Emerson Marcus

RGJ

An initiative petition and potentially a question to the 2016 ballot legalizing recreational marijuana use in Nevada could come to fruition if signatures presented to county offices today are valid.

The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol in Nevada have "unloaded" much more than the 101,667 registered voter signatures needed to qualify the petition, said Joe Brezny, a spokesman for the coalition. The deadline to submit signatures was today.

More than 145,000 signatures were submitted today in Clark County alone, he said.

Brezny said a team with the coalition is now working to present signatures signed in rural Nevada and Washoe to county offices there.

If 101,667 signatures are deemed valid, the Legislature could potentially pass the initiative in the spring. Approval would take a two-thirds vote in both houses because the petition has a tax component. It would also need the signature of Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval to become law.

But rejection in the Legislature would set it up to a vote of the people in 2016.

"We started signatures six months ago," said Brezny, a Republican who was one of the first two signatures along with State Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas.

"It's a bipartisan effort," Brezny said. The group is also made up of investors who are entering Nevada's burgeoning medical marijuana industry.

Brezny described the petition drive as a "grassroots effort" that asked for signatures at "grocery stores, the DMV, libraries — anywhere there would be registered voters."

The measure would put Nevada with Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia in lifting prohibitions on marijuana.