Nevada is HIGH!

Sonny · Aug 27, 2002

I am sure some of you are packing up to move to Nevada if this passes. They would allow people over 21 to buy and they will tax the sell of weed through authorized sellers. What a boost in revenue!

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002-08-26-marijuana_x.htm

Measure gambles on mar1juana

By John Ritter, USA TODAY

LAS VEGAS — For 30 years, the campaign to legalize mar1juana in America has gone nowhere. A few states have approved it for medical purposes. A few have removed criminal penalties for possessing small quantities. But no state has said, in effect, get high at your own risk.

Now comes anything-goes Nevada, where prostitution is legal in some places, gambling fuels the economy and voters are among the nation's most independent-minded.

After gaining a state-record 110,000 signatures, backers won a place on the November ballot for a measure that would legalize possession of up to 3 ounces of mar1juana. If it passes this year and again in 2004, the state's constitution will be amended, preventing politicians from circumventing the voters' will.

mar1juana would be legally smoked in private, but public use would remain illegal. Despite warnings from Washington that legal pot conflicts with federal law, a recent poll shows Nevada voters evenly split.

mar1juana-related measures will appear on four other ballots this year: Arizona, Ohio, Michigan and the District of Columbia. This continues a trend that has evolved slowly since 1973, when Oregon became the first state to decriminalize possession.

Nevada ballot issue

Nevadans will vote in November on a far-reaching initiative on mar1juana. Key provisions:

Possession of up to 3 ounces would be legal.

Public use and driving under the influence would remain illegal.

Adults 21 and older could buy it.

People selling mar1juana to those younger than 21 could face a prison sentence.

The state would license sellers and collect taxes from sales. The Legislature would decide how sellers would obtain mar1juana. Unlicensed sellers could be prosecuted.

Bringing mar1juana in from out of state would be illegal.

The state would set up a system for low-cost distribution of medicinal mar1juana.

Source: State of Nevada

Despite changing attitudes on illegal drugs and an electorate increasingly dominated by voters born during and after the baby boom, there's no consensus among demographers and social scientists that more states will follow Nevada. "It wouldn't surprise me if Nevada pioneers legalization," says Robert Lang, director of Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute. "But you can't bet on the baby boom being monolithic. There are a lot of baby boomers who rejected the '60s."

Surveys show that about one-third of American adults — 80 million — have smoked mar1juana, but Lang notes that many came of age during the "Just Say No" 1980s, when mar1juana use declined.

Baby boomers are more liberal on social issues than previous generations, even as they age, says William Frey, a demographer at the Milken Institute in Santa Monica, Calif. "But it works two ways," he says. "They also see themselves more in the role of parents and guardians than they do as free spirits."

Experts agree that Americans are moving away from the idea that drug use is a law enforcement problem and see it more as a health issue. Two of the November measures, in Ohio and Michigan, would give convicted drug users the option of treatment instead of jail. Californians approved a similar initiative in 2000.

Proponents of the Nevada initiative are selling it partly on the basis of the impact mar1juana cases have on the criminal justice system.

On Aug. 6, the Nevada Conference of Police and Sheriffs endorsed the measure. Andy Anderson, then the president of the group representing more than 3,000 street cops, argued that officers spend time on mar1juana possession cases that could be better spent investigating violent crimes.

"Some cops were upset with me," he says. "But there's a silent majority out there that agreed with our position. We weren't advocating the smoking of mar1juana. All I'm saying is, let's not waste time arresting people for it when it's never going to be prosecuted and people really don't care."

A Zogby poll in December found that 61% of Americans say police shouldn't spend time dealing with minor mar1juana offenses.

The boost from the police group caused a sensation. But some of the state's sheriffs, police chiefs and district attorneys pressured Anderson to resign, and the group reversed its position. "We don't believe the initiative is a good thing for the public and certainly not a good thing for law enforcement," says Detective David Kallas, executive director of the union that represents Las Vegas police.

The measure's backers still claimed a victory. "The consensus had been that law enforcement was solidly opposed," says Billy Rogers, head of Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement, the initiative's sponsor. "We certainly dispelled that notion."

Rogers, on leave from the Washington, D.C.-based mar1juana Policy Project, which advocates legalization, says Nevada was targeted because last year it became the first state in more than a decade to decriminalize mar1juana. Possession of less than an ounce is a misdemeanor carrying a $650 fine. Before that, Nevada had the nation's toughest law — possession of a single mar1juana cigarette was a felony. Nevada voters also approved a medical mar1juana constitutional amendment by wide margins: 59% in 1998 and 65% in 2000.

Since this year's measure qualified for the ballot, Asa Hutchinson and John Walters, heads of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Office of National Drug Control Policy, have visited to warn that legalizing pot would turn Nevada into a drug tourist spot.

"You're going to have a much more permissive environment," Hutchinson says. "People will be coming from other states to visit their relatives so they can use mar1juana."

Walters says that if the Nevada measure wins approval, he doubts the government will enforce federal law's flat ban on mar1juana possession.

Pot laws in many other Western nations are far more permissive. Great Britain recently decriminalized possession of small amounts. Canada is considering the same policy. Spain and Italy have sharply lowered penalties for mar1juana use. In other countries, the drug remains illegal, but prosecutions are few.

There's some sentiment in Congress for loosening mar1juana laws. Though it's not expected to pass, a House bill, supported by more than two dozen members from both parties, would permit states to approve medical use of mar1juana without risk of federal intervention.

Backers of the Nevada measure to legalize up to 3 ounces are confident, although Rogers says he's not sure his group can afford TV time. It has raised about $150,000. The state's largest newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, came on board, arguing that legalization "would end the needless harassment of individuals who peacefully and privately use mar1juana."

Even so, demographer Frey says, "it's going to be a long time before this trend moves into the heartland — maybe the coastal states, the big metro areas, where the more urbane baby boomers live."
Click to expand...

Rocket River · Aug 27, 2002

Go Nevada!!!

Rocket River
and i don't even smoke or toke

RocketMan Tex · Aug 27, 2002

If this passes, Nevada will surpass California as the state with the largest population. And it will probably happen within a year.

Sonny · Aug 27, 2002

Originally posted by RocketMan Tex
If this passes, Nevada will surpass California as the state with the largest population. And it will probably happen within a year.
Click to expand...

Yeah and sales of Cheetos and Twinkies will set a new record in Nevada.

rockHEAD · Aug 27, 2002

yes!

legal prostitution AND legal weed!

MadMax · Aug 27, 2002

betcha the federal government wins...and those liberals who decry states' rights and are strong supporters of this issue will wish they hadn't!

Htownhero · Aug 27, 2002

As much as it pains me to admit it, MadMax is right. The federal gov will find a way to stop this. It doesn't matter what states want anymore, they have been stripped of almost all of thier power. Land of the free, huh?

mrpaige · Nov 6, 2002

Looks like the Feds won't have to step in to stop it, the Nevada ballot measure failed to pass.

SmeggySmeg · Nov 6, 2002

I'm so excited I've got the Munchies

.................. but i didn't inhale...............

RunninRaven · Nov 6, 2002

Originally posted by Htownhero
As much as it pains me to admit it, MadMax is right. The federal gov will find a way to stop this. It doesn't matter what states want anymore, they have been stripped of almost all of thier power. Land of the free, huh?
Click to expand...

As soon as all the state goverments get upset that the federal govt. put a stop to this, the federal govt. will probably release a statement that sounds something like this...

I was going to not veto the pot legalization
But I got high
I got high
I got high

ZRB · Nov 6, 2002

Oh well, I'll just drive to Canada.

Sonny · Nov 6, 2002

Originally posted by mrpaige
Looks like the Feds won't have to step in to stop it, the Nevada ballot measure failed to pass.
Click to expand...

Well they were saying that it got close to 40% so that it would probably resurface in the future.

Good Job on digging up this thread!

A-Train · Nov 6, 2002

I'm all for legalizing mar1juana. If we tax the hell out of it and restrict it like cigarettes, then we can just let people smoke it in their homes and we wouldn't clog up jails and court time prosecuting potheads that get caught with a dime bag in their car glove compartments

DCkid · Nov 6, 2002

mar1juana would be legally smoked in private, but public use would remain illegal.
Click to expand...

It doesn't seem like this would make much of a difference. Most people aren't walking around the streets smoking pot anyway. They do it in private, where they won't get caught.

TheFreak · Nov 6, 2002

The roadways going to and from Nevada would become a much more dangerous place. Is that desirable?

mateo · Nov 6, 2002

I doubt the roadways would be that dangerous. Who wants to really drive when you can hang out at an all-you-can eat buffet all day?

Forums

Nevada is HIGH!

Sonny Member

Rocket River Member

RocketMan Tex Member

Sonny Member

rockHEAD Member

MadMax Member

Htownhero Member

mrpaige Member

SmeggySmeg Member

RunninRaven Member
Supporting Member

ZRB Member

Sonny Member

A-Train Member

DCkid Member

TheFreak Member

mateo Member

Share This Page

About ClutchFans

Rockets Content

Support ClutchFans!

Nevada is HIGH!

Sonny Member

Rocket River Member

RocketMan Tex Member

Sonny Member

rockHEAD Member

MadMax Member

Htownhero Member

mrpaige Member

SmeggySmeg Member

RunninRaven Member Supporting Member

ZRB Member

Sonny Member

A-Train Member

DCkid Member

TheFreak Member

mateo Member

Share This Page

RunninRaven Member
Supporting Member