NEW STATE LAW EASES PENALTIES ON MARIJUANA

Minor Possession Becomes Misdemeanor

CARSON CITY -- Nevada's reputation as the state with the toughest marijuana
penalties ends Monday when a state law goes into effect that makes
possession of small amounts of pot a misdemeanor offense.

Police throughout the state are gearing up to hand out citations when they
catch people with an ounce or less of marijuana. These people face fines of
$600 for the first two times they are caught with small amounts of
marijuana.

"I don't believe we should be arresting people for misdemeanors," Nevada
Highway Patrol Chief David Hosmer said.

Hosmer will advise his officers to decide case by case whether to ticket or
arrest people with marijuana in their cars. In Las Vegas, Clark County
Deputy District Attorney Dave Barker is advising police to consider issuing
tickets rather than busting users and hauling them off to jail.

Las Vegas police Lt. Stan Olsen added casual users may be given a "Class 2
booking," meaning they will be taken to jail, booked and fingerprinted, and
then sent on their way.

If a driver caught with marijuana is not in an impaired state, Hosmer said,
troopers should confiscate the pot and issue a ticket. Troopers also will
hand the driver a card with telephone numbers of organizations that help
people with drug problems.

Hosmer said drivers who are under the influence will be arrested, as would
be any other intoxicated driver. Judges can sentence misdemeanor offenders
to six months in jail, although that rarely is the practice.

Barker said before making the decision to issue a citation, police in Clark
County should take into account a number of factors such as whether the
person has a current residence or the likelihood they will show up in court.

"We will treat it like any other misdemeanor," Barker said. "It's the
officer's discretion."

The change in approach comes as a result of Assembly Bill 453, which
decriminalizes marijuana possession. Until now, Nevada was the only state
with a law that made possession of even a small amount of marijuana a
felony.

State records show nearly 4,500 people were arrested last year in Nevada for
felony possession of marijuana. In virtually every case, their charges were
reduced to misdemeanors and the users paid fines. No current inmate in the
Nevada State Prison system is serving time for possession of marijuana.

"I don't think the law changes much," District Judge Jack Lehman said. "If
someone is picked up now for a small amount of marijuana, the police and DA
generally treat it as a misdemeanor. They haven't been charged with felonies
for a while."

Lehman runs the drug court program in Clark County. The court offers
treatment to drug users who, upon successful completion of the program, have
their criminal charges dropped. He said it's methamphetamine and cocaine
users -- not small-time pot users -- who make up most of the drug court
participants.

Reno lawyer Carter King said for marijuana users the misdemeanor law is a
change for the better, both in terms of potential criminal sanctions and
financially. King charges people $1,500 to have their charges in minor
marijuana cases reduced to misdemeanors. Now, users may decide against
hiring lawyers and simply pay the $600 fines.

King said the felony law has been applied selectively. In Clark and Washoe
counties, users had their charges reduced, but that hasn't always been the
case in rural Nevada.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws has hailed
Nevada's decision to decriminalize marijuana.

"We were perplexed that a state with gaming and prostitution in some places
would have legislation against marijuana," said Allen St. Pierre, executive
director of NORML, which supports laws to make marijuana a controlled drug
like alcohol that could be used by adults. "We need to put marijuana where
it should be, in the public nuisance area, like ripping off a tag on a
mattress."

Marijuana laws will now be stricter in Utah and Idaho than in Nevada,
according to St. Pierre. In Idaho, the vehicle of a minor marijuana user can
be confiscated and sold, he said. In Utah, students convicted of possessing
one marijuana cigarette lose student loans.

In its summer newsletter, NORML acknowledged Nevada's change by featuring
Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, in a front-page article.

Giunchigliani said the new law doesn't give the state's "blessing" to the
use of marijuana, but recognizes the reality of current legal practices.

"Even police officers said we were wasting our time because the felony
offenses were all pleaded down," she said.

Giunchigliani said Nevada might have kept its felony marijuana law for so
long to give the nation a "false image" that a state with gaming and legal
prostitution still could be tough on crime.

Nevada's medical marijuana program is being administered through the state
Department of Agriculture. The initial applications to people interested in
participating in the program were sent out last week.

Patients suffering from AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and other illnesses can use
marijuana as long as they have the written permission of their doctors. Use
of marijuana remains a federal crime, but there has been no federal
prosecution in states where individuals grow their own marijuana for medical
purposes.

About 200 people are expected to receive approval to use marijuana during
the program's first year of operation. Those with medical marijuana ID
cards, however, risk arrest if they decide to use the drug in their vehicles
or in public.

Although he hesitates to second-guess the Legislature, Hosmer opposed the
decision to decriminalize marijuana.

"I don't think it is the right thing," he said. "It sends the wrong message
to our youth, the message that using drugs is OK."

But St. Pierre said four federal studies have shown there was no increase in
marijuana use in states that reduced marijuana penalties. He added that as
long ago as 1972 a federal commission recommended the decriminalization of
possession of small amounts of marijuana.

The Nevada fine for marijuana possession is really a "left-handed tax," St.
Pierre said, that will produce a windfall for the state since police and
prosecutors no longer need to waste time and money on minor marijuana cases.