Nevada pot legalization, With a legalization battle happening just over the Sierras in California, attitudes toward marijuana are changing in the West. An increasing number of people, especially among college-age adults, are in favor of decriminalizing the drug’s recreational use. If recreational cannabis use is legalized in Nevada, the result could be a new source of revenue for the state and decreased spending by authorities to prosecute and incarcerate users. Law enforcement officials in Nevada arrested more than 7,000 people on marijuana charges in 2007, according to statistics from the United States Drug Enforcement Agency. At an average cost to taxpayers of $11,500 per arrest, cutting that number could save hundreds of thousands, taking an edge off future state budget deficits that threaten funding for education and other services. More people in the United States are in favor of the legalization of recreational marijuana than ever, according to a Gallup poll conducted in Octobe