Different lipstick, same old pig

[Courtesy of Marijuana Policy Project] 

“Different lipstick, same old pig.”

That was the title of a Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial on Monday, referring to a quote by MPP’s Neal Levine, who was artfully characterizing the unconstitutional ballot initiative law in Nevada that we’re going to overturn.

Last week, MPP and the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Nevada government to overturn its unconstitutional law, which requires signatures from voters in all of the state’s 17 counties in order to qualify a measure for the statewide ballot.

This is the second time MPP has sued the Nevada state government over the very same issue. We won in 2004, and we’re going to win this time, too, and the Nevada government is going to have to pay our legal fees in full — again.

In addition to the editorial in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, one of the state’s biggest newspapers, a columnist for the Las Vegas Sun also weighed in on the situation.

Because MPP plans to run another ballot initiative campaign to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol in Nevada in a few years, it’s vitally important that Nevada’s ballot initiative law not be overly burdensome.

The previous law we overturned in 2004 — which required signatures from voters in 13 of Nevada’s 17 counties — was correctly thrown out by a federal court as a violation of the “one man, one vote” rule. And the new law — which MPP’s Neal Levine told the Las Vegas Review-Journal was “a different shade of lipstick on the same old pig” — also violates the “one man, one vote” rule.

We’re so sure we’re going to win this lawsuit — and get our legal fees reimbursed by the incompetent Nevada government — that I’m not even going to ask you to donate money to help pay for it.

However, I hope you’ll consider joining our monthly credit card pledge program — even with just $5 or $10 per month — in order to support our other 2008 projects.

Thank you, as always, for supporting MPP’s work.

Sincerely,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

P.S. As I've mentioned in previous alerts, a major philanthropist has committed to match the first $3.0 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2008. This means that your monthly pledge will be doubled.