Marijuana Policy Project

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Backers of an initiative to legalize small amounts of marijuana are trying to conduct "a social science experiment on the families of Nevada," a Bush administration official said Thursday.

John Walters, the administration's drug czar, said the initiative on Nevada's November ballot is supported by outsiders who want to take advantage of the "blind spot people have about marijuana."

"It has addictive qualities and especially in the hands of young people and teens ... has caused, as you well know, quite a loss of life," Walters, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said in an interview with the Associated Press.

Walters appeared Thursday with U.S. Rep. Jon Porter to speak out against the initiative, known as Question 7, and announced $500,000 in federal funding for a Clark County anti-drug program.

Backers of the measure protested Walters' visit to Nevada, which included speeches and media interviews, saying he was using tax dollars to campaign against the initiative.

Question 7 would allow people 21 and older to posses 1 ounce of marijuana in their homes - the same amount allowed under Nevada's medical marijuana law. The measure also directs marijuana growers, distributors and retailers to be licensed, taxed and regulated. And, it doubles penalties for selling or giving pot to minors and for vehicular manslaughter while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

It is backed by The Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana, a group that has pushed legalization measures in several states with funding from the Washington D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project.

The group argues that the legal system is bogged down by low-level marijuana offenses. It claims that taxing and regulating pot would put drug dealers out of business while freeing law enforcement resources to pursue violent crime.

Neal Levine, executive director of the committee says anyone who wants marijuana can get it already, so it makes more sense to put it into a tightly controlled and regulated environment.

Walters defended current drug laws.

"The laws are working. The fact of the matter is we have lower rates of substance abuse now than we did several years ago," he said.

He said new drug courts that handle only nonviolent drug-related offenses are succeeding in diverting drug users out of jails and into treatment centers. He said that a change in the law would send the wrong message to young people.

"The law is an important expression of what people take seriously," he said.

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