http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/ne...rijuana-nevada

that's all we need... for mary jane to jump the shark and go main stream.

takes all the fun out of sneaking around and "scoring"... or so I have been told

ya, it would've been a completely ridic idea to take a different approach from the beginning. much more fun to 'sneak around' acquiring a mild intoxicant while at the same time jailing people/f'ing up their lives for it. great idea!!

id love to smoke weed in vegas but ill have to use craigslist and be sneaky about it this year...

alcohol is like infinitely worse but its in abundance in america....so weird. I hope they make it legal one timeeee

http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/30/56...d-in-las-vegas

http://knprnews.org/post/recreationa...ds-carson-city

Forgive my ignorance of Nevada politics, but it seems unlikely that any politician is going to take a firm stand on a controversial subject before a national election. Nevada was a swing state in 2012, no? It seems like acting in 2015 - either way - is going to be super dangerous.

Yea there's no chance the legislature passes it.

It's crazy what a poor job elected officials actually do of representing the people. The people of Nevada want it legal by a 54-42 margin, but the legislature won't act. If it gets on the ballot, it will probably pass.

I think a big federal change could be coming after the 2016 elections. A lot of it is going to depend on who the Republican nominee is. If it's a Tea Party person like Rand Paul or Ted Cruz, then you're going to have a situation where both the Democratic and Republican candidates will support legalization. That will be a first in US history.

If it's an establishment Republican like Chris Christie or Jeb Bush that gets the Republican nomination, the status quo will probably be maintained (or even get worse) for several more years.

The DEA has requested that scheduling of marijuana be reconsidered. It will likely get moved from a Schedule I drug to lower class. Right now, MJ is considered by the federal government to be more dangerous than meth. How ridiculous is that?

2016 is a good year for those trying to legalize it. Presidential election years are typically better for more liberal ballot initiatives.

legalize it and give it free in the casinos should increase profit

You have to be super careful with polls. One of Nate Silver's talents is being able to dissect them well.

For example, if you randomly call people on the phone, you disproportinately get older people who have land lines and talk to strangers.

There's a science to polling beyond counting. You have to collect demographic information, and then weight the different parts carefully to adjust for the true demographic composition of expected voters. Depending on what assumptions people make about who's going to vote, popular opinion doesn't always equal will pass in a direct election.

As an example, look at California's Proposition 8 in 2008. While popular opinion was strongly anti-Prop 8, polls had it only slightly leaning No because young people disproportionately lean no and disproportionately don't vote. The passage on Election Day was somewhat of a surprise for many reasons, but in part it was because a lot more ethnic minorities showed up to vote than expected and they tended to vote Democratic and Yes on Prop 8.

Politicians are well aware of these problems with public opinion, and as bad as it seems, they're generally acting rationally to an irrational system, rather than acting irrationally to a rational system. They do the bidding of those who vote for them, not the people as a whole.

There's also the differential in the intensity of supporters and opposition. Most people don't smoke weed so their support is going to be mild at best whereas police departments and prison guard's unions etc. base their livelihood on prohibition so they are incredibly motivated to lobby and throw around money to protect their paycheck. That's why ballot initiatives are so important: it levels the playing field.

Almost every cop I know wants marijuana to be decriminalized so they can get paid the same but arrest real criminals.

Then again, I live in Oakland, so there's no shortage of real criminals.

http://www.rgj.com/story/news/politi...vada/20117775/

That was the great thing about the Washington Law. It was past as an initiative by the voters. Never had to go to State Legislature. Those guys (and gals) are idiots.

GL, Nevada.

if nevada legalized weed and casinos started giving it away like they give away booze I would truly not be sure if I was really in vegas or if I had died and gone to heaven. poker...weed...titties...beer...sounds like heaven to me.

You guys already have medical right? I'm not sure if you have any dispensaries open yet or not. Is it tough to get a medical card? Like if I was staying from the summer out of state, is that possible? I know you can do that in Cali rather easily, not sure about Nevada though.

There's another thread specifically for medical that has more info. AFAIK you'll have to prove residency with a utility bill, car insurance, etc. in order to be eligible. The first dispensary is supposed to open after the first of the year.

The DEA and the federal government has already made it pretty clear that this isn't a priority for them. If states want to have legal recreational weed, the fed has pretty much told them that is fine by them. So far in Colorado and Washington, it is working just fine...albeit the stories are that it is much more expensive than what you can get on the street due to high taxes at the legal pot stores.

They've changed policy then. They shut down at last one California dispensary and basically broke the owner.

When the state of Washington came out last year with its new law, the state AG spent a lot of time talking with the feds to determine if it was a viable option for WA. The fed came back and publicly made it clear that they were not interested in these issues so long as stores and dispensaries were following the laws of the state (i.e. licensing, operations in compliance, etc.)

WA has had medical dispensaries for a few years now and now has several recreational stores open and operating without any issues at all. The only issue that has plagued recreational stores from what I can tell of stories in the newspaper is that the state taxes it at 95% meaning it is pretty much almost double what you would pay for it on the street.

I was also reading something recently that said since it has become so decriminalized in WA state (i.e. a smoking in public ticket is a warning for the first offense and a $27 fine for the second), that the street market has basically become dozens of illegal operations who will actually deliver up to an ounce (the legal threshold for possession) and who market their services openly on craigslist.

What was also fascinating was an article about the TSA in WA state airports. They were quoted as saying that if there is weed in someone's suitcase, it really isn't their jurisdiction to care or do anything about it. If they suspect that it is more than what is allowable to posses in the state, then they can contact the local police and have them deal with it. But if it is under an ounce, then there is no point since the weed is legal to posses there. And they figure if you are taking it somewhere that it is illegal, then that is for those guys on that side to worry about.

Interesting times indeed.

That's true of the TSA in general. They'll ignore the drugs, but harass you over a bottle of water.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...advocates-say/