MEDICAL MARIJUANA: BILL WOULD LET PATIENTS GROW POT

Measure Advances On 11-2 Vote

CARSON CITY -- Nevada patients who need marijuana for medical reasons could
grow up to seven pot plants at their homes under a bill approved 11-2
Thursday by the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

Members decided to implement the marijuana constitutional amendment
approved by 65 percent of the voters in November by adopting the Oregon
medical marijuana model and letting patients grow their own.

Nevada would join Oregon and seven other states that have laws to allow
people with AIDS, cancer and other illnesses to use marijuana for medical
reasons.

Oregon allows patients with a doctor's permission to grow no more than
three mature and four immature marijuana plants. They also can have no more
than 1 ounce marijuana for use on hand to meet their current needs.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, proposed the grow-your-own
plan because state Agriculture Department officials said Wednesday they
needed $750,000 to build an indoor state pot farm that would have used grow
lights.

The state planned to charge $250 per ounce to patients who needed marijuana.

But the cost of the farm and the price patients would pay were considered
prohibitive by some legislators.

Giunchigliani estimated that only a couple of hundred Nevadans will receive
medical permission to use marijuana.

"I am pleased they listened to the will of the voters," she said after the
vote. "It is a controversial issue. But it is a recognition that people
will benefit from medical marijuana."

She acknowledged her bill does not give patients a legal way to acquire
marijuana seeds.

"They will get it as they get it now," she said. "There will be sharing of
information."

Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Elko, joked that he was disappointed Nevada
would not operate a marijuana farm. He said the Agriculture Department
could run the farm in conjunction with its wild horse adoption program.

"Then we'd have the fertilizer to grow the plants," he quipped.

"I knew they had local weed out in Elko," replied Judiciary Chairman Bernie
Anderson, D-Sparks.

The only votes against the medical marijuana plan were cast by Assembly
members Sharron Angle and Greg Brower, both Reno Republicans.

Brower pointed out the bill was not just a plan to implement voters'
medical marijuana wishes, but that it also carries clauses to get rid of
Nevada's felony marijuana possession law.

Under the bill, first-time possession of an ounce or less of marijuana
would become a misdemeanor, punishable by a $600 fine. Second-time
offenders would be charged $1,000 and forced to enter a drug treatment program.

Brower said people busted for small amounts of marijuana are not being
charged with felonies now, and judges have told him they do not want a
change in the felony offense.

But after the meeting, Giunchigliani said Brower was wrong. A committee of
citizens, including Supreme Court Justice Bob Rose, had proposed the
eradication of Nevada's felony marijuana law.

"I take issue with Mr. Brower," she said. "The judges I have spoken with
absolutely and completely agree (with doing away with felonies for
possession of small amounts of marijuana)."

Though the bill carried the committee, it now must be referred to the
Assembly Ways and Means Committee, which handles bills that appropriate
state money.

Legislative analysts estimated the state needs to spend $50,000 to start up
a program within the Department of Motor Vehicles to register people who
have permission to use marijuana.

Giunchigliani predicted the actual costs will be much less, but approval
may not come from Ways and Means until late May.

The Senate also must agree to a medical marijuana plan before it can go
into effect.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Mark James, R-Las Vegas, said Thursday he opposes
a grow-your-own plan because participants must secure seeds illegally.

Instead he said the state should license private individuals to grow
marijuana for qualified patients.

"I don't want to put one penny into the hands of organized crime," he said.

His committee today is expected to act on another marijuana measure, Senate
Bill 242.

Two years ago, the Legislature mistakenly changed a state marijuana law.
Now people technically can grow up to 100 pounds of marijuana and not be
charged with a crime.

The bill would reinsert the old marijuana law, but James wants it amended
so it does not interfere with the medical marijuana program.