RENO, Nev. - Gambling, prostitution, and now pot? Organizers of a Nevada ballot measure hope voters in a state where almost everything goes will go one better and legalize marijuana.
If it passes Nov. 7, Nevada will be the first state to allow adults to possess up to an ounce of pot that they could buy at government-regulated marijuana shops.
The Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana, which has pushed medical marijuana and decriminalization laws around the country, thinks Nevada — with its embrace of certain vices and its streak of Western independence — is a perfect venue.
In an editorial last spring, the rural Lahontan Valley News argued that gambling, Nevada's most powerful industry, caters to "visceral pleasures," and that it would hypocritical to oppose the legalization of marijuana on moral grounds.
Proponents of the measure also argue that the legal system wastes time and money on low-level marijuana offenses, and that taxing and regulating pot would put drug dealers out of business while freeing law enforcement to focus on violent crime and more dangerous drugs such as methamphetamine.
"Put it into a tightly controlled and regulated environment. We think that makes a lot of sense," Neal Levine, executive director of the committee.
