FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   
SEPTEMBER 29, 2008   

CONTACT: Neal Levine, MPP director of state campaigns, 612-424-7001

LAS VEGAS — U.S. District Judge Philip M. Pro today ruled in favor of the Marijuana Policy Project, its Nevada campaign committee and co-plaintiffs, invalidating a Nevada rule for petition signatures that gives voters in the state's smallest counties as much as 1,000 times the clout of voters in Clark or Washoe counties.

    The law, NRS 295.012, was passed by the Legislature after federal courts tossed out the old "13 counties rule" because it discriminated against residents of the more populous counties by giving extra weight to initiative petition signatures from smaller counties. MPP and its Nevada campaign committee, the Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana, were joined by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada and four individual Clark County voters in seeking to overturn the new law, arguing that it actually magnified the disparities that had caused the 13 counties rule to be judged in violation of the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

    MPP director of state campaigns Neal Levine urged the state not to appeal the judge's decision. "With Nevada's economy in such a dire situation, you would think the state would have better things to do than pass and defend unconstitutional laws and pay our lawyers fees," Levine said. "This is now the second time we've defeated the state on the exact same issue. How many more times do you think it's going to take before they stop passing unconstitutional initiative laws?"

    With more than 25,000 members and 100,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit http://MarijuanaPolicy.org.