LAWMAKERS: NEVADANS WANT MARIJUANA BILL

Voter Mandate To Carry Medical-Use Measure To Guinn For His Approval

CARSON CITY -- The state will establish a medical marijuana program
for approved patients and also will try to win federal support for a
marijuana research project, lawmakers tentatively agreed Saturday.

Senate Human Resources Chairman Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, and
Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, decided to go ahead
with Assembly Bill 453, which puts into effect a voter-approved
constitutional amendment to let doctors recommend marijuana to AIDS,
cancer and other patients. Approved patients would be permitted to
grow as many as seven marijuana plants in their homes.

Both houses of the Legislature may approve the agreement as early as
today and send the bill to Gov. Kenny Guinn for his approval or veto.

"Nothing is a done deal, but I am confident because this does not
change the will of the people," Giunchigliani said.

"Every legislator has to grabble with this," Rawson said. "The people
put this in the constitution and asked us to do it."

A preamble will be added to the bill, calling on the state through
the University of Nevada School of Medicine to seek federal approval
of a separate marijuana research program. The preamble acknowledges
the consequences of marijuana abuse but says Nevada as "a sovereign
state has the duty to carry out the will of the people." Sen. Valerie
Wiener, D-Las Vegas, wrote the preamble.

In two consecutive elections, Nevada voters approved a ballot
question to establish a medical marijuana program. In November, 65
percent of voters supported medical marijuana. Nine states now have
laws allowing patients to smoke marijuana, although the drug under
federal law remains a prohibited controlled substance.

The U.S. Supreme Court last month struck down a California medical
marijuana program in a decision that some thought meant the death of
similar programs.

"It doesn't stop what people want," said Giunchigliani about the
agreement on the bill. "But hopefully the feds sometime will look at
some creative (research) programs and maybe we can move forward in
that area."

In the past 10 years, the federal government has approved only two
marijuana research programs: one using 60 people at the University of
California, San Francisco, and the other involving 67 people in San
Mateo, Calif.

Giunchigliani expects about 200 people initially will receive
permission to grow and use marijuana in Nevada. The state program is
based on an Oregon law. In Oregon, 1,900 people have permission to
use medical marijuana. There have been only two incidents of abuse in
the Oregon program.

"The feds still may pursue people in this state," Rawson said. "We
have tried to do everything we can do for proper safeguards. We don't
want people to think they are safe until they really are."

But Giunchigliani doubts the federal government will send agents into
the homes of ailing people for seven or fewer pot plants. The federal
government has not arrested approved users in Oregon.

A dentist who teaches a pharmacy program at the Community College of
Southern Nevada, Rawson said he believes there are medical uses for
marijuana.

"I teach students that the first medications came from plants," he
said. "Marijuana is one of those plants that probably has a medical
purpose."

Rawson said the federal government should conduct a major study to
determine whether marijuana has medical uses.

Medical marijuana advocates say the drug relieves pain, combats
nausea associated with some treatments and can stimulate an otherwise
suppressed appetite.

Opponents say marijuana interferes with memory and motor skills and
that smoking it can cause respiratory problems and other ailments.