Ray Hagar

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana filed a petition on Wednesday with the Nevada secretary of state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in the Silver State.

The group, made up of investors who are entering Nevada's burgeoning medical marijuana industry, needs to get 101,667 signatures by Nov. 11 to move the process forward.

The first stop would be the 2015 Nevada Legislature.

It will be an uphill battle for backers of the petition because approval would take a two-thirds vote in both houses because the petition has a tax component. All tax hikes in Nevada need a two-thirds vote in the Legislature to pass. It would also need the signature of Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval to become law.

But a loss in the Legislature would automatically set up a vote by the people in the 2016 presidential general election. And there, proponents of the petition feel they have a very good chance of getting recreational marijuana use legalized in Nevada.

"You have a component in the presidential election that would favor us," said Joe Brezney, spokesman for the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana. "You'll have a bump in young people turning out to vote for a president, and young people overwhelmingly support us."

Brezney feels strong get-out-the-vote efforts by both major parties during general elections will also help get the petition to legalize recreational marijuana approved. He notes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is up for re-election in 2016 and that should also drive up turnout among young people.

"That is the demographic and we have been strategic about putting this on the ballot at a time when we know there is likelihood that we know who is going to show up," Brezney said. "We are a battleground state. We have the Senate majority leader and there is a lot of money focused on turnout. And so we think we got it right by waiting until now and filing this for a president election."

If the petition is eventually approved, Nevada would join Colorado and the state of Washington as states where pot is legal for recreational use.

Assembly Minority Leader Pat Hickey, R-Reno, said if the measure makes it on the ballot for the 2016 election, Nevadans will have the luxury of seeing how legal recreational use of marijuana plays out in those states before they would be voting on the issue.

"I think Nevadans need to consider what the social and financial costs of legalization are," Hickey said. "And by 2016, we will be able to look at the examples of Colorado and Washington state to look at the benefit, or otherwise, of legalizing (recreational) marijuana."

Washoe County District Attorney Dick Gammick, who is strongly opposed to the legalization of marijuana, noted that others have tried to get marijuana legalized for recreational use in Nevada before and have failed. Gammick said he is concerned this time might be different.

"At one time, I would have said, absolutely not," Gammick said, referring to the chance that recreational marijuana use might be legalized in Nevada. "And that has been proven. They have tried this, I think, about a half-dozen times by now. But now, with the changes we have had in this state, with all of the out-of-staters that have come in, I won't bet one way or the other."

The news of the petition comes when local governments in Washoe County and across Nevada are putting together ordinances and zoning requirements to accommodate the medical marijuana industry that was approved by the 2013 Nevada Legislature. Nevada legalized medical marijuana in 2001 but provided no legal means to acquire it. On Monday, Clark County received more than 200 applications by its deadline to apply for licenses to run either a medical marijuana dispensary, grow house, kitchen for edible products or testing facility in the unincorporated areas of the county.

The fees necessary to apply for licensing were a big boost for the county, said state Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas.

"For the unincorporated areas down here (in Clark County), they had 206 applications with $5,000 for each application," Segerblom said. "So they got more than $1 million in fees just to accept these applications."

Yet, Gammick said the state would suffer if a few wealthy individuals were able to profit from legal recreational marijuana use.

"The whole medical marijuana hoax — and now this — is based on the money," Gammick said. "It is turning green into green. It is still a Schedule I controlled substance (with the federal government). It is subject to abuse and it is also addictive, so what is the message we are sending to the kids? They (sponsors) say that kids can't have it. Yeah right, there was also a bill that said kids could not have alcohol. But what is the message we are sending to kids, one of a total permissive society? And I'm not a super history buff, but didn't Rome fall from the inside? I just don't know where we are going with all of this."

The Marijuana Policy Project, based in Washington, D.C., is assisting the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana with the petition drive, Brezney said. The Marijuana Policy Project also tried to get small amounts of marijuana legalized in Nevada in 2002 and 2006. The measures failed both times, getting 39 percent of the vote in 2002 and 44 percent in 2006.

Yet, Brezney points to recent polling that shows Nevadans are changing their minds. During the 2013 Legislature, Public Policy Polling polled Nevadans about the legalization or recreational marijuana and concluded 54 percent of Nevadans were in favor of the legalization of recreational marijuana and 42 percent were opposed. That shows the measure to legalize recreational use of pot would have momentum going into the 2016 general election, Brezney said.

"The 54 to 42, from a purely mathematical point of view, I love being handed a campaign with a 12-point advantage," Brezney said. "We are now bringing medical (marijuana) on line and it is time (for recreational marijuana). ," Brezney said. "The Colorado tourism market is exploding and I think we have a better tourism destination than any other place in the country."

Segerblom has said if the recreational use of marijuana was legal in Nevada, Las Vegas could become "the Amsterdam of the West."

"If we went with full legalization, it would be an absolute boon to the tourism industry and to gaming," Sergerblom said. "I think it would add another element to what we are now — a place where you go to have fun, get crazy for two or three days or a week and then go home and tell your friends how much fun you had, and I stand by that."