MEDICAL MARIJUANA: CITY GIVES BUSINESS GREEN LIGHT

Man Granted License to Operate Company That Helps People Get
Pot

Bill Kosinski got buzzed five times Monday. But he only had to smoke
weed four times.

His natural high came when city officials reversed course and said he
can legally operate a Las Vegas business that helps people go to pot.

Kosinski, whose back pain turned him to toke four times a day under
the state's medical marijuana program, said the news Monday that his
company, Medical Marijuana Consultants of Nevada, can legally help
residents benefit from the state's Medical Use of Marijuana Act gives
him "a great feeling."

In June, the city denied Kosinski's application for a license. Jim
DiFiore, manager of the city's Business Services Division, said there
was concern that Kosinski might be planning to grow or distribute marijuana.

"If he were acquiring marijuana for individuals who want it for
treatment of an ailment, then he would be violating federal law,"
DiFiore said Monday. "But he's simply going to assist someone with an
ailment who needs to see a doctor, who would prescribe medical
marijuana. ... We have no law that denies his opportunities to do that."

Kosinski, whose back was injured in a car accident, repeatedly has
said that he has only wanted to help people with debilitating health
problems, such as cancer and glaucoma, work through the state
bureaucracy. He said it took him more than a year to get a
registration card to use marijuana for medicinal purposes.

For a fee, he connects people with health problems to doctors willing
to recommend that they use marijuana to cope with their pain. He also
advises them about Internet sites where they can learn where to buy
marijuana seeds and how to grow the plants.

Much of the confusion over Kosinski's application, DiFiore
acknowledged, was caused by the city's inexperience with such businesses.

"This is the first one that is actually going to be licensed by the
city," he said.

Kosinski said he worried that he had been lumped in with a businessman
who was arrested after growing marijuana and selling it or
distributing it to people who were sick.

Jennifer Bartlett, manager of the Nevada medical marijuana program,
said 455 people have been issued registration cards to use marijuana.
She also said the state cannot advise people on what doctors to see or
on how to grow the drug. She said that in her dealings with Kosinski,
he has always "been completely professional."

About 170 doctors, Bartlett said, have recommended marijuana for their
patients. One doctor, who asked to remain anonymous "because of the
stigma still attached to marijuana," said he thinks Kosinski has been
"a real service to people."

"So many patients end up getting addicted to pain medicine," he said.
"And they end up needing more and more, so it's really bad for them."

A retired East Coast police officer who is still recovering from a
tire-iron beating said morphine and other painkillers caused cysts on
both his kidneys and liver. "I was always in a bad mood before," said
the officer, who requested anonymity because of the stigma that comes
with the narcotic. "Now I feel much better, and the cysts have stopped
growing."

The retired police officer's wife said medicinal marijuana has "been a
godsend. He's happy again."

Federal law, as pointed out in the city's initial denial of Kosinki's
business license, does not grant exemptions from prosecution for
possession of marijuana for medical purposes or from prosecution for
attempting or conspiring to obtain marijuana for medical purposes.

"You're just asking for trouble if you start advertising that you're
using marijuana," the retired policeman said.

Under Nevada law, which is based on the medical marijuana law from
Oregon, participants can only keep an ounce of marijuana on hand. They
can grow seven plants, but only three can be mature.

Currently, the state charges an annual $150 registration fee and a $50
charge for mailing application forms. If people hire Kosinski to help
them through the system -- he also helps them through the
fingerprinting process -- he makes $100 the first year and $50
thereafter. Five of six people who are mailed applications by the
state never return them.

The program was created after voters overwhelmingly approved a
constitutional amendment in 1998 and 2000 that allows people with
medical problems to use marijuana.

Las Vegas City Attorney Brad Jerbic said that what Kosinski is doing
"is not illegal today." But he said a case now in a federal appellate
court could change that.

"If the law changes, he won't have a license," Jerbic said.