MEDICAL USES APPROVED: LAWMAKERS OK MARIJUANA BILL

Legislators Carry Out Will Of People, Defy U.S. Supreme Court Ruling

CARSON CITY -- Legislators, responding to the will of voters Monday,
gave final approval to the bill setting up a program that allows
approved patients to smoke marijuana for medical reasons.

The Assembly agreed on a unanimous voice vote to the version of
Assembly 453 already approved late Sunday by the Senate. The bill
will allow Nevadans with AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and other illnesses
to use marijuana with the written permission of the doctors. They may
grow up to seven marijuana plants.

The bill also will defelonize the possession of small amounts of
marijuana. Under the bill, a person arrested for the first time for
possession of one ounce or less of marijuana would be charged with a
misdemeanor, punishable by a $600 fine. Only with the fourth
conviction would the user of small amounts of marijuana be charged
with a felony.

Gov. Kenny Guinn plans on signing the bill into law, said his press
secretary Jack Finn.

Under Senate amendments to the bill, the University of Nevada School
of Medicine will seek federal approval for a research project into
the medical uses of marijuana. Only two small research programs,
however, have won federal approval in the past decade.

The bill also includes a preamble -- written almost as a warning to
federal agencies to leave medical marijuana patients alone -- in
which the Legislature emphasizes that Nevada "as a sovereign state
has the duty to carry out the will of the people." Marijuana remains
an illegal controlled substance under federal law.

Nevada voters in two consecutive elections passed a ballot question
that created a constitutional amendment compelling the Legislature to
set up a medical marijuana program.

"The public recognizes our policies regarding drugs, period, haven't
worked," said Assemblywoman Chris Giun-chigliani, D-Las Vegas. "They
very well know there are accepted alternative medicines ... Laetrile,
acupuncture and medical marijuana. Sometimes the public has to force
legislators to look beyond their own special interests."

She placed language from Oregon's medical marijuana law into her
AB453. In Oregon, 1,900 people have permission to use medical
marijuana. Despite federal laws prohibiting marijuana, no one in the
Oregon program has been subject to federal arrest.

Giunchigliani expects 200 people in Nevada initially will receive
permission to use medical marijuana. The bill calls on the Department
of Agriculture to set up a program under which approved patients will
receive medical marijuana registry cards. The law goes into effect
Oct. 1.

The bill does not specify where patients will acquire seeds for
growing marijuana. There are many Internet Web sites, mostly in
Canada, however, that sell seeds of dozens of exotic sounding
varieties of marijuana.

Regarding the reduced penalties for possession of small amounts of
marijuana, Giunchigliani said, "The public recognizes misdemeanors
and treatment are the most appropriate way to go. I think we have
done damage to many families who generally are hard-working people
who screw up once in a while and get busted for having an ounce or
less of marijuana."

Currently, Clark County has a drug court program that gives
first-time drug offenders an opportunity to have the charges against
them dropped or substantially reduced if they complete a rigorous
program of testing, acupuncture and counseling.

Dan Hart, leader of Nevadans for Medical Rights, also hailed the
passage of the medical marijuana bill, saying "the will of the people
has been reflected in the vote of the Legislature." His organization
is a subsidiary of Americans for Medical Rights, whose petition
initiatives have led to nine states passing medical marijuana laws.

The road to passage was not as smooth in the Senate, which passed the
bill 15-6 late Sunday. Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, said the bill
was crafted in a way to avoid a controversy with the federal
government.

"We cannot predict what the federal government will do, whether or
not there still will be federal prosecutions," Rawson said.

He reminded legislators that the state back in 1979 passed a medical
marijuana law, largely to benefit the late District Judge Keith
Hayes, who died in November of that year of cancer. That law was
repealed in 1987.

"There are probably some legitimate uses for this plant," Rawson
said. "It is out of a desire to help people with intractable
illnesses that we are doing this."

He said marijuana use reduces nausea in sick people and improves
appetite so patients do not literally waste away.

Sen. Terry Care, D-Las Vegas, said he was satisfied by a ruling from
legislative lawyers that Nevada can pass a medical marijuana law,
despite the recent U.S. Supreme Court opinion that struck down a
marijuana program in Oakland, Calif.

Voting against the bill were senators Bill Raggio, R-Reno; Lawrence
Jacobsen, R-Minden; Jon Porter, R-Henderson; Maurice Washington,
R-Sparks; Bill O'Donnell and Ann O'Connell, both R-Las Vegas.