Six US States Mull Over Pot Laws

[boulder]

US Mulls Pot Law Ballot

 

Posted by CN Staff on November 04, 2002 at 16:01:41 PT

By Marc Lavine in Los Angeles

Source: Australian

 

More than three decades after the start of the pot-powered hippie revolution, voters in six US states will vote Tuesday on the still-smouldering issue of whether to ease laws on marijuana use.

 

Years after European countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Portugal decriminalised the drug, many Americans are fuming over fresh local proposals to legalise marijuana sales of under certain circumstances.

 

"The United States looks increasingly isolated on the issue of marijuana," said Peter Reuter, a professor of law and criminology at the University of Maryland, adding that Americans are less willing to be pragmatic over drugs.

 

As pundits focus on a possible shift in the balance of power in the US Congress following Tuesday's polls, advocates of easing access to pot were issuing last-minute rallying calls to voters in the states of Nevada, Arizona and South Dakota and the cities of San Francisco and Boston.

 

In addition, voters in the eastern state of Ohio and in the US capital of Washington are to cast their ballots in local referendum on relaxing punishment for pot users by offering them treatment instead of criminal penalties.

 

The most radical proposal is on ballots in the freewheeling gambling state of Nevada, where voters will decide whether to become the first state to allow citizens to carry up to 84 grams (three ounces) of marijuana.

 

Under the scheme, people older than 21 would be allowed to buy marijuana in state-licensed shops rather than buying off street-corner drug dealers.

 

"Our war on drugs in not working and its time we admitted that," said Nevada state Representative Chris Giunchigliani, who sponsored the initiative.

 

"Marijuana is now three times easier to get than alcohol and tobacco simply because it's not regulated. I would rather tax it like cigarettes and put money into education and rehabilitation than put it in the hands of drug dealers."

 

But polls show Nevadans are divided on the issue. A recent survey showed 44 per cent of them back the initiative, 46 per cent oppose it while 10 per cent are undecided.

 

In Arizona, voters will vote on whether to allow a register of people allowed to use soft drugs for medical purposes, while toughening the punishment for those caught with marijuana without this excuse.

 

The move would also reduce punishment for marijuana possession to a civil fine and require a conviction before defendants must forfeit their property.

 

US antidrug czar John Walters has been fervently campaigning against the proposed liberalizations, branding the movements irresponsible and saying they constituted the thin end of the drug abuse wedge.

 

Initiatives in Ohio and Washington would force judges to sentence drug offenders to rehabilitation treatment rather than jail.

 

South Dakotans will approve or scupper a proposed law that would make it legal under state – but not federal – law for people to plant and possess industrial hemp, another move violently opposed by antidrug groups.

 

In the traditionally free-spirited California hub of San Francisco, "Proposition S" will allow the city to explore the possibility of growing and distributing marijuana for medical use.

 

California and Arizona approved using marijuana for medical purposes in 1996, but the move clashed with federal laws and sent tensions soaring between the states, the city of San Francisco and government drug enforcement chiefs.

 

Several local authorities in the Boston area have put a nonbinding question on the ballot asking voters if marijuana offenders should be fined instead of facing a judge.

 

But the administration of President George W. Bush and many voters are appalled by efforts to liberalise marijuana use.

 

"While I'm optimistic that our Nevada initiative will pass, we are a nation founded by puritans and some people are worried that lightening up on marijuana will make us look bad," said Giunchigliani.

 

Source: Australian, The (Australia)

Author: Marc Lavine in Los Angeles

Published: November 05, 2002

Copyright: 2002 News Limited

Contact: ausletr@matp.newsltd.com.au

Website: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

[boulder]

PRO POT LOSES IN THREE STATES

____________________________

 

Source: Associated Press

 

Activists hoping to soften American attitudes toward marijuana ran into vigorous opposition from the White House, and drug reform ballot measures were voted down in Nevada, Arizona and Ohio.

 

Wealthy backers who had succeeded in easing access to marijuana for medical uses sought to go a step further and lessen the penalties for its use in general. Many voters apparently drew a distinction between the two ideas.

 

Elsewhere, Florida voters banned smoking in most indoor workplaces and restaurants, joining four other states that have passed similar bans. Arizona residents slapped smokers with an increase in cigarette taxes from 58 cents to $1.18 per pack; Missouri narrowly defeated a quadrupling of the cigarette tax.

 

Massachusetts residents voted to eliminate bilingual education, but Colorado voters decided to keep it — a split victory for Silicon Valley millionaire Ron Unz, who poured money into both campaigns. Unz, who condemns bilingual classes as a black hole leaving students lacking in English, began his English-immersion movement in California four years ago and scored victories there and in Arizona in 2000.

 

Tennessee amended its constitution to allow statewide lotteries, leaving Hawaii and Utah as the only states without any form of legalized gambling.

 

In Oregon, voters rejected two hotly contested measures, one that would require companies to label genetically modified food and another to universalize health care. The latter was expected to cost state taxpayers $1.7 billion.

 

It was the pro-pot initiatives, however, that drew the most attention this year.

 

Early polls had made advocates optimistic. The measures were heavily financed by three billionaire philanthropists — George Soros, John Sperling and Peter Lewis — as part of a broader effort to roll back the federal war on drugs.

 

During the past six years, the three have financed successful efforts to pass 17 of 19 state-level initiatives easing drug laws. In the past, though, most of the measures dealt with medical marijuana.

 

This time, voters in Nevada defeated a measure to legalize the possession of up to 3 ounces of marijuana. In Arizona, residents rejected an initiative that would have likened marijuana possession to a traffic violation. Finally, Ohio defeated a proposal that would have required judges to order treatment instead of jail for some drug offenders.

 

President Bush's newly appointed drug czar, John Walters, campaigned in all three states against the measures, joining with state law enforcement, judicial and political leaders in denouncing them.

 

Walters and his supporters characterized marijuana as a gateway drug that leads to increased drug abuse by youths and more traffic accidents, domestic violence and health problems.

 

Advocates were surprised by the force with which the White House fought them in this election.

 

"What we have seen tonight is how hard the drug war ideologues are willing to fight and how dirty they're willing to fight," said Bruce Merken, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, one of the groups that coordinated the campaigns.

 

"I think we need to sit down and take a deep breath and take a look at how we can present the facts in a way that people can understand," said Merken.

 

Advocates found some solace in the passage of two city-wide marijuana measures. In San Francisco, officials received approval to explore establishing a distribution program for medical marijuana; and in the District of Columbia, voters approved a treatment-instead-of-jail measure for pot possession.

 

Critics of the three tycoons, contending the citizen initiative process had been hijacked, trumpeted the results as a victory for the common people.

 

"We told them Ohio is not for sale," said the state's first lady, Hope Taft, a leader of Ohio's anti-pot campaign.

 

On an unrelated ballot issue, a wealthy backer did get his way.

 

Arnold Schwarzenegger, touted as a potential future California gubernatorial candidate, spent $1 million to help pass an initiative that earmarks a half-billion dollars annually for after-school programs.

 

Also in California, secession measures that would have split Los Angeles into three entities — the city, Hollywood, and the San Fernando Valley — were defeated.

 

In other results:

 

_ Arkansas defeated a proposal to repeal the sales tax on food and medicine.

 

_ Massachusetts rejected a measure to end the state's personal income tax.

 

_ Nevada voters reinforced an existing ban on gay marriages.

 

_ Oklahomans voted to ban cockfighting. The state had been one of three, along with Louisiana and New Mexico, that still allowed it.

 

_ A Florida measure limiting class size in public schools passed, but the Democratic candidate for governor who strongly backed it, Bill McBride, was defeated in part over questions about how the program would be funded.

 

_ Colorado and New Mexico voters rejected a proposed state holiday in honor of labor leader Cesar Chavez.

 

Source: Associated Press

[boulder]

Source: Las Vegas Mercury

 

Holed up in the back room of the Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement offices, campaign manager Billy Rogers was wound tighter than a joint early Tuesday night. Swiveling from the TV to a laptop and back again, he was hoping to get his finger on the pulse of the Question 9 vote, but the state's website was down. The early numbers that were up--a 74 percent "no" vote as tallies trickled in--left Rogers unruffled.

 

What happened if it didn't pass? Was there a Plan B?

 

"We've only got Plan A--to win," a grimly resolute Rogers said. "I'm not even going to think about the what-ifs."

 

It took a talking head to break the tension. On the television, KLAS Channel 8 analyst Jon Ralston made the crack that--nyuk nyuk--Question 9 supporters must have been running the state's website. Rogers gave him the finger as a round of groans went up.

 

But who really got the last laugh? Conceding defeat shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday, NRLE members and other allies cited a number of factors that had worked against their campaign. Other ballots initiatives, such as Question 2, brought out a "conservative wave," Walters said. Robert Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, pointed to the campaign's failure to convince voters--particularly the older demographic--that decriminalization means more regulation, not less. And final-phase efforts to get out 65,000 Question 9- sympathetic voters to the poll failed to show numbers they were hoping for.

 

"The campaign did a great job at the grassroots level," said Andy Anderson, a retired police officer and former president of police umbrella group Nevada Conference of Police and Sheriffs. "But it just failed to take out the fear factor that decriminalization is going to lead to kids smoking marijuana and people driving under the influence."

 

At the concession press conference, where the mood was amicably bummed out, pro-9ers gave a brief press conference with the standard back-patting and reiteration of the group's stance. But where to go from here? Local and national decriminalization forces offered a shrug--and a wink.

 

"For the immediate future, we've got no specific plans, just more public education," said the Marijuana Policy Project's Kampia. He did point to promising developments elsewhere, such as in San Francisco, where a ballot initiative passed Tuesday directing the city to explore growing its own medical marijuana for the seriously ill.

 

Otherwise, marijuana law reformers plan to quietly regroup to mull their next step. Some mulling is definitely in order; in many ways Nevada was the last stop on the relax-pot-laws party train.

 

Wrapping up 39 percent of the "yes" vote, the state takes its place in a growing line of near-misses that spans three decades. In 1972, the California Marijuana Initiative garnered 34 percent of the vote; 1986 saw the Oregon Marijuana Initiative take 26 percent. Most promisingly, a 2000 ballot question in Alaska (where, before 1990, owning up to four ounces of marijuana was legal) that would decriminalize possession and even public use took 41 percent of the vote. The group Free Hemp in Alaska plans to mount another campaign to get a ballot question on 2004.

 

Call it failing your way to success. Will the NRLE follow the lead of their allies up north? Rogers dodged the question of whether the NRLE would mount another campaign, but said he did consider 39 percent of the vote a big-picture victory.

 

"This is the first of many battles," Rogers said. "We've got 36 to 37 percent support nationwide for reforming marijuana laws, and it's growing. Remember, this is a generational thing, and as Baby Boomers get older, things will change. This will happen. It's inevitable."

 

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani suggested everyone retire to a club across the street for some "legal drugs." The subtext: Remember, once upon a time, drinking was illegal, too.

 

Smoke Signals: The Question 9ers Didn't Have the Votes, But They've Got a Generation