MPP to try marijuana legalization again in Nevada

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Backers of a move to legalize marijuana in Nevada filed paperwork Wednesday creating an advocacy group aimed at qualifying an initiative for the 2012 election.

Nevadans for Sensible Marijuana Laws are seeking passage of a law to tax and regulate marijuana in Nevada. Voters rejected other pot initiatives in 2002 and 2006, and a similar attempt failed to qualify for the 2004 ballot.

Nevadans sanctioned medical marijuana use with passage of a constitutional amendment in 1998 and again in 2000, but voters in 2002 defeated a proposal to allow personal possession of up to 3 ounces.

Another measure allowing adults to legally possess up to 1 ounce was rejected in 2006, but backers of that effort were encouraged by the support and pledged then to try again in Nevada.

The 2006 measure failed 56 percent to 44 percent, buoyed by strong opposition from law enforcement. It also directed the state Department of Taxation to set up procedures to license and regulate pot growers, distributors and retailers.

The Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group, backed both prior initiatives. It is supporting the latest effort.

Is it now some sort of requirement to get a grant from MPP to legalize marijuana that your name has to have the word “Sensible” in it?  (Unless it’s medical marijuana, then it needs to be “Compassionate“.)  Maybe it’s just me, but when I think of “sensible” I think of “shoes” and the women who prefer them to heels.

I’m just teasing; of course I’m excited about the prospect of Nevada legalization.  By waiting until 2012, they will be able to see how the efforts in Oregon and California in 2010 will play out.  But I think focusing on Nevada and not helping California and Oregon is a tactical error.

I think people on the East Coast think of Nevada as some libertine frontier, where the people openly accept legalized gambling and prostitution.  Surely folks who tolerate gamblers and whores will be open to legalized marijuana, right?  Having lived in the Intermountain West most of my life, I can tell you that’s far from the case.  Aside from urban Las Vegas, most of Nevada is similar philosophically and socially to the rural areas of Idaho where I grew up: socially conservative, religious (Mormons, usually, or non-denoms I call “cowboy Christians”), and wary of big city out-of-state interests.  They also have a strange dissonant brand of libertarianism that hates government interference in their lives but hates “hippies” and “potheads” even more and approves of busting them for pot.  The tolerance for gambling is an economic draw from outsiders and the tolerance for brothels is part of “frontier heritage”.  But marijuana is “California” and “free love” and “liberalism” to those rural Nevadans.

And for those urban Las Vegas Nevadans, particularly the ones that benefit from casino money, marijuana is a threat to the bottom line.  Pot smokers aren’t aggressive gamblers like people getting free alcohol at the blackjack tables.

However, my concerns may be moot.  If California and/or Oregon legalize in 2010, Nevada in 2012 is a slam dunk.  Popular support for reform is growing every day and by 2012 may just be inevitable.  I surely hope so.