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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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US NV: Editorial: Easing Marijuana Penalties
ccguide Monday 08 Jul 2002 Pubdate: Sun, 07 Jul 2002 Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV) Contact: Copyright: 2002 Las Vegas Review-Journal Website: http://www.lvrj.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/233 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) EASING MARIJUANA PENALTIES Initiative Would Bring Compassion And Common Sense To Drug Laws In 1998, 59 percent of Nevada voters backed a ballot initiative allowing residents who receive a prescription from a physician to use marijuana for medicinal purposes. Two years later, the same measure garnered 65 percent support. As a result, the state constitution was amended and the Legislature enacted laws implementing the initiative. Still, a cloud of legal ambiguity hangs over the medicinal marijuana program. Possession of marijuana in any amount remains a federal offense. And despite the medical marijuana referendum, Nevada retains the most Draconian set of marijuana penalties in the nation, assessing felony charges to anyone who is caught with pot but not covered by the medical marijuana program ... or enrolled in the program but in possession of more than the seven plants permissible under law. Silver State voters may have the opportunity to ease these unnecessarily harsh penalties. Another initiative -- pending qualification for November's ballot -- would amend the constitution, legalizing possession of as much as 3 ounces of marijuana by any adult. If approved by voters this fall and again in 2004, Nevada's marijuana penalties would become the nation's most lenient. Organizers of the referendum -- who have delivered 109,000 signatures to Carson City -- say they singled out Nevada because our ballot access requirements are easier to meet than those in other states, some of which prohibit voter-led initiative drives. Drug reformers also cite the state's solid support for the medical marijuana amendment as a favorable sign for their new ballot measure. There's little doubt this proposal will be blasted by religious groups and law enforcement agencies. And even if the initiative passes, federal penalties against marijuana possession would remain in effect. Still, this measure offers Nevadans an opportunity to bring sanity to the state's overly burdensome drug enforcement policy. Appropriate penalties would remain for marijuana possession by minors, public use of the substance, and drivers who operate motor vehicles while impaired. But the measure would end the needless harassment of individuals who peacefully and privately use marijuana -- including seriously ill patients who should have some legal protection, not to mention peace of mind, because they're covered by the medical marijuana program. As a matter of compassion and common sense, the initiative is a promising first step. - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk
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