Police union leader rebukes support of marijuana initiative

Keith Paul

Thursday, Aug. 8, 2002 | 11:14 a.m.

Metro Police's union not only opposes the initiative to legalize marijuana but is asking the umbrella police lobbying organization that endorsed the ballot question to reconsider its action, a union leader said today.

"It is my intention to ask (the Nevada Conference of Police and Sheriffs) board to reconvene and revisit the issues," said Detective David Kallas, executive director of the Police Protective Association, union for about 2,100 Metro police and corrections officers. "We are adamantly opposed to legalization of marijuana."

NCOPS, a statewide police organization, announced Tuesday its board of directors voted 9-0 to support the proposed constitutional change that would decriminalize possession of up to 3 ounces of marijuana.

Andy Anderson, NCOPS president and former head of the Police Protective Association, said the initiative will allow police to focus on violent crimes instead of spending hours on paperwork booking someone into jail on a marijuana possession charge.

The board is made up of two members from the PPA, two from the Henderson Police union, two from the state law enforcement officers' union and one each from the North Las Vegas Police and school police unions along with Anderson.

Anderson said the board can call for another meeting, but added the cops are missing the point of the initiative.

"We're not endorsing smoking marijuana, but when you have a majority of people in the polls (saying decriminalize marijuana) you have to get your head out of the sand and decide how to regulate it," Anderson said. "I didn't say I want my grandkids or my kids to use marijuana. Do you think it is hard for kids to get marijuana now? I'm saying let's regulate it and make it more difficult."

But local cops have come out against the initiative and the endorsement, saying 3 ounces of marijuana goes beyond personal use and that it would create a new set of policing problems. Nevada changed its marijuana laws last year, making it a misdemeanor for possession of less than 1 ounce instead of a felony.

"One ounce is a lot for personal use; 3 ounces is ridiculous," Undersheriff Richard Winget said. "You can make 120 marijuana cigarettes with 3 ounces. That's not for individual use; that amount is for dealing."

Kallas, who cut short his vacation and returned to Las Vegas after being told of NCOPS' endorsement, said he has spoken with the heads of the North Las Vegas and Henderson police unions and neither organization supports the marijuana proposal.

Winget said the police would do whatever possible to oppose the ballot question.

"We are organizing with all local law enforcement to develop our plan," he said.

Anderson said the state has already passed laws making possession of less than an ounce not only a misdemeanor, but a crime that ends with a citation issued not an arrest.

"There is a changing attitude in society," he said.