MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL SNAGGED

Disagreement about whether to reduce the criminal penalty for marijuana
possession has hobbled passage of a law that would allow seriously sick
people to use marijuana, a measure that voters have twice demanded.

Critics of Assembly Bill 453 said Monday that lowering the penalties goes
further than the plan approved by 65 percent of the voters last fall. AB
453 would allow patients suffering from diseases such as cancer, glaucoma
and AIDS to be registered in the state to use marijuana for medicinal purposes.

But the bill also would reduce penalties for first-time possession of an
ounce or less of marijuana from a felony to a misdemeanor and a $600 fine.
A state judicial commission has twice recommended reducing the penalty for
marijuana possession, but previous attempts in the Legislature have failed.

Nevada has some of the toughest drug laws in the country, but residents
twice voted in favor of a petition for medical use of marijuana.

"There's more in the bill now than was on the petition," said Assemblywoman
Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, said during an Assembly Ways and Means
Committee meeting.

Changing the penalties could send the message that the state is taking a
soft stance on drug use, she said.

The petition to allow the medical use of marijuana was passed by the voters
in 1998 and 2000, but doesn't specify detail. Lawmakers have said it
doesn't appear to require them to approve a law this year, either.

The U.S. Supreme Court is considering a medical marijuana case out of
Oakland, Calif., that officials said could dictate how Nevada and other
states implement voter petitions to allow the drug's use as a therapy.

Opposition to medical marijuana has focused largely on whether the drug has
medicinal value and whether its use would lead to decriminalization.

AB 453 sponsor Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said the
section of the legislation changing the possession penalties only puts into
law what's already in practice in Nevada courts. "The public is smarter
than we sometimes give them credit for," she said. "They understand we're
not condoning drug use."

Giunchigliani originally had proposed a state-managed farm to grow
marijuana, but the Assembly Judiciary Committee rejected that idea. The
current plan would allow anyone on the state medical marijuana registry to
grow up to seven plants for personal use.

The program is modeled after one in Oregon. Oregon had 400 people using
medicinal marijuana when the plan was first approved and now has more than
1,900 on the state registry. There have only been two instances of fraud,
with people trying to illegally obtain marijuana.

"There haven't been the problems or abuses that many thought they would
see," Giunchigliani said.

Similar concerns about the decriminalization issue were raised when the
bill was heard in the Assembly Judiciary Committee, which changed the
measure to require an evaluation for all first-time offenders arrested for
pot possession. Those who seem at-risk for a drug problem could be ordered
into treatment.

Giunchigliani contends marijuana is not a gateway drug. Regardless, she
said the state shouldn't make felons out of people who possess an ounce or
less of marijuana. Most courts in the state don't sentence first-time
offenders to prison, but typically lower the crime from a felony to a
misdemeanor.

"It's still a crime, it's just not a felony," she said. "This doesn't
excuse the behavior, it just recognizes in law what already is practiced."

Officials estimate it would cost the state $30,000 to create a state
registry and pay for the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue the
identification cards, but they also say the program would eventually pay
for itself. The bill is likely to remain with the committee until budget
actions begin.

Initially, lawmakers had proposed a registration fee of $150 for each
patient, but that was reduced to $50 to ease the burden on the sick. To get
a marijuana identification card, patients also must be Nevada residents who
are being treated by a licensed physician.

"Here are people who are very ill, and we felt that may be too expensive,"
Giunchigliani said. "We wanted to start the program off a bit cheaper."