Backers Blame Election Loss on Fear

[boulder]

Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal

 

The man who tried to make Nevada the first state with legal marijuana said there was one overriding reason that Nevada voters rejected Question 9. Her name was Sandy Thompson.

 

Billy Rogers, leader of Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement, said his organization could not explain away the tragic Aug. 9 death of Las Vegas Sun columnist and executive Sandy Thompson.

 

She was killed when a car driven by 21-year-old John Simbrat slammed into her vehicle, which was stopped at a Las Vegas stoplight. Simbrat had been smoking marijuana and has pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of a controlled substance. He will be sentenced in December.

 

"The voters went into the polling places concerned that more people would drive under the influence," Rogers said. "Clearly in Clark County, the Sandy Thompson tragedy had a tremendous impact on voters. The smartest thing the opponents did was enlist the support of the Thompson family. You can't argue with a family that has gone through a tragedy. That was an event beyond our control."

 

Sandy Thompson's husband, Gary, said his wife would be pleased that the marijuana question was defeated.

 

He said he and his daughter, Kelly, are not prudes and support medical marijuana, but believe a law legalizing marijuana for all adults would lead only to more carnage on the highways.

 

"We get 36 million visitors a year to Las Vegas, and if 1 percent of them bought marijuana that is 360,000 people," he said. "Some of those people are going to drive under the influence. It is inevitable there would be more deaths."

 

In Tuesday's election, 61 percent of voters opposed Question 9, which would have allowed adults to possess as much as 3 ounces of marijuana in private; 39 percent supported the initiative question.

 

The results were almost identical to a similar ballot question to legalize marijuana in Alaska in 2000. Attempts to legalize marijuana in California in 1972 and in Oregon in 1986 also failed.

 

The move to make Nevada the first state with legal marijuana captured the attention of the nation's media, with many commentators touching on the state's sin-friendly reputation.

 

For instance, talk-show host Conan O'Brien on Thursday joked that opponents of the ballot question worried that "legalizing pot would have sent the wrong message to Nevada's young gamblers and prostitutes."

 

Prior to the election, dozens of reporters visited Nevada and invariably mentioned that wacky Nevada, with its legal gaming and legal prostitution, was preparing to add marijuana to its list of legal vices.

 

Most stories, including a cover story in Time magazine, maintained that polls showed the marijuana question was a tossup, ignoring the only unbiased polls on the matter, which were conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research for the Review-Journal and reviewjournal.com.

 

The final poll indicated Question 9 had support from 36 percent of voters, with 60 percent opposed and 4 percent undecided. A similar Mason-Dixon poll in August also showed Question 9 failing overwhelmingly. Only in July did the poll show nearly an even split.

 

"It has been dead since last summer when law enforcement came out against it," said Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon.

 

Keith Stroup, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said marijuana supporters learned from the defeat of Question 9 and an unrelated marijuana initiative in Arizona.

 

"There is a lot of support to eliminate all penalties against marijuana use, but the public does not yet support legal marijuana," he said.

 

He cited Time magazine studies that indicated 72 percent of Americans believe people should incur only fines for using small amounts of marijuana. But just 34 percent favor legalization.

 

Stroup speculated Question 9 would have passed in Nevada if Rogers' group had limited the issue to adults possessing 3 ounces of marijuana. But the question also called for the Legislature to regulate marijuana through passing laws on the cultivation, sale and taxation of marijuana. Pot would have been sold in state-licensed stores.

 

Backers of legal marijuana in Alaska made the same mistake in 2000, Stroup said. That initiative called for legal marijuana and also mandated reparations for people who previously had been busted for pot.

 

NORML already considers Nevada among the 12 states with a decriminalized marijuana law. The 2001 Legislature reduced the penalty for possession of 1 ounce or less to a $600 fine. Previously it had been a felony to possess any amount of marijuana in Nevada.

 

Rogers concedes that the legislative decision to reduce marijuana penalties was one of the reasons that the Marijuana Policy Project chose Nevada for its Question 9 initiative drive. No other state had reduced marijuana penalties in more than a decade. MPP is the parent organization of Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement.

 

Rogers, Stroup and High Times magazine editor Steven Hager all believe the time will come when states will adopt legal marijuana laws. That time, however, might be 10 years away and not necessarily in Nevada, Rogers said.

 

Hager believes pro-marijuana advocates will return to Alaska in an attempt to win voter approval for legal marijuana. Next time the initiative will leave out language about handing out reparations for past marijuana arrests, he said.

 

"People are gradually going to warm up to it," Hager said. "Marijuana is not going away."

 

The vote against Question 9 will not affect Nevada's medical marijuana program, said Cecile Crofoot, the Department of Agriculture employee who manages the program. Now 237 people have their doctor's permission to use marijuana for medical reasons.

 

Qualified users can grow up to seven marijuana plants. The state, however, cannot advise them where to acquire seeds or how to grow marijuana. Crofoot said participants just need to go on the Internet and put the word marijuana in a search engine.

 

Dozens of Web sites sell seeds, including exotic sounding types from the Netherlands, and offer growing tips. While some participants have complained to Crofoot they cannot grow marijuana, others tell her they are very successful.

 

Hager said pro-marijuana advocates have not given up entirely on Nevada.

 

"Your state wears the banner of a state that believes in personal freedom," he said. "That's how Nevada looks to the rest of the country. It looks like an environment that would be friendly to change."

 

Note: Columnist's tragic death raised issue of driving under the influence.