With only 12 weeks to go, the Nevada Marijuana ballot initiative is in a dead heat. And some police officers are possibly breaking the law -- and certainly lying -- in their desperate scramble to try to defeat it. The Reno Gazette-Journal, the largest newspaper in Reno, has released a statewide poll showing that 48% of the voters are planning to vote for the initiative, 48% are opposed, and 4% are undecided. The campaign is closing the gap ... A week prior, a statewide poll conducted by the Las Vegas Review-Journal found 44% in favor, 46% opposed, and 10% undecided.
A few hostile police in Las Vegas may have broken the law in their zeal to oppose the initiative. A few days ago, they removed three ounces of marijuana from an evidence locker and waved it around on national TV in an attempt to show that three ounces is too much for personal use. (Three ounces is the equivalent of five packs of cigarettes. It is perfectly legal for an adult to own a carton of cigarettes or a wine cellar, so owning five packs of marijuana cigarettes hardly qualifies one as a "drug dealer.") By doing this, the police may have broken the law, which states that they can only possess drugs in the context of performing official duties -- not to use them in a political campaign.
And they may have broken the law a second time by campaigning against us while on the clock; taxpayer money cannot be used to pay their salaries while they are campaigning against our initiative. Our campaign is fed up with rogue cops who think they are above the law, and we are publicly calling for their prosecution.
This morning on NPR, I debated one of those rogue cops, a narcotics detective who outright lied as I backed him into a corner. First, I argued that police resources could be better spent on violent crimes rather than hunting down thousands of nonviolent marijuana users across the state. He responded by saying that the police really aren't spending that much time on marijuana.
Second, I argued that MPP's initiative will dry up the criminal market by bringing marijuana in off the streets and regulating it. I went on to say that the people who oppose our initiative must want marijuana to be sold and purchased on the streets by criminals. MPP, on the other hand, prefers an orderly, regulated system that will make it easier for law enforcement to focus on the real crimes in our society. He responded by saying that the initiative would not regulate marijuana, but rather it would have the state government growing and selling marijuana like a "drug dealer." Incredulous, I responded by saying, "The whole reason you oppose this initiative is because we are trying to change how marijuana is handled in Nevada. Surely, if this initiative simply maintained the status quo -- if it simply kept marijuana unregulated and in the criminal market -- then you wouldn't even be opposing the initiative."
I went on to make my third point: "By bringing marijuana in off the streets and regulating it, we will be taking marijuana out of the hands of teenagers, who currently find marijuana easier to obtain than beer." The narc then flat-out lied: "Your initiative would make it legal to distribute marijuana to minors." "That's simply not true!" I interjected. "Our initiative prohibits the distribution of marijuana to minors, and it prohibits the use of marijuana by minors." He responded by saying, "No, your initiative prohibits selling marijuana to minors, but you make it legal to give it away for *free* to minors." I corrected him by referring to the actual text of the initiative, which prohibits "the distribution or sale of marijuana" to people under the age of 21. If our opponents cannot do better than this, we should all be encouraged!
Rob Kampia, Executive Director of the Marijuana Policy Project
http://www.mpp.org/
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