Group says move to legalize marijuana in Nevada fails

CARSON CITY -- A move to legalize marijuana in Nevada has failed again, the leaders of the Nevadans for Sensible Marijuana Laws said Monday.

Campaign manager David Schwartz said his group had trouble raising funds needed to secure the minimum of 97,002 signatures of registered voters on petitions to move the measure forward.

The group proposed allowing adults 21 and older to use and transport up to 1 ounce of marijuana.

The plan had been to submit the signatures and let the 2011 Legislature decide whether to go ahead on legalizing marijuana.

If the Legislature had rejected the plan, then the measure would have gone on the statewide ballot in 2012.

In 2006, a similar proposal was defeated by voters, 56 percent to 44 percent. Nevada voters also rejected legalizing marijuana in 2002, 61 percent to 39 percent.

California voters on Tuesday killed a marijuana legalization plan, 46 percent to 54 percent, after President Barack Obama criticized the idea.

Nevadans for Sensible Marijuana Laws is a subsidiary of the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, which has provided much of the funding for marijuana-related initiatives in Nevada over the years.

Schwartz said his organization hasn't decided whether to circulate a similar initiative in 2012. If it does, then it would be required to collect about 71,000 signatures, far less than this year's total.

The number of signatures required is equivalent to 10 percent of the vote at the last general election.

"We haven't decided on 2012 yet," Schwartz said. "We want to look and see where the state is going. We created an ongoing national conversation on marijuana."

Schwartz said he wants to see what happens to a bill by state Sen. Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, to allow special pharmacies to sell marijuana to people authorized to use it under Nevada's medical marijuana law.

As of Aug. 18, 1,242 people have received permission through their doctors to use marijuana in Nevada for medical purposes.

But under the law, these people must find their own seeds. Marijuana seeds are readily available on the Internet for a price.

They can grow no more than three mature and four immature marijuana plants, and can possess no more than 1 ounce of usable marijuana at any one time.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.