WHILE POLICE RAIL, NEVADA OFFICIALS PONDER TAXED POT'S EFFECT ON TREASURY

LAS VEGAS - The state that legalized cathouses and craps is now considering
condoning cannabis.

A voters initiative on the November ballot would permit possession in
Nevada of up to three ounces of marijuana by people 21 and older. They
would be allowed to smoke it in the privacy of their own homes, but not in
their car or public places.

While law enforcement officials are railing against the measure, state
officials are quietly pondering how the state-licensed sale and taxation of
marijuana may stoke the state's coffers by tens of millions of dollars
annually.

Legalizing marijuana by amending the state Constitution is a two-step
process. If a simple majority of voters approve the measure in November, it
would need to be reaffirmed by voters in 2004. The second vote could be
avoided if the measure is adopted next year by the state Legislature, which
already has decriminalized possession of marijuana. That course is
considered unlikely because most politicians, including Republican Gov.
Kenny Guinn, are not taking a stand on the issue, saying they will defer to
the voters' wishes.

Nevada is one of nine states that allows the use of marijuana with a
doctor's prescription, and one of 11 states that has lowered criminal
sanctions for possession of marijuana.

Ohio has the nation's most lenient marijuana possession laws, issuing a
civil citation and fining $100 for possession of up to 100 grams (about 3.5
ounces) of marijuana, according to the National Organization for the Reform
of Marijuana Laws.

Only Alaska previously has attempted to legalize possession of marijuana
altogether. But even pro-pot forces said the 2000 ballot measure went too
far, because it didn't ban smoking in public and sought reparations for
jailed marijuana users. The ballot measure was defeated by 59 percent of
the voters.

State polls suggest Nevada voters are about evenly split on the question.
The state's largest newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, has
editorialized that the measure "would end the needless harassment of
individuals who peacefully and privately use marijuana."

Nevada may seem a logical place to test the issue because of the state's
renowned live-and-let-live philosophy, as already manifested through its
extensive gambling and rural houses of prostitution. And as a practical
matter, the debate can be financially waged in just one media market. Clark
County is home to two-thirds of the state's residents. But it is also its
most unpredictable political audience because of the region's explosive
growth of non-Nevada transplants over the past decade. Most of rural Nevada
is conservative, Las Vegas is not.

The $375,000 petition drive, which collected more than 100,000 signatures
to qualify the measure for the ballot, was spearheaded by the
Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project. One of its policy directors,
Billy Rogers, took a leave of absence to head the local campaign under the
moniker Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement.

"Nevada is the only state in more than a decade to have passed
decriminalization legislation," Rogers said. "We believe we already have a
strong base of support in Nevada and that the legislature would give a
good-faith effort to implement the necessary laws."

If the initiative becomes law, state officials would have to determine who
would grow the marijuana, and how to make it available through
state-licensed retail outlets.

The notion of mining marijuana sales as a state revenue source, as the
initiative calls for, is enticing, said Chris Giunchig-liani, a
schoolteacher and Democrat assemblywoman in Nevada's part-time legislature.