is legal for patients with a doctor's
prescription to use the drug for medical purposes and, in the process,
reduced penalties for possession of less than an ounce. But these laws have
pitted the feds against these states, as buying and selling marijuana
remains illegal. It came to a head last week when federal Drug Enforcement
Administration officials raided a California farm that grows marijuana for
the ill. They were answered by a city hall smoke-in of the sick, joined by
the local mayor and officials (who didn't light up).

On Tuesday, the nation's so-called drug tsar, John Walters, announced he
would visit Nevada on October 9 and 10 to lobby against question nine. 'I
am going into every state that has a ballot initiative and working with
people in community coalitions,' Walters, director of the Office of
National Drug Control Policy, told a Las Vegas newspaper.

This, said Oechslin, may be the campaign's biggest obstacle. 'We're going
up against the federal government, which has unlimited money to uphold drug
policy,' she said. Last week Walters's office launched the latest
instalment of a five-year-old anti-drug advertising campaign which costs
taxpayers $180m a year.

Allen St Pierre, executive director of the National Organisation for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws -- the nation's oldest and largest such group,
founded in 1970 -- said the feds might have left the state alone if the
measure only sought decriminalisation, but will pull out all the stops to
prevent Nevada from regulating marijuana sales.

'I just don't think the idea of the state distributing marijuana will
withstand federal pressure,' he said. At the same time, he said Nevada was
as good a place as any to try. 'If you were to choose where to do this,
Nevada is the right place. It enjoys a reputation for vice, tourism and,
what is described in Washington, as Western libertarianism.'

The epicentre of vice -- at least in the minds of nearly 40 million
tourists yearly -- is the several miles of casinos known as the Strip. At
its September meeting, the State Board of Health's chairman, Joey
Villaflor, explained why he was against question nine. 'Can you imagine --
the Strip would be flooded with marijuana!'

To Rogers this is the biggest obstacle facing the initiative -- 'the lies
of the opposition'. The measure clearly states that marijuana smoking would
still be illegal in public, including the Strip's casinos. 'This is about
what people do in the privacy of their own homes,' he said.

In the end, it is the state's voters who must peer through the thickening
haze of arguments. If a majority approves the question, it must get a yes
vote again in 2004 to become law. Anecdotally it appears that more
college-aged Nevadans are registering to vote than ever before -- perhaps
to send out the message they want to light up and be left alone.

'A group of orange-haired kids with piercings everywhere came in and wanted
to register people just to vote for this question,' said Larry Lomax,
registrar with the Clark County board of elections.

'It's definitely going to be interesting,' said St Pierre. But he admits he
is not optimistic. 'I think, given a straight-up, non-politicised vote, up
to 58% of voters would support this. But the truth is, this issue is
over-politicised to the extent few issues are in this country.'