A Grass Injustice?: Nevadans Set To Vote On Legalizing Pot

If voters pass the measure, the state would be the first to allow
possession of up to 3 ounces by adults for private use. Nevada also would
tax marijuana and establish a system for distributing the drug. But the
U.S. government - already embroiled in disputes over its medical use in
other states - vows to continue enforcing the federal ban.

LAS VEGAS - Nevada established its renegade reputation in the 1920s when
local leaders thumbed their noses at the federal ban on alcohol, with one
mayor openly threatening to put "a barrel of whiskey with a dipper" on
every street corner.

The state, long a haven for prostitution, then legalized the sex trade in
13 of 17 counties. And, at a time the rest of the country considered
gambling taboo and confined it largely to illegal backroom parlors, Nevada
enshrined it in gaudy casinos.

Now Nevada is pioneering a new frontier: the legalization of recreational
pot smoking - for quantities of 3 ounces or less, for adults 21 and older.

If voters pass the measure in November - and again in November 2004 as
required for amendments to the state constitution - Nevada also would tax
marijuana and establish a system for distributing the drug, possibly
selling it in smoke shops, pharmacies or coffee houses.

The state's largest law-enforcement group, the Nevada Conference of Police
and Sheriffs, endorsed the initiative last week, saying decriminalizing
marijuana would free officers to concentrate more on "life-threatening and
serious incidents." But the group reversed the endorsement the next day and
fired its president, Andy Anderson, citing a "misunderstanding."

The initiative thrusts Nevada into the battle between the federal
government and nine states - including Washington, Oregon and Alaska - over
their efforts to legalize medical marijuana for chronically ill patients
and into the center of an international debate over moves by Canada, Great
Britain and other nations to approve across-the-board use of marijuana.

More than 60 years after the federal government passed the first law
prohibiting its use, marijuana is the most debated and studied illegal drug
in the nation. It is also the most widely used illicit substance - the U.S.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration says one in three
people 12 and older have tried it at least once - despite billions spent by
federal, state and local law-enforcement authorities to fight it.

"What this does is allow respectable people to use marijuana in their homes
and bans it every place else," said Billy Rogers, spokesman for Nevadans
for Responsible Law Enforcement, the measure's sponsor. "This will allow
law enforcement to concentrate on more serious criminals: terrorists,
rapists, murderers."

Marijuana use peaked in the 1970s; nearly 30 million people used it at
least once in 1979, according to federal figures. The number steadily
dropped, to 26 million in 1985, 16 million in 1992. Since then, the number
of users has increased, before stabilizing at around 19 million in 2000.

Statistics show marijuana is most popular among teens and young adults but
that use declines sharply as people reach their 30s and 40s.

Still, experts say, a sizable constituency of baby boomers smokes
marijuana. One study shows that 1 in 40 - or 2.6 percent - of 40-year- olds
use marijuana on a regular basis. Marijuana advocates have launched
campaigns to portray marijuana as mainstream. Earlier this year, the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws plastered New York
billboards featuring this response from Mayor Michael Bloomberg when asked
whether he had ever smoked pot: "You bet I did, and I enjoyed it."

"We want equal rights with people who use alcohol and tobacco," said Mikki
Morris, director of the Northern California-based Cannabis Consumers Campaign.

Seeking to follow the example of the gay-rights movement, Morris posts on
her Web site photos of doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs and other
professionals who openly describe their pot use. "To gain our rights, we
have to come out of the closet and show that we're nonthreatening to
society," she said.

Marijuana falls into the netherworld between liquor and hard drugs such as
heroin and cocaine, experts say, creating inconsistent and
often-contradictory public policies. Most states have lowered
marijuana-possession charges from a felony, punishable by a mandatory
prison sentence, to a misdemeanor or a finable offense. Yet in 2000, some
743,000 people nationwide were imprisoned for marijuana possession.

Despite intense efforts to crack down on illegal drugs in New York, a
sophisticated underground delivery system using bike-riding and
limousine-driving couriers - for mainly exclusive Manhattan residences -
proliferates.

"Rank-and-file officers often wink and look the other way when it comes to
a segment of the (marijuana) using population," said Ric Curtis, chairman
of the anthropology department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in
New York, who has extensively studied the city's illicit drug trade. "For
(officers), it's not worth the time and effort to go after the more upscale
people."

Whether nonconformist Nevada is the right place for proponents to make
their point about the mainstreaming of marijuana is an open question. Under
the measure, a ban on public use of marijuana would remain, but police no
longer would arrest users 21 and older who possess no more than 3 ounces of
the drug and smoke in private.

No organized effort has formed in Nevada to oppose the measure. But the
initiative is facing harsh criticism from the federal government.

If it passes, the measure would put Nevada, like California, at odds with
the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The agency has raided and shut
down medical marijuana dispensaries in California, equating them to drug
traffickers. While the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against the California
medical marijuana law, state Supreme Court justices recently decided that
users are protected from prosecution in state courts.

Robert Maginnis, vice president for policy at the Family Research Council,
asserts that arguments about compassionate use of medical marijuana are
merely a smokescreen by proponents who want to liberalize laws to allow
recreational use of pot.

In fact, the Marijuana Policy Project, involved in many of the
medical-marijuana measures, launched the Nevada organization that is
sponsoring the decriminalization initiative. Moreover, billionaire George
Soros has provided millions of dollars to finance several organizations
advocating medical marijuana and legalizing drugs.

"This is the wrong message to send, the wrong program for Nevada," DEA
spokesman Will Glaspy said. "We will respond to this in a way similar to
the approach used for the cannabis-buyers clubs. This is still against
federal law."

Other opponents say the Nevada measure is a well-orchestrated, well-
financed attempt by proponents to achieve the eventual legalization of all
drugs.

"We've got to make sure we're not comparing age-old memories of Woodstock
with what's going on today," Maginnis warned. "Today's cannabis is much
more potent."

According to the DEA, the level of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana,
has increased to 7 percent from less than 1 percent in 1974. "You'll get
addicted much faster," Maginnis said.

Along with the quality, the price of marijuana varies widely across the
country - from $400 to $5,000 a pound.

The Nevada initiative would require the state to establish a price, a tax
structure and distribution system for marijuana. The issues of quality and
purity aren't addressed, but that is something the state most likely would
have to consider.

"We spell out that it couldn't be sold in places that allow gaming and that
the establishments would have to go through a licensing process," Rogers
said of the initiative campaign.

"What (the distribution system) would look like is impossible to say."

(SIDEBAR)

Hempfest this weekend

More than 100,000 people are expected tomorrow and Sunday as Seattle's 11th
annual Hempfest returns to Myrtle Edwards Park on the city's waterfront.

About 100 speakers, music and disc jockeys on six stages will be featured
from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day. Organizers are working to decriminalize
the drug and expand Washington state's medical-marijuana law, approved by
voters in 1998.

Proponents of Initiative 75, which would require Seattle law- enforcement
officers to make personal marijuana possession by adults their lowest
priority, also will be collecting signatures to place the measure on the
November ballot.

- - Seattle Times staff