GIUNCHIGLIANI'S MARIJUANA MEASURE CRITICIZED

A Clark County prosecutor on Thursday accused Assemblywoman Chris
Giunchigliani of proposing changes to state driving laws that would lead to
more people high on marijuana causing highway deaths.

"This is another attempt by a pro-marijuana lobbyist to make marijuana
legal," said Deputy District Attorney Gary Booker, head of the Vehicular
Crimes Unit. "They know people who drive on marijuana kill people."

Booker is upset because Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, introduced Assembly
Bill 362 earlier this week. He made his comments during an interview in Las
Vegas.

Under the bill, a person may not drive on highways in Nevada if their blood
carries more than 20 nanograms per milliliter of the hallucinogenic
substance that is found in marijuana. That concentration is 10 times the
current standard of 2 nanograms per milliliter.

Giunchigliani said legislators put the 2 nanograms standard into law in
1999 without conducting any hearings and doing little or no research.

"It was pulled out of the air in an amendment approved on the floor," she
said. "In talking with toxicologists, I found 20 nanograms is the
recommended number for driving impairment."

The argument over impairment levels was an issue in the trial of Jessica
Williams, who was charged in a March 2000 accident in which her van
careened into a youth work crew collecting trash in the median of
Interstate 15. Six teenagers were killed.

Prior to trial, her attorney argued the 2 nanogram level was impermissibly
arbitrary because there was no scientific proof that a driver would be
impaired at that level.

Prosecutors agreed there was no scientific basis to say that a driver would
be impaired at this level. But they added that, unlike alcohol, scientists
have failed to pinpoint an impairment level for marijuana.

As a public safety measure, legislators could have prohibited drivers from
having any measurable amount of marijuana in their system, prosecutors
said. They said legislators instead set a low threshold to account for the
possibility of passive ingestion, such as through second-hand smoke.

The Nevada Supreme Court sided with the prosecution on this issue and
upheld the law. However, District Judge Michael Douglas last month
overturned Williams' conviction on unrelated grounds. She remains in
custody pending a new trial.

Giunchigliani thought it curious that Booker referred to her as a
"lobbyist," something she has not been since the 1987 Legislature when she
represented the Nevada State Education Association. She has been a
legislator since 1991.

Booker was one of the leading opponents to the Nevadans for Responsible Law
Enforcement drive last fall to legalize marijuana in Nevada. Giunchigliani
was a paid consultant for the organization.

By a vote of 61 percent to 39 percent, Nevadans rejected Question 9 to
allow adults to possess 3 ounces or less of marijuana.

During the 2001 Legislature, Giunchigliani sponsored the bill to set up the
medical marijuana program that allows sick people to grow pot. Under her
bill, the Legislature also abolished the state law that made it a felony
offense to possess any marijuana. It now is a misdemeanor punishable by a
$600 fine to possess an ounce or less of marijuana.