New at Reason

David Weigel | October 18, 2006

Jacob Sullum has some updates on Nevada anti-drug war ballot measures that drug warriors are having a hard time defeating.

Comments

|10.18.06 @ 12:05PM|#

Wow, is the conversation changing that much? Perhaps there's hope after all.

|10.18.06 @ 12:12PM|#

Do we see this happening in our lifetime (within the next 50 years) on a national scale? There are a lot of barriers to break and hills to climb, most mental, to truly get this message across.

|10.18.06 @ 12:18PM|#

Speaking of re-framing the debate, how hard is it for citizens to grasp the below, which was said about Prohibition? I know, nothing is graspable when hysteria has you by the balls.
To sum up, prohibition is ALWAYS worse than whatever is prohibited.
Thomas Jefferson prohibited potash, by the way: ooooh... potash!

Prohibition is an awful flop.
We like it.
It can't stop what it's meant to stop.
We like it.
It's left a trail of graft and slime,
It don't prohibit worth a dime,
It's filled our land with vice and crime.
Nevertheless, we're for it.

|10.18.06 @ 1:06PM|#

If "question 7" is passed, then what will really happen? I mean, won't the nixonian drug scheduling render the point moot? Or will vegas really be able to pull off something like amsterdam? If they actually do, then I don't see pot prohibition standing up that much longer once other states observe the economic benefits that nevada will certainly accrue.

|10.18.06 @ 1:12PM|#

Kool424: It's possible. After all, think about the changes in the last 20-30 years or so (someone older than I can tell better than I): Now if you want to end or at least tone down the War on Drugs you're not looked at as an insane left-wing hippie.

|10.18.06 @ 1:22PM|#

"Like a cancer, proponents for legalization eat away at society's resolve and moral fiber."

I hate it when someone cuts my weed with 'moral fiber.'

Adam W.

"Now if you want to end or at least tone down the War on Drugs you're not looked at as an insane left-wing hippie."

I resent that. I'm an insane RIGHT-wing hippie.

|10.18.06 @ 3:08PM|#

Adam W:

"After all, think about all the changes in the last 20-30 years or so (someone older than I can tell better than I)."

I heard the owl call my name.

The biggest change I've seen in the last 30 years is the attitudes of the regular folks who don't indulge but have friends and family who do. After a while any intelligent person with respect for the truth is going to see that the propaganda doesn't fit the reality. The Drug Warriors are not intelligent truth seekers, they're unscrupulous power-seekers, and they as a group are just as hysterical about marijuana as ever. The Drug War has become Big Business, what with prison construction, prison guard unions, fines, drug testing, lucrative careers in the DEA and various local law enforcement agencies, SWAT Teams repelling from helicopters to attack unsuspecting pot plants, kicking down doors and confiscating everything in sight, and generally terrorizing poor people. A cop can pull you over and if he finds CASH in your vehicle or on your person, he can just take it. If you want it back you have to go to court! Think I'm kidding?

I've seen legalization just around the corner so many times, only to end up disappointed, that I find it impossible to get excited. I'll believe it when I see it. The Soviet Union eventually disintegrated with stunning suddeness, that one blew my mind. This would be a shock to me of the same magnitude.

For a whore mongering, pot smoking degenerate gambler like me, this Nevada ballot measure seems too good to be true.

|10.18.06 @ 3:17PM|#

Buckshot,
Now that you've described yourself more fully, my opinion of you has risen.

Robert|10.18.06 @ 3:27PM|#

"If `question 7' is passed, then what will really happen?"

Good question. Provision 1 in conjunction with other parts state-legalizes possession and noncommercial transfer, provided it doesn't take place in public. Not really much help there, inasmuch as law enforcement at any level hardly ever pursues a case of simple possession in private anyway. It might make it harder, however, to prosecute in cases of dealing, if those involved make it at all hard to prove that payment took place, which they will to take advantage of this change in law.

The parts legalizing retailing & wholesaling would depend on federal licensing. It doesn't allow clandestine retailing or wholesaling, so the feds really would have to cooperate by their forebearance, as by registering the parties involved as dispensers & distributors, or simply by not bothering to look up the licensed establishments in Nevada and bothering them.

It would be much simpler if Nevada simply allowed material sold by the police to be smoked, because officers enforcing laws regarding controlled substances are exempt from the federal registration requirement. The police could simply engage in "sell and bust" without the "bust", but with enforcement of such provisions as the age requirement, which makes them persons engaged in enforcement of a law relating to controlled substances.

|10.18.06 @ 4:51PM|#

"It would be much simpler if Nevada simply allowed material sold by the police to be smoked, because officers enforcing laws regarding controlled substances are exempt from the federal registration requirement."

I can see it now:

"Son, you we're doing 90 mph in a 40 zone. You're getting a $200 with two bonus joints to help you slow down."

|10.18.06 @ 6:31PM|#

Ladies, gents, concerned citizens of all types, now is the time to muster up the entirety of your English/debate team careers, and write into the Nevada newspapers editorials to urge people to support Amendment 44.

http://www.50states.com/news/nevada.htm

|10.18.06 @ 6:45PM|#

Amendment 44 is Colorado. I don't think Nevada cares much about Colorado constitutional amendments.

|10.18.06 @ 7:31PM|#

Amendment 44 is Colorado. I don't think Nevada cares much about Colorado constitutional amendments.

How long of a bus ride is it from Nevada to Colorado? Maybe they can vote in each state?

Vote early and vote often!

|10.18.06 @ 8:20PM|#

Ruthless:

Thank you?

|10.18.06 @ 8:32PM|#

happyjuggler0,

How long of a bus ride is it from Nevada to Colorado? Maybe they can vote in each state?

Well, you have to at least go through Utah and maybe most of Nevada as well. I've heard from Las Vegas to 4 corners is a 10 hour drive, so it's probably 15-20 hours on a bus. You could also take I-15 North towards Salt Lake City and then I-70 East to Colorado, which looks to be about 450-500 miles to Colorado, total. In any event, it would be pretty tough to vote twice, without absentee ballots or early voting.

|10.18.06 @ 8:39PM|#

Whoops, my mistake.

The sad part is, I don't smoke weed.

James Anderson Merritt|10.18.06 @ 10:26PM|#

"Ladies and gentlemen, my fellow Americans: Today, a rogue state performed an experiment that defies the will of the international community and especially threatens the security of the United States. The people there have no understanding of American values, and the leadership is out of touch with common sense or decency. The United States will not, cannot allow this new development to threaten neighboring states, or the United States.

"Because Nevada has legalized marijuana, I directed our military to take appropriate action. As of five minutes ago, at 11:05 PM Nevada time, US nuk-u-lar missiles struck the five most highly populated areas in Nevada, with predictable consequences. We anticipate no survivors. Let this be a lesson to any government -- nation or state -- that seeks to threaten the interests of our great country. And may God continue to bless the United States of America. Thank you."

|10.18.06 @ 11:09PM|#

I cannot wait to vote on 44. I'm sick of moral fiber.

|10.19.06 @ 10:18AM|#

James Anderson Merritt,

Cute, kind of, as I happen to live in one of those five most highly populated areas. There is no "Nevada" time. This state operates on Pacific time, with full implementation of Daylight Savings Time. Also, I'm trying to think of the five most populated areas. Let's see...you have the Las Vegas Metro Area, which includes Henderson and Boulder City, because all are local telephone calls. You have the Reno Metro Area, which includes Sparks and maybe even Fernley, nowadays. I suppose you could say Carson City, and then maybe Pahrump and then either Ely or Tonopah or Laughlin. Those last two nuke targets seem like a huge waste of a nuke. Oh, well.

|10.19.06 @ 11:19AM|#

Vote early and vote often.