This famously live-and-let-live state, where legal prostitution has given rise to $7 million brothel-resorts and where legal gambling includes video poker machines in grocery stores, may now be poised to break another vice barrier.

A first-in-the-nation initiative appearing on Nevada's ballot in November asks the public to legalize marijuana. Not just for medicinal purposes. For recreational use, too. If the initiative is approved, it would then have to pass again in 2004 to become a constitutional amendment.

It's no accident that the Silver State has become the national focus of this debate. The Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project scoured the political landscape last year for a test state and settled on Nevada because of its well-known libertarian bent, a small population that makes the campaign less expensive, and an electorate who already overwhelmingly approved the medical use of marijuana in two ballot questions.

Indeed, there's a real possibility that Nevadans could approve the measure, despite federal drug laws that bar any possession whatsoever. The petition effort that placed the initiative on the ballot garnered more than 109,000 signatures – nearly double the required number. And two recent local newspaper polls show the public evenly split.

"It's a tight race, and we haven't even started yet," says Vincent Frey, deputy campaign manager for Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement, the group pushing the initiative. "We plan to identify 25,000 households that we think can swing this our way."

Specifically, the initiative would decriminalize possession of less than three ounces of cannabis for anyone over 21. It would also require state legislators to devise a regulatory system for its manufacture and sale.

The largest newspaper in the state, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, endorsed the measure as a means to "bring compassion and common sense to drug laws." Gov. Kenny Guinn, a Republican, won't take sides, saying through his spokesman that he's "anxious to see how the electorate votes."

To further its cause, the Marijuana Policy Project spent $375,000 on the petition drive. Another $150,000 has already been raised. More is promised as the campaign gears up to buy TV advertising, open offices in both Las Vegas and Reno, and hire more than 50 employees.

These pro-pot forces argue that law-enforcement officers have better things to do in this age of terrorism than to bust marijuana users for what some see as a harmless hobby. "We know some people develop an unhealthy relationship with marijuana, but the same can be said about alcohol or tobacco," says Robert Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, which is funding and directing the Nevada effort. "That doesn't mean all adults who use marijuana should be arrested."

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