More News!

A while ago I posted a news article from the Chicago Tribune about how voters in Nevada will be voting this fall on wether to MAKE MARIJUANA LEGAL. Anyways, here is another article I found on the High Times websight about the issue, enjoy!

State could reap millions by legalizing marijuana, supporter says

Saturday, August 24, 2002
Associated Press
printed in the Las Vegas Review Journal and Las Vegas Sun

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) -- The leader of the drive to permit adult Nevadans to legally possess marijuana said the state could reap millions of dollars by selling and taxing marijuana.

Billy Rogers, spokesman for Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement, said Friday his group has commissioned a study to determine how much the state might receive if it grew marijuana and sold it in stores like the ones Utah uses for liquor sales. Other options for the cultivation and sale also are being studied. Results are expected in late September.

"We are talking millions and millions of dollars of tax revenue," Rogers said. "We figure there are 150,000 regular marijuana users in Nevada who might buy an ounce per month."

Rogers' group circulated petitions to place Question 9 on November election ballots. Voters will be asked whether to amend the state constitution and allow the possession of 3 ounces or less of marijuana by adults. Police would not be able to interfere with adults who use such amounts privately.

While the legal marijuana portions of the initiative have drawn national attention, portions about selling and taxing marijuana have received little discussion.

The initiative, if approved by voters this fall and again in 2004, would force the Legislature in 2005 to set up a system to regulate "the cultivation, taxation, sale and distribution of marijuana" to adult Nevadans. The initiative even states the tax rate on marijuana will be the same as the rate - now 37 percent - for chewing tobacco and cigars.

Earlier this week, an analyst for the Gov.'s Task Force on Tax Policy estimated the state needs an additional $4.6 billion in the next 10 years to continue state services at current levels.

Rogers predicted the potential economic benefits from the state sale of marijuana will appeal to voters.

"Any time you find a revenue source that can help fund education and other programs, the implications are attractive to voters," he said. "Obviously, people in Nevada will look favorably on it."

Greg Bortolin, spokesman for Gov. Kenny Guinn, said the governor is not taking a position on Question 9. He added it is too early to discuss the potential benefits from legal marijuana when voters have not approved the ballot question even once.

Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement is a subsidiary of the Medical Marijuana Project of Washington, D.C. The organization has argued the public would be better served if police concentrated on major crime, rather than arresting people for small amounts of marijuana. Rogers serves as director of state policies for the marijuana project.

 

i didn't know there was a websight for this, but I just got done reading a lot of stuff on it, and I can't even express how excited it gets me when theres such good news that marijuana laws might actually be reformed in our country.

http://www.nrle.org/index.html