2018 NV Governor's race: on Drugs

Adam Laxalt: Did not seek to allow marijuana business banking

Adam Laxalt (R): "An issue for our federal representatives to address." The only Attorney General in a state with legalization not to ask feds to ease related banking prohibitions.

Steve Sisolak (D): Would fight federal intrusion into state marijuana industry. Also, erase misdemeanor marijuana convictions and enforce current state rules to make NV "the gold standard in the cannabis industry."

Steve Sisolak: Fight federal intrusion into state marijuana industry

Adam Laxalt (R): "An issue for our federal representatives to address." The only Attorney General in a state with legalization not to ask feds to ease related banking prohibitions.

Steve Sisolak (D): Would fight federal intrusion into state marijuana industry. Also, erase misdemeanor marijuana convictions and enforce current state rules to make NV "the gold standard in the cannabis industry."

Adam Laxalt: Wait-and-see on legalizing banking for legalized marijuana

That was posted on Jan. 30, 2018. Laxalt was sworn in on Jan. 5, 2015. The issue of marijuana and banking was already well advanced then. Laxalt is telling us that he's still not up to speed on the issue three years later.

In the Review-Journal on Feb. 7, 2018: "19 attorneys generals urged Congress to pass a bill that would allow marijuana merchants to access the banking system. You were the only attorney general from a state that had legalized recreational marijuana not to be on that letter. Why not?"

Laxalt: "I'm waiting to meet with this US attorney. We gotta see how this thing's going to roll out."

Laxalt does not like the notion of legal marijuana, and has never been pleased by the vote of Nevadans to approve it. But they did. [So stop "waiting"].

Adam Laxalt: 1996: opposed medical marijuana; 2018: decriminalization

A 1996 "political courage test" published by VoteSmart.org shows Sisolak, then running for a Henderson-area state Senate seat, did not support the decriminalization of medical marijuana.

Sisolak directed his response toward progressive primary voters, stressing his support for women and minority groups without denying that his stances had shifted on some issues. "This was a survey from 22 years ago," Sisolak wrote in a statement to the Reno Gazette Journal. "Like many people, you learn and grow as times change. And I think that's important."

"In 1996, even California had yet to implement the first medical marijuana law," a campaign spokeswoman said. "In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law."

Steve Sisolak: Nevada should set gold standard for legal pot

Adam Laxalt: Opposes legalization of possession of 1 ounce of marijuana

Question 2 would allow people age 21 and older to possess 1 ounce of marijuana for personal use. It would restrict who can grow, test, process and distribute recreational pot to those already licensed to do the same with medical marijuana or who run liquor distributorships.

"None of us care if a 60-year-old baby boomer is smoking marijuana at home," Laxalt said. "As attorney general, my biggest concern is for the safety and health of all Nevadans." Laxalt called the experience in Colorado a "parade of horribles." In the first year of legalization, he said marijuana-related deaths in that state increased 32 percent. "There is no provision in this ballot initiative to keep edibles out of the hands of children," Laxalt said.