MEDICAL MARIJUANA: FEDERAL ACTION ON PROGRAM NOT EXPECTED

Growing, Distribution In California Targeted

State officials said Wednesday they are unaware of any impending
enforcement action by the Justice Department against the state's medical
marijuana program that began Oct. 1.

While the Justice Department has initiated actions in California aimed
primarily at the growing and distribution of marijuana for medical
purposes, state officials said Nevada's law is different and less likely to
provoke interest by federal law enforcement agencies.

Paul Iverson, director of the Department of Agriculture, which administers
the new state program, said distribution of marijuana is not an issue in
Nevada.

The law passed by the 2001 Legislature authorizes people with terminal
illnesses or nausea associated with those illnesses to grow a modest amount
of marijuana for their own use.

Nevada is one of nine states with a law regarding the use of medical marijuana.

Unlike California, where clubs for growing and distributing marijuana
exist, Nevada's program involves only the patient or the patient's
caregiver, Iverson said.

Gina Session, the deputy attorney general advising the Board of
Agriculture, which adopted the final marijuana regulations in August, said
the limitation of 1 ounce of usable marijuana, a maximum of seven plants
and other restrictions make Nevada's law much lower profile than
California's program.

"There's no indication of any enforcement action that I'm aware of," she said.

A call to the Las Vegas office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
was referred to Los Angeles, where a spokesman could not be reached
Wednesday for comment on whether there is any investigation into Nevada's
program.

Nevada's program, which has 12 participants so far with another 600
requests for applications, does not exempt patients from federal
prosecution. It only prohibits enforcement by law enforcement of state drug
laws.

The Agriculture Department does not provide seeds or marijuana or advice on
where to obtain seeds or how to grow the plant. It only processes the
applications.

Dan Geary, the co-campaign director for Question 7 on the 2000 ballot
authorizing a medical marijuana program, said enforcement in Nevada is
unlikely.

"We have a grow-your-own type of statute," he said. "Cultivation is put in
the hands of the patients. A crackdown on cultivation and distribution in
Nevada is a moot point."

The favorable ruling for the Justice Department in the U.S. Supreme Court
decision involving the Oakland, Calif., Cannabis Buyers' Club earlier this
year did not challenge a state's right to determine its own possession
laws, but focused on the medical necessity exception to federal
prosecution, Geary said.

Since possession remains a federal crime in Nevada, the issue in the
Oakland case does not apply here, he said.

Geary said physicians who sign a form required for the state to process a
medical marijuana application should not be concerned either. Nevada's law
makes it clear that the physician assessment is to determine if the patient
qualifies under the provisions of the law related to medical condition such
as a terminal illness. The physician's signature is in no way a
"prescription" for marijuana, he said.