POT ADVOCATE MOVING ON AFTER NEVADA PRISON TERM

LAS VEGAS--A couple of years back, Pierre Werner went to prison. It
made the papers. It was his own fault.

The prison sentence followed Werner getting caught growing many
dozens of marijuana plants in his house, which he swears he was doing
for medical purposes.

The growing of the pot plants came after much pot smoking--a lot of
it, he admitted, had nothing to do with the drug's medicinal qualities.

A lot of that pot smoking came after a prison stint in New Jersey
for, well, for selling lots and lots of pot.

The Jersey prison time came after an episode involving nudity and an
ill-fated attempt at walking from Southern California to Las Vegas.

The naked episode came after many other strange things in the life of
Pierre Werner.

The latest bit of strange?

The "Dr. Reefer" billboard on the south side of Las Vegas.

It's an ad for a business to connect potential marijuana smokers with
a doctor who will help them do it legally.

"I've always considered marijuana a medicine," said Werner, now 37.

Werner got out of prison in November. He is unemployed, lives with
his mother, and remains on parole until next month. That means he's
drug tested all the time.

Werner swears he's not smoking marijuana these days.

As soon as his parole is over, he's leaving Nevada for good, he said.
He can't take it anymore. And besides, if he gets caught selling pot
here again, he could get locked up for 20 years.

"There's no way I'll sell marijuana in Nevada," he said. "I don't
even want to stay in Nevada. No thanks. Not worth it."

He wants to go to Amsterdam, where he was born, or to California,
which he said is more friendly to medical marijuana smokers.

Nevada's voters legalized marijuana for medical purposes in 2000.
Patients diagnosed with a qualifying condition (cancer or glaucoma,
among others) are allowed to possess small amounts of the drug.

They also are allowed to grow it for their own use.

They are not allowed to grow it for lots and lots of other people and
sell it to them.

That's where Werner got into trouble in 2004.

He was an outspoken advocate of medical marijuana. He admitted that
he was a recreational user before a 1998 incident in which he simply
lost it, psychologically speaking.

In Southern California at the time, he decided he needed to be in Las
Vegas. And so he stripped all his clothes off and began to walk.

That led, eventually, to a diagnosis: bipolar disorder. He was given
lithium, which "turned me into a zombie," he said.

But smoking pot fixed everything, he said.

He began operating a business in Las Vegas that helped patients
connect with doctors.

He talked of opening a cannabis club, like they have in California.
He grew his own pot. He also decided that he would grow pot for other
patients, even though that's illegal.

"My medicine was the best in the world," he said.

According to Nevada's Department of Health, the law for people
registered in the medical marijuana program allows the possession of
one ounce of marijuana; the possession of four mature marijuana
plants; and the possession of three immature marijuana plants.

When the police went to Werner's house, they found dozens of pot
plants. He was arrested, pleaded guilty and sentenced to probation in
November 2006.

A judge warned Warner in January 2007, but let him remain on
probation after he was accused of smoking marijuana and driving to a
meeting with his probation officer.

He was sent to prison after he was arrested again two months later.
Police said they found 96 more marijuana plants at his Las Vegas residence.

Police also found items with Werner's telephone number and an
operation called "Medical Marijuana Referral."

And what has happened to his referral business?

That's where his mother comes in.

Whenever patients would call the business while Werner was in prison,
his mom would help them out. He would give her advice over the phone,
from prison, on how to work the system.

Now, she operates the business full-time. Werner swears he has
nothing to do with it now, other than promoting it.

Reyna Barnett, 58, Werner's mom, said it bothered her when her son as
a young man smoked pot, sold pot, and went to prison. Then came the
bipolar diagnosis and the zombie-like lithium experience.

Marijuana seemed to fix him, Barnett said. She began to sympathize.

More and more, she worked with the patients that her son used to help.

"I like to help people," she said.

What she does, for a fee, is help people fill out the necessary
government paperwork.

She helps them make an appointment with a cause-friendly doctor.

Any licensed doctor can prescribe marijuana in Nevada. But Werner and
Barnett won't reveal details for fear of harming the doctor's
reputation--other than this one: It is a local pediatrician.