Pot passed. Should we worry?

By Holly Hutchings

RENO, NEVADA — The national marijuana movement scored another success Tuesday when Nevada voters approved the drug for recreational use. Question 2, the strictest of ballot initiatives of its kind on ballots across the country, passed with 54 percent approval.

Voters at Caughlin Ranch Elementary on election day were mixed on the issue. While some approved of the measure, many did not. A well-dressed woman in her thirties, who declined to disclose her name, said the measure was unnecessary and would lead to problems like that faced by Colorado after they legalized recreational marijuana in 2014; namely children gaining access to the drug and getting sick. She worried that our state could soon face big issues with children’s health if pot passed.

Will Adler, Executive Director of the Nevada Medical Marijuana Association, knew Nevadans would have concerns. With a baby daughter at home, he understood some of the fear resonating from voters. He said that is why they built protections into Question 2, to provide safety as well as instill lessons learned from watching other states’ mistakes.

“We have seen Colorado and what they did, and Nevada was actually able to implement that (knowledge), post our medical marijuana laws,” Adler said.

Members of the Nevada Medical Marijuana Association have traveled to various states with medical marijuana laws in place and studied their laws to see first-hand how they are working. In 2015, members of the association, including Adler, traveled to Colorado to conduct this kind of research. They went through Colorado’s marijuana program, toured their facilities and asked officials there what was successful in their plan and what wasn’t. After finding out what that state did correctly and what Colorado officials wish they had known before legalization, Adler and his team knew what it would take to craft what they thought would be a winning initiative. Their goal was to have a successful medical marijuana program, as well as a recreational marijuana program working in Nevada.

“We saw what they (Colorado) did wrong and what they did right, and we’ve already implemented those changes in our laws before we even tried to get regulated marijuana,” Adler said. He compares having the law with all its built-in safety measures to having a fire truck before a fire breaks out.

The 110-page law known as Question 2 proposes treating and regulating cannabis like alcohol. Adults over the age of 21 could legally use one ounce or less of the drug recreationally with proper identification under the initiative. The law will take effect January 1, 2017.

Longstanding perception that the drug is dangerously addictive and without health benefit is changing. Per Adler, the drug is less harmful than alcohol, less addictive than gambling and has less of a stigma than prostitution. Since the state regulates all of those, Adler says it’s time we regulated marijuana in the Silver State, as well. He said that most people side with legalizing when given the realities of the drug.

After a multi -million-dollar effort to stop the measure from passing, it still did. Adler credits the victory not only to his organization’s efforts crafting the measure then fighting the opposition, but also to evolving public opinion. He said the win proves the validity of marijuana being a recreational product and a plant, not something to be afraid of.

“It’s a movement,” Adler added. “They (the opposition) brought everything they could to stop this nationwide…It proves that reefer madness is over because they had an all-star effort to stop us, but we still won.”