MEDICINAL MARIJUANA DRIVE AWAITS DECISION

CARSON CITY -- The fate of Nevada's initiative proposing to legalize the
use of marijuana for medical purposes was uncertain Tuesday as questions
over the required number of signatures in Lyon and Nye counties remained
unresolved. The deadline was Tuesday for the clerks to report on the number
of signatures collected in each of 13 counties.

Secretary of State Dean Heller was expected today to look at the issue and
decide how to proceed. A full count of all 1,391 signatures submitted to
Lyon County officials is one way to answer questions there. Only 509
signatures were sampled by the county clerk.

But Nye County is more problematic because more than 400 of the 1,233
signatures turned in by Americans for Medical Rights have not been counted
due to a variety of errors, including the lack of addresses or dates by
some who signed the petition. With that many signatures uncounted for those
reasons, the group could not possibly meet the 926 signatures needed to
qualify the initiative in Nye County.

The petition must qualify in all 13 counties to be placed on the November
ballot. Deputy Secretary of State Don Reis has questioned whether Nye
County should have rejected the 400 signatures that did not include dates
or that had other problems.

Nye County Clerk Arte Robb said last week that some of the signatures
rejected by her office were from registered voters. Based on the rejections
in Nye County, only 607 signatures were found to be valid, more than 300
below the required number.

In Lyon County, 509 signatures were counted, and 329 were found to be from
registered voters. The results will likely result in a count of all 1,391
signatures to see if the minimum needed, 982, is reached. The group
exceeded the required number of signatures in the 11 other counties where
petitions were circulated.