NEVADA'S FIRST MEDICAL MARIJUANA SMOKERS CERTIFIED

There are now six people in Nevada legally allowed to smoke marijuana under
state law.

Cecile Crofoot, who runs the program for the state Department of
Agriculture, said notices have been sent out to the first six admitted to
the program. Their names are confidential even to law enforcement.

But she said they won't actually have their medical marijuana registration
card until the Department of Motor Vehicles finishes setting up the system
to issue them later this month.

"They have their sheet," she said. "That page, for 30 days, is the same
thing as a card."

That authorization exempts those individuals from prosecution for
possession, use and cultivation of small amounts of marijuana. It doesn't
protect them from potential federal prosecution.

Crofoot said those six are the only individuals who have returned all the
necessary paperwork, including a fingerprint card and a letter from their
doctor stating that they have one of the chronic and debilitating conditions
that qualifies for the medical marijuana program. She said she hasn't had to
reject any applications yet.

The state has mailed out about 500 information packets and Crofoot said she
expects more completed applications to reach her office in the near future.

"I know people are going to send them in because they've called me and
they're in the process," she said.

But she said she's also still getting a few calls from people who think they
can get a license to set up a marijuana supply operation for those in the
program. Nevada's medical marijuana law specifically prohibits that.

Crofoot said despite federal efforts to get the names of those in
California's program as part of a criminal case charging a couple with
distributing pot, she thinks Nevada will be left alone because, in Nevada,
anyone supplying the drug even to someone with a medical marijuana card is
still guilty of trafficking. She said only the individual with the card and
their caregiver can grow or handle the marijuana. And that caregiver can't
have more than one client.

"Our law says one caregiver for one patient," she said. "That kind of puts a
halt to that there. I had a call yesterday and when I explained that to him
and talked to him for a while, he didn't even ask for an application."

Those in the program are also prohibited from driving under the influence of
the drug.