LAS VEGAS — Smoking tobacco in public places may be illegal in
other states, but you can light up just about anywhere in Nevada.
Need a drink? They’re free in most casinos, as long as you gamble.
Las Vegas Boulevard — the aptly named Strip — is crowded with hawkers handing out pictures of naked women who will come to your hotel room for a private strip tease or something more. Prostitution is legal in most parts of Nevada, and even in Las Vegas it is winked at.
And soon, you may be able to do something else in Nevada that you can’t do in any other state without a prescription: legally smoke marijuana.
If Nevada voters approve, it would no longer be a crime for anyone 21 or older to possess up to 3 ounces of pot — enough for between 150 and 250 marijuana cigarettes — within the state’s borders.
The reefer referendum has a long way to go before proponents can legally fire up a joint. Even if it passes Nov. 5 — early voting started Saturday — under Nevada law it must be approved again in 2004.
So far, polls show voters split evenly on the idea.
Proponents say legalizing pot would free police to work on more serious crimes like rape or murder. Opponents, led by law enforcement agencies, say making another mind-altering drug legal would lead to other crimes, from dangerous driving to sexual assaults to the use of harder drugs.
“I can’t imagine how we can throw another illicit drug into the mix and people can believe in any way, shape or form that it would be a good thing,” said Sgt. Rick Barela, spokesman for the Las Vegas Metro Police and a cop for more than 20 years.
Nonetheless, advocates’ claims that smoking pot is a good thing for medicinal purposes — cancer and AIDS treatment among them — have put marijuana laws under pressure nationwide, particularly in the West.
Eight states have already legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes. All but one, Maine, is in the West. Along with Nevada, the others are Colorado, California, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii and Alaska.
In Arizona, voters will decide Nov. 5 whether to reduce the penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana from a felony with possible jail time to a $250 civil fine. That referendum will also ask voters whether Arizona should establish a state-run system to distribute free marijuana for medicinal use.
In Ohio, voters will consider a referendum in November that could allow people arrested for marijuana or other drugs to opt for state-funded drug treatment instead of incarceration.
But for pot advocates, the Nevada initiative would be the big score. If it passes, proponents say, look for other states to follow.
“Literally, you’re going to have tens of thousands of people who are currently illegally using marijuana who will suddenly be legally using it,” said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington, D.C. group behind the Nevada measure.
The group is working on getting similar ballot initiatives elsewhere, and was behind referendum efforts that failed in Florida and Washington, D.C. “Hopefully it sends a message to other states loud and clear: The people of one state at least are fed up with marijuana laws today,” Kampia said.