Zilos

LAS VEGAS — A federal judge ruled Friday that the Nevada Secretary of State was wrong to disqualify a petition to legalize marijuana possession, giving new life to the initiative and two proposed anti-smoking measures.

An aide said Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller would comply with the judge’s order in the marijuana case and would concede a state court case challenging his decision to reject the two anti-smoking initiative petitions.

“We will move to drop the other court case and move the three petitions forward to the Legislature,” Heller’s spokesman Steve George said.

U.S. District Court Judge James Mahan’s ruling on the Marijuana Policy Project’s petition came in a challenge filed with the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.

The ACLU supports letting adults possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana for personal use. But Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU office in Las Vegas, said the organization filed the federal lawsuit to highlight a “lack of consistency, predictability and fairness in the process.”

The judge ruled Heller violated the marijuana petition-gatherers’ First Amendment, due process and equal protection constitutional rights, ACLU lawyer Allen Lichtenstein said.

The ruling sends the measures to the 2005 Legislature, which convenes Feb. 7 in Carson City. It will have 40 days to act on the measures, or they automatically go on the 2006 election ballot.

In deciding Heller set the criteria for the number of required signatures too high, Mahan referred to a precedent established when Heller qualified a medical malpractice petition for the ballot in 2002, and to a petition guide Heller’s office gave to signature-gatherers this year.

“Both by precedent and governmental pronouncement, they were given the information that they would need to get 10 percent of the 2002 total,” Lichtenstein said. “The judge ruled they can’t change the rules in the middle of the game.”

Similar arguments were raised by Robert Crowell, lawyer for the Nevada Clean Air initiative petition. Supported by the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association, it seeks to limit smoking in public buildings.

A third petition, with less restrictive anti-smoking rules, is supported by casinos and bars.

The petition guide said backers needed to submit 51,337 signatures, based on 10 percent of the voter turnout in the 2002 election.

Proponents of the clean air petition submitted 64,871 valid signatures on Nov. 9 — a week after the 2004 election. Advocates of the marijuana proposal submitted 69,261 signatures, and the casinos’ smoking petition had 74,348 signatures.

Heller, acting on state Attorney General Brian Sandoval’s advice, decided the Nov. 2, 2004, general election had become the yardstick for signatures, and said the petitions needed 83,156 valid signatures.

A spokesman for Sandoval declined immediate comment Friday.

Crowell welcomed word that a Feb. 9 hearing on the Cancer Society smoking petition may not be necessary in Carson City District Court.

“I would say it’s over,” he said.

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Unregistered

Marijuana will most likely be legalized in all states in the next decade due to the fact that there are so many marijuana supporters, consumers, and destributers.

Lothar121

Marijuaa won't be legal in all the states for at least 2 decades. I estimate between now and 2010 the first state will stray away from prohibition, then slowly the process will start.

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Puffer

Chalk up another win for the marijuana legalization movement. Or, to put it another way, Baby Mary is learning to walk.

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Just say "know" to marijuana!

Murdock

Marijuana won't be legalized ever, in the United. States.. Simply not going to happen.

Its nice of them to put it back on the ballot to get shot down again though.

Call me a Cynic, but I'm actually a realist.

marji1

I'm living here, growin' my legal medicine, waiting for the first clumsy steps to turn into strides toward making this wondrous herb more available to all who want it. If you that are more politically active have suggestions as to what I can do to help locally, please feel free to post it and I'll do what I can. It's taken a long time to get to this phase. This is progress though. I think we'll see more positives soon.