Medical Marijuana:

JURY TO HEAR DRUG CASE

Trial to decide whether physicians can determine amount patients can
possess

Former medical marijuana patient Pierre Werner will have to wait to
challenge in court the legal limit on marijuana that patients can possess.

He'll also have to wait to challenge the charges filed against him
after a police raid at his home.

Rather than dismiss the charges, District Judge John McGroarty on
Wednesday ruled that a jury will consider whether the state of Nevada
or a physician should determine the amount of marijuana possessed by a
licensed patient.

Even though the charges against his client weren't dismissed, Werner's
attorney, Ryan Mortier, described the ruling as favorable. The judge
could have prohibited Werner from presenting certain evidence at
trial, such as the testimony of the doctor who prescribed marijuana to
treat Werner's bipolar disorder.

"It's a victory, but it's not a slam dunk," Mortier said. "He
(McGroarty) did not cop out. It's a very, very difficult, potentially
precedent-setting decision, and it is an issue that should be before a
jury."

Chief Deputy District Attorney Vicki Monroe wasn't available for
comment following the hearing Wednesday.

Mortier said the case is significant, because it could set a precedent
for other medical marijuana patients in Nevada. Unfortunately, he
said, the patients are required to follow state-imposed limits on the
amount of marijuana they may possess that don't take into
consideration individual therapeutic needs.

Under Nevada law, the state's nearly 700 licensed marijuana patients
can keep an ounce of marijuana on hand. They can grow seven plants,
but only three can be mature, according to administrators with the
state's medical marijuana program.

Patients are allowed to grow their own marijuana or get it from a
designated caregiver. Each caregiver can have one licensed patient,
according the medical marijuana program.

Marijuana patients have complained that the law doesn't take into
account that many plants don't blossom, and that patients are forced
to go without marijuana if they or their caregiver can't grow more
plants.

Police in January 2004 found at Werner's valley home 34 mature
marijuana plants, 11 immature marijuana plants and more than two
ounces of marijuana leaves.

Werner, 33, argued in May before McGroarty that he was allowed under
the law to have all the plants because his doctor recommended more
marijuana than the amount stated in the law. Just as physicians do
with pain killers and other prescription drugs, Werner's physician,
Dr. James Tinnell, said he recommended marijuana for Werner based on
Werner's claim that he needed it.

But prosecutors said Werner violated the law by exceeding the amount
allowed and by growing marijuana for other licensed patients.

Werner is scheduled to go to trial in February. He said Wednesday he
would consider a plea agreement, if prosecutors were to combine the
charges stemming from the January 2004 arrest and a subsequent arrest
in June.

Earlier this year, when he was facing only the January 2004 charges,
Werner insisted he would not take a plea agreement. It was important
to fight the state-imposed limit in court on behalf of all of Nevada's
medical marijuana patients, he said at the time.

"I don't want to end up in a federal jail," he said Wednesday after
the court hearing. "I am ready to leave the country now for Amsterdam
or Canada, where I can privately medicate myself without fear of
future arrests."