Pot legalization group’s signs tout ‘Support schools, not cartels’ in Las Vegas

After launching a series of television and digital ads, supporters of recreational marijuana are now taking their message above the streets of Las Vegas.

The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol unveiled a new billboard in the central Las Vegas Valley Thursday. The group recently reserved more than $800,000 worth of advertising space on Las Vegas television stations for the weeks leading up to Election Day on Nov. 8.

The group, also called Yes on 2, was set up to support Question 2 on Nevada’s November ballot. If the measure passes, adults age 21 and older would be able to legally purchase and use marijuana.

Located near the medical marijuana dispensary BLUM Las Vegas, 1921 Western Ave., the billboard shows three children hugging and has just four words: “Support schools, not cartels.”

The short message is twofold: The campaign wants people to know that a portion of tax revenue generated by marijuana sales would go toward funding education in the state. They also argue that keeping marijuana illegal only helps fund criminals and drug organizations selling it on the streets.

“With Question 2, we have the opportunity to shift the revenue from marijuana sales away from the underground market,” campaign spokesman Joe Brezny said during news conference under the billboard Thursday. “Instead, marijuana would be sold in regulated businesses.”

According to the referendum, the taxes and fees would first go to the Department of Taxation to pay for the state’s enforcement and oversight of marijuana sales, and the rest would go to a state education fund.

The campaign projects that legalizing recreational use would bring in more than $450 million in taxes and fees by 2024, with about $150 million of that going toward education over that same time period.

However, opponents of the measure, such as former Assemblyman Pat Hickey, R-Reno, argue that after going through the tax department, there’s no guarantee that any revenue would make it to the schools.

The Nevada Department of Education operates on an annual budget of about $3 billion. Hickey argued that the estimated $20 million per year from marijuana sales would have little effect on the state’s education funding.

“I think actual money getting to Nevada schools is both a pipe dream and a smoke screen for the marijuana industry,” Hickey said of the ad.

As for cutting out the black market, Hickey said legalizing weed would definitely have impact. But he pointed to Colorado and Washington state, where illegal marijuana sales are still problematic despite the drug being legal in those states.

Contact Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638. Find @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.