COMMON SENSE

In the waning hours of the 2001 legislative session, lawmakers quite
sensibly legalized the medicinal use of marijuana for seriously ill
patients and relaxed some of the nation's most Draconian drug laws.

Assembly Bill 453 will allow patients who suffer from cancer, AIDS,
glaucoma and several other illnesses to possess as many as seven
marijuana plants for personal use. It will also reduce the penalties for
possession of an ounce or less of marijuana from a felony to a
misdemeanor.

At a time the rhetoric surrounding the war on drugs is getting ever more
heated, lawmakers deserve credit for remaining level-headed and
respecting the will of the voters, who twice passed a medical marijuana
ballot initiative by solid majorities. Legislators also demonstrated
common sense by rolling back harsh marijuana penalties to more
reasonable levels, as a judicial commission of the Nevada Supreme Court
recommended last year.

The bill easily could have died, even though the ballot initiative
stated that the Legislature must "provide by law" a system of rules
governing medicinal marijuana. Several lawmakers were tempted to use a
recent U.S. Supreme Court decision -- which invalidated "users' clubs"
and other medical marijuana distribution systems -- as an excuse for
inaction. But the measure was approved nonetheless, especially after
legislative lawyers reviewed the decision and ruled that it is unlikely
to affect state programs like that established by AB453, which allow
people to grow marijuana for their own use.

Without question, the bill would have never passed without the efforts
of its primary supporter, Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las
Vegas. Ms. Giunchigliani was able to keep wavering lawmakers on her side
by maintaining that medical marijuana is an issue of state's rights ...
and that treating simple possession as a felony made no sense when the
penalties governing other intoxicating substances are much less severe.

Gov. Kenny Guinn should sign the bill without hesitation.