News

Rich white guys drop the ball

White savages at the Washington Redskins can’t seen to catch a break in Nevada.

First the team, acting on May 29 through a public relations firm, invited Te-Moak Western Shoshone Tribe chair Joseph Holley of Battle Mountain to fly to D.C. Details were vague, he said.

“Someone working for the team called me out of the blue to invite me to a meeting in D.C. with the team and its owners and wanted to know what I thought of the team name,” Holley said in a prepared statement. “They did not tell me what the meeting was about, what I would be doing or who else was invited and wanted my answer in just a few hours. My answer was no. I’ve got responsibilities to my community and members here at home and can’t be running off to D.C. at a moment’s notice to meet with a football team to do who knows what.”

Then, that same day, the team asked its disciples to “Tweet @ SenatorReid to show your #RedskinsPride and tell him what the team means to you.” Nevada Sen. Harry Reid has been harshly critical of the Redskins team name, and half the Senate has sent letters to team owner Dan Snyder asking for a change.

The results included, alongside the kind of postings the team hoped for, tweets like this: “Celebrating genocide and touchdowns #redskinspride.” “@SenatorReid The @Redskins name means racism. Always has, always will. And that’s the way rich white guys like it. #RedskinsPride.”

Cashell may seek med license

Reno Mayor Bob Cashell said he may consider applying to operate a medical marijuana dispensary. A rumor that he may apply for a dispensary license has been circulating in Reno. When asked, he didn’t deny it.

“I’ve not done any of that, at this point,” he said. “My daughter has a daughter that’s used [cannabis medication] a little bit, and she’s working with some people and stuff like that. But if a business opportunity comes along, I might look at it.”

Since Cashell was with Sparks Mayor Geno Martini at the time we interviewed him, we asked Martini the same question.

“I don’t have the wherewithal, the finances to be able to do it,” Martini said. “I don’t want to get involved in it.”

It’s definitely a line of work limited to the rich, to the point that the program has been called discriminatory. Applicants must have a quarter million dollars in liquid cash plus a $5,000 application fee.

Historic vote cast

The U.S. House of Representatives has voted 218 to 189 on May 30 to withhold federal funds for the enforcement of federal laws that interfere with state government-approved medical marijuana programs.

All four Nevada House members supported the amendment, which was added to a criminal justice funding bill (H.R. 4660).

The vote was treated in California as a message to President Obama and his U.S. attorneys in that state who have cracked down on medical dispensaries in spite of Obama’s pledges to leave state programs alone. The amendment was sponsored by California Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican, and Sam Farr, a Democrat. It tapped into some Republican libertarian sentiment, which—when joined with traditional Democratic votes—resulted in a very rare pro-marijuana vote in Congress. It’s not clear whether there has been another pro-marijuana vote in the House since 1937, when the plant was banned at the behest of alcohol and timber lobbies and over the objections of the American Medical Association. 170 Democrats and 49 Republicans voted for the amendment, 172 Republicans and 17 Democrats against.

—Dennis Myers

Sparks Mayor Geno Martini and Reno Mayor Bob Cashell chat with several people at the Halfway Club after a lunch with the two mayors purchased in a silent auction.

Who’s in charge?

When voters lay down the law, some officials balk

It was midday at Casale’s Halfway Club on East Fourth Street. Though lunch is by not always a big thing here, today Dennis Myers there was a group of 10 people around a single table. Tom Case had bid in a silent auction on lunch for 10 with the mayors of Reno and Sparks at Casale’s. He won, and this was the gathering. It was a fairly affluent group gathered around the table, so it was perhaps surprising that one of the first questions was about medical marijuana, directed at Reno Mayor Bob Cashell, who had recently endorsed its health care use. Seated under a poster for Birra Peroni lager, Cashell explained again the evolution of his thinking on the matter, which involves his hearing neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta explain the issue on CNN.

“It shouldn’t need political cover, really.”

Geno Martini sparks mayor

Medical marijuana, approved by voters in Nevada 13 years ago, was accepted reluctantly by state legislators, who approved measures requiring patients to produce their own medicine. Not until last year did they provide for dispensaries, and they handed administration of the dispensaries over to local governments—which, in turn, was accepted reluctantly by many city and county officials. In a couple of jurisdictions, dispensaries have been outlawed instead of licensed.

While not as dilatory as some local governments, Reno took its time moving on cannabis medication by using “stay ordinances” that delayed the issue. It was one of several local governments that waited on the state to draft regulation and did not begin preparations until then. Washoe and Clark counties, by contrast, were moving much faster.

In Lyon County, Sheriff Allen Veil opposed dispensaries. “Where there’s marijuana, organized crime has a finger in it, if it’s not controlled by them,” Veil said. “The potential is great for abuse and money laundering and there’s absolutely no reason Lyon County should want to be a part of that.” Those issues, however, involve policy judgments, and the voters had set the policy. Sheriffs are not policymakers—it’s their job to carry out the policies made by legislators or voters, and in this case the voters were pretty clear what they wanted.

Cashell and Sparks Mayor Geno Martini are both local politicians, and after their lunch broke up they lingered. If voter approval doesn’t give politicians cover, what does?

“It was something voted on by the people and so on and so forth,” Martini said. “It shouldn’t need political cover, really. You know, they [voters] want to do it. It’s legalized now. We’re going to control it. I don’t see a big problem with it. I’m not a proponent of recreational, but medical marijuana, I think, can help people that have certain diseases, and I think it’s the right thing to do.”

Cashell said, “It’s got to be controlled and run right and everything else, but the voters voted for it. You know, I’ve noticed a town in Colorado refused to do it. I heard its sheriff talk on TV the other night. Citizens over there really upset with the old boy, so I think they’ll probably do it.”

Those are safe answers, but not all local officials around Nevada have the same attitude. Should officials regard passage of an initiative petition as instructions from the voters?

Martini: “I would think it is, yes. I think an initiative petition, especially the way it passed—it passed pretty good, it wasn’t a close vote, I don’t believe. It passed with a pretty good percentage—that’s a mandate from the people that they want to do it. It’s something that we should look at and do.”

Cashell: “It’s proven that alcohol and stuff like that causes many problems, and I think we can regulate medical marijuana also.”

Brains or robotics?

For political scientist Fred Lokken, initiative petitions raise more complicated questions. Laws enacted by the legislature ideally go through scrutiny and processing that seeks problems and anticipates difficulties. It doesn’t always work out that way, but in many cases it does (See feature story, page 13). Initiative petitions, on the other hand, present the public with an up-or-down vote on a measure drafted by a special interest group and its language is locked in. In addition, there are limits on the ability of the Nevada Legislature to change laws approved by the public.

“Public policy initiatives that become law through voter approval do not reflect the vetting that takes place in the legislative process,” Lokken said. “The legislators make mistakes and they spend a nice long time on legislation.”

So what chance is there that initiatives will be flawless? In some cases, legislators immerse themselves in subjects, learning a good deal about the topics of legislation. That’s not a process that voters go through.

“Increasingly, initiatives begin outside the state,” Lokken said. “They are foisted on the voters of Nevada.”

Initiative petitions have become an industry, one that involves big money. It’s a long way from the Progressive Era intent of a tool that would let ordinary voters overcome money and power. But more than that, initiatives are rarely prepared with the care given to measures passed by legislatures, where both supporters and opponents scrutinize measures and have their say.

And local officials now trying to implement the marijuana law also lack familiarity with the issues, which raises the question of whether they should try to block it by indirection. That was indicated by one exchange after the two mayors’ luncheon. When it was pointed out that the discussion took place under the beer poster, and that the number of deaths known to be caused by marijuana consumption— zero—is outnumbered by those caused by alcohol consumption—about 88,000 deaths annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control—both mayors indicated surprise.

“Are you sure that there’s never been something that’s proven that was marijuana-related deaths?” Martini asked. “Then that’s even something that says more towards something we need to do, then, if there’s never been a death that was caused by marijuana. I didn’t realize that.”

“I didn’t either,” Cashell said.

“That’s very new to me,” Martini added.

Should local officials in some areas be substituting their own policy judgment for that of the voters?

“That’s pretty hallowed ground,” Lokken said of public votes. But what if there actually is a flaw in the law approved by the public after it was drafted by one or a few people? A lot of initiatives contain what Lokken called “muddy language” whose meaning is up for grabs. In Nevada, some initiatives can’t be touched for three years after they are approved by voters. Even then, there is some reluctance by legislators to change it, though they overcame their reluctance when casino lobbyists last year pressured them to water down an antismoking law passed by voters.

But if there is a real problem with a law—and political pressure is not the issue—then what should legislators do? Lokken said voters should ask themselves a question.

“What kind of legislators do you want? Do you want them to have a brain and an opinion or do you want them to be a robot and take orders?” Ω

“Ithinkwecanregulate medicalmarijuana.”

Bob Cashell reno mayor

Like a duck in water

SACRAMENTO

2014 Walk Committee & Sponsors

Nicole Carr, Desiree Higgins, Susan Damian, Tina Chiappetta, Wendy Maihack, Elena Michel, Eric Burger, Ariana Gomez, Stan Read

The low level of the Truckee River may be an ominous portent for summer and for water supplies, but it didn’t disrupt the fun of crowds gathered here at the point where the river splits around Belle Isle in downtown Reno.