FEDERAL ACTION ON NEVADA MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROGRAM NOT EXPECTED

State officials say they're unaware of any impending moves by the Justice
Department against Nevada's medical marijuana program that began Oct. 1.

The federal agency is trying to block the growing and distribution of
marijuana for medical purposes in California, but state officials said
Nevada's law is different and less likely to provoke similar action here.

The law passed by the 2001 Legislature authorizes people with terminal
illnesses or nausea associated with those illnesses to grow a modest amount
of marijuana for their own use.

Paul Iverson, director of the state Department of Agriculture which
administers the new state program, said distribution of marijuana isn't an
issue in Nevada.

Unlike California, where clubs for growing and distributing marijuana exist,
Nevada's program involves only the patient or the patient's caregiver,
Iverson said.

Gina Session, the deputy attorney general advising the state Board of
Agriculture which adopted the marijuana regulations in August, said a limit
of one ounce of usable marijuana, a maximum of seven plants and other
restrictions make Nevada's law much lower-profile than California's program.

"There's no indication of any enforcement action that I'm aware of," she
said.

Nevada's program, which has 12 participants so far with another 600 requests
for applications, doesn't exempt patients from federal prosecution. It only
prohibits enforcement of state drug laws by police agencies.

The Agriculture Department doesn't provide seeds or marijuana or advice on
where to get seeds or how to grow the plant. It only processes the
applications.

Dan Geary, the co-campaign director for Question 7 on the 2000 ballot
authorizing a medical marijuana program, said enforcement in Nevada is
unlikely.

"We have a grow-your-own type of statute," he said. "Cultivation is put in
the hands of the patients. A crackdown on cultivation and distribution in
Nevada is a moot point."

A favorable ruling for the Justice Department in the U.S. Supreme Court
decision involving the Oakland, Calif., Cannabis Buyers' Club earlier this
year didn't challenge a state's right to determine its own possession laws.
Instead, it focused on the medical necessity exception to federal
prosecution, Geary said.

Since possession remains a federal crime in Nevada, the issue in the Oakland
case doesn't apply here, he said.