Smoking, Pot Take Hits; Lotteries Win
In a sharp rebuff of the drug-reform movement, Nevada voters refused Tuesday to make their state the first to legalize possession of marijuana, and reform measures also failed in Ohio and Arizona.
Federal and state law enforcement officials teamed up to oppose the Nevada measure, which would have legalized possession of up to 3 ounces of pot.
The Arizona proposal would have downgraded marijuana possession to the equivalent of a traffic violation, while the Ohio measure would have forced judges to order treatment instead of jail for many drug offenders.
In Florida, voters approved a sweeping ban on smoking in restaurants and virtually all other workplaces. "It's going to save lives," said Martin Larsen, chairman of the Smoke-Free for Health campaign.
Smokers also were targeted in Arizona, where voters approved an increase in cigarette taxes from 58 cents to $1.18 per pack.
In Tennessee and North Dakota, voters approved creation of a state lottery. That is a milestone for Tennessee, which had been one of only three states (along with Utah and Hawaii) without legalized gambling.
The results in Nevada, Arizona and Ohio were a blow for a national alliance of drug reformers,
"For the first time, we were up against the full weight of the federal government," said Bruce Mirkin, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project. "I never for a moment believed this was going to be easy."
In recent elections, voters in several states had approved use of marijuana for medical purposes, and treatment-instead-of-jail proposals were approved in Arizona in 1996 and California two years ago. But in Ohio, Gov. Robert Taft and most of the criminal justice establishment campaigned vigorously against the proposal.
In Nevada, authorities warned that legalizing pot could wreak havoc, and some voters agreed.
"It would be a mess," said Peaches Johnson of Las Vegas. "It's permission to get high."
In South Dakota, voters heeded the urgings of politicians and judges, and defeated a proposal - backed by drug reformers and others - that would have allowed defendants to tell juries they could disregard a law if they don't like it.
In Massachusetts, voters agreed to eliminate bilingual education and replace it with a one-year English-immersion program. A similar question was on Colorado's ballot.
Under the proposals, students would be taught all classes in English, though a teacher could use a student's native language only to help explain a complex theory.
In Florida, Republican Gov. Jeb Bush won re-election but suffered a defeat elsewhere on the ballot as voters approved an initiative backed by many Democrats that would limit class size in public schools. Bush said the limits - ranging from 18 in the lowest grades to 25 in high school - would force an unaffordable increase in school spending.
On the financial front, elected officials in Arkansas and Massachusetts were relieved by the defeat of proposals to eliminate major taxes. The Arkansas measure would have abolished the sales tax on food and medicine; the initiative in Massachusetts would have repealed the state income tax, drying up a $9 billion funding source.
Warned of drastically higher taxes, voters in Oregon rejected a proposal to create the nation's first comprehensive health care plan. The estimated price tag was to give every citizen full medical insurance was $19 billion a year.
Oregon voters also rejected a proposal to make their state the first in the nation to require labels on genetically modified foods.
Los Angeles will remain the nation's second largest city. CBS News Correspondent Steve Futterman reports efforts by Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley to secede from Los Angeles went down to defeat. If the efforts had been successful, the City of Angels would have become the nation's third largest city, with Chicago moving up to Number Two.
In other results: