Black Tuesday for Drug Reform

Drug reform movement leaders and funders must feel like Tom Daschle and Dick Gephardt after the shellacking they took last Tuesday. The same conservative tide that delivered the Senate to the Republicans also swamped heavily funded initiatives in three closely watched states. South Dakota's low-budget initiatives suffered the same fate, as did the New York Marijuana Reform Party's shoestring effort to obtain ballot status.

Though a bad day for drug reformers overall and an occasion for strategic rethinking, Election 2002 was not a total wash, as DC, San Francisco and Massachusetts show.

Reform movement funders, leaders and bases alike are beginning the postmortems on an election that saw momentum for drug reform come up against a brick wall. The fact that millions of dollars were spent on failed electoral efforts, while grassroots groups go begging for funds, is certain to be part of an intense debate on drug reform strategy -- as well the fact that 19 out of 24 major initiative campaigns overall have passed over the last six years. What follows below is a "just the facts, ma'am" look at the election results.

Legal Pot in Nevada? Not This Year

There was no joy on Sahara Boulevard in Las Vegas Tuesday night as supporters of Nevada's high-spending marijuana legalization initiative gathered in what they hoped would be a victory party. Instead, it turned out to be a wake as Question 9, which would have enacted legal regulation instead of prohibition for possession of up to three ounces of marijuana, and which many in the drug reform movement hoped would finally break the electoral barrier, was defeated decisively. Nevada voters rejected Question 9 by 61 percent to 39 percent.

Marijuana Policy Project director Rob Kampia huddled with Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement's Billy Rogers and state representative Chris Giunchigliani (D-Las Vegas) as the voting ended, but they saw defeat staring them in the face early on. While volunteers at NRLE headquarters waited anxiously -- nobody felt like eating -- Kampia, Rogers and Giunchigliani, who had sponsored last year's successful bill to make marijuana possession no longer a felony and who signed on consult with the Question 9 campaign, tried to figure out how long to hold onto the hope of victory.

But by 8:50 pm, less than two hours after the polls closed, it was all over. Reporters, TV crews and volunteers -- some now breaking out in tears -- listened as NRLE conceded. "Change is never easy," Rogers said, comparing the drug war to the social struggles of the 1960s. "The civil rights movement took a long time to achieve success. One day down the road, we will change these bad laws. This is the first of many battles."

"This was about responsible adults using marijuana in the privacy of their own homes," said Kampia. "This was about not getting your door kicked in for doing so. But our message didn't get out."

It wasn't for lack of money. MPP and its affiliate, NRLE, spent over $2 million in the Nevada effort and waged a TV advertising campaign, as well as hiring locals such as Giunchigliani and former Nevada Council of Police and Sheriffs head Andy Anderson in an effort to rebut charges that the campaign was inflicted on the state by outside interests. But as in Ohio and Arizona, while the prohibitionist opposition may have been caught flat-footed at first, local law enforcement and anti-drunk driving groups hooked up with the federal drug war bureaucracy to wage an all-out campaign against Question 9.

Opponents used a series of widely publicized traffic fatalities linked to marijuana use to great advantage, telling Nevadans they would face a plague of stoned drivers. They also made a great deal of the three ounce provision, waving baggies full of joints at every TV camera in sight and claiming that so much pot could not possibly be for personal use.