Pubdate: Thu, 20 Oct 2016
Source: Elko Daily Free Press (NV)
Copyright: 2016 Elko Daily Free Press
Contact:  http://www.elkodaily.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2326
Author: Jim Hartman

VOTE NO ON 2 - BIG MARIJUANA

Question 2 before Nevada voters asks whether marijuana should be fully
legal and widely available for recreational commercial sale. Our state
has already decriminalized the drug for small quantity possession and
marijuana is now legally available for medical use.

Question 2 is a 13-page initiative written by the commercial marijuana
industry. It's an "insiders business plan" to benefit Big Marijuana
"potpreneurs." Passage would create a state government-run marijuana
program, transforming the Department of Taxation into a large,
expensive bureaucracy. It will give monopoly powers to existing
medical marijuana retailers and liquor wholesalers, while
criminalizing Nevada citizens growing marijuana within 25 miles of
proponents' pot shops.

Unlike medical marijuana, local jurisdictions will not be able to opt
out of recreational marijuana. Promised marijuana tax revenues would
be unlikely to cover the full public and and social costs (including
regulation, enforcement, public health and safety, and substance abuse
treatment).

The initiative fails to include any provisions for the regulation of
edible marijuana products. It fails to place any limits on marijuana
potency. It fails to establish restrictions on advertising.

Question 2 is opposed by law enforcement (Sheriffs and Chiefs; D.A.'s
Associations) and the Nevada State Medical Association. The gaming
industry is opposed (Nevada Resort Association) as well as business
organizations and important faith leaders.

Opposition is bi-partisan - both U.S. Senate candidates, Democrat
Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican Dr. Joe Heck, are "No on 2."
Governor Brian Sandoval is "categorically opposed," joining the
state's two largest newspapers, the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Reno
Gazette Journal, as "No on 2."

Jim Hartman

President

Nevadans for Responsible Drug Policy

Genoa
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MAP posted-by: Matt