Jason Whited
Las Vegas City Life
December 17, 2009
Nevada's resurgent pot proponents are once again asking voters to repeal the prohibition of a plant that's never directly caused a single, recorded human death.
On Dec. 9, Dave Schwartz, manager for the Nevada chapter of the Marijuana Policy Project, the nation's largest drug reform advocacy group, announced the formation of Nevadans for Sensible Marijuana Laws, a political action committee now undertaking a statewide signature drive for a 2012 ballot initiative to create a legal, regulated marijuana market for Nevadans 21 and over.
Schwartz told CityLife his group will need about 100,000 signatures by mid-November 2010 to qualify for the 2012 ballot, but he didn't rule out additional attempts to work with state lawmakers to introduce a similarly worded law in the 2011 legislative session.
The MPP push comes amid the most favorable political climate since 2006, when 44 percent of Nevada voters favored some form of decriminalization. In 2002, a similar initiative failed with 39 percent of the vote.
At the federal level, U.S. Department of Justice officials reversed years of policy in mid-October when they announced they would no longer prosecute medical marijuana cases in states such as Nevada that allow its use.
Schwartz points out MPP's proposed free market reforms would likely yield millions in fresh tax dollars for the cash-strapped Silver State while making it easier for cops to keep this intoxicating plant out of the hands of kids, who can readily buy bags of it at malls, local parks, even schools.
"As I've said, drug dealers don't card, so this push makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons," he said.
Watch for more as MPP efforts ramp up in earnest early next year.
