PUSH FOR MEDICAL USE OF POT IN JEOPARDY

CARSON CITY -- The future of an initiative petition to allow the use of
marijuana for medical purposes is in doubt.

The initiative appears to have failed to qualify because of deficiencies in
the number of signatures in Nye County. Secretary of State Dean Heller,
however, said the issue of whether there were enough signers on the Nye
County petitions must still be sorted out.

Nye County Clerk Arte Robb, whose office sampled 1,228 signatures to see if
they were registered voters, said Monday 607 of them were valid. The
requirement for Nye County is 926 voters.

Robb said the more than 600 signatures were found to be ineligible for a
number of reasons such as the signers were not registered voters,
signatures were illegible and the persons circulating the petition were not
registered voters.

Heller said he understands that Robb disqualified a number of petitions
because the individuals circulating them were not registered voters or
lived in another county. He said, however, that Robb does not have the
authority to knock out all the signatures on those petitions and there may
be several hundred that were found not to be eligible by Robb.

Only a judge can rule that these signatures are invalid, Heller said. He
said he may have to order a recount in Nye County.

As a sidelight, Robb said that two women who were carrying additional
petitions to the clerk's office in Tonopah were stopped in Esmeralda County
by law enforcement officers and missed the 5 p.m. deadline June 16 for
filing. Because they were late, they were not allowed to file the petitions
which Robb said amounted to only an additional 90 signatures.

Nevada law requires 46,764 signatures of registered voters statewide to
place an initiative on the November ballot. And while the marijuana group
exceeded that by collecting 74,466 signatures, the law also requires that
10 percent of the voters must sign in 13 of the 17 counties.

Backers of the medical marijuana initiative collected signatures in 13 of
the 17 counties, the bare minimum. Therefore, if they fail to qualify in
one county, the whole petition is lost.

The proposed constitutional amendment would allow a patient, upon the
advice of his physician to use marijuana for the treatment or alleviation
of cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, persistent nausea, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis
and "other disorders characterized by muscular spasticity; or other
conditions approved pursuant to law for such treatment."

Dan Hart, the group's spokesman, declined comment Monday saying he wanted
to study the figures before making a statement.

As county clerks continue to verify petition signatures, five counties --
Clark, Humboldt, Lander, Lyon and Pershing -- already have reported they
have received the required number of valid signatures to place the issue on
the November ballot.

The clerks must complete the verification process by July 7.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)