Marijuana for medicinal use question must go through Legislature to be enacted

Despite an overwhelming approval by Nevada voters Tuesday for medical marijuana use, the state's penalties for possession -the nation's toughest - remain in effect.

The state Attorney General's Office, the Legislative Counsel Bureau's legal director and local district attorneys want tourists who rely on marijuana to ease symptoms of their illness to know nothing has changed yet .

In fact, Legislative Counsel Brenda Erdoes said, until the Legislature, which meets next year, enacts specific rules on the subject, Nevada still has the nation's toughest potential penalties for possession.

Most possession arrests are reduced to misdemeanors and with counseling ordered but, unlike most states, possession of any amount of pot in Nevada can be treated as a felony with a penalty of up to six years in state prison.

Voters in 1998 and 2000 supported permitting medical uses for marijuana by 2-1 margins.

"It's not self-executing," said Erdoes. "It requires legislation to take effect."

Washoe District Attorney Dick Gammick, who adamantly opposes legalizing any uses for marijuana, says it would be unwise for someone from states which permit medical uses of marijuana to assume they can walk down a street in Reno or Carson City with joint in hand, protected by a prescription.

"It's illegal. And that's the way we have to treat it," Gammick said.

A Moreno, Valley, Calif., man found that out three years ago in Carson City when he was arrested despite having a medical reason for using marijuana - he suffered from cancer.

Douglas Burton was charged by Carson District Attorney Noel Waters and taken to court. The charge was later dismissed at Waters' request, but he did so making sure that no precedent was set. And Waters made it clear other users of medical marijuana should assume it's illegal in Nevada until the statutes are changed.

Erdoes said what will be legalized by the popular vote and how the system will work must all be worked out by the Legislature. She said the voter-approved initiative is in no way designed to make all marijuana use legal; it will be limited to medical uses.

She said several lawmakers have already called for advice, and her office is researching the issue.

"What we've looked at so far are potential provisions and what California, Oregon and Washington have done," she said. "And we're looking at the litigation, particularly between the feds and California."

There is litigation between the federal government and California over cannabis clubs and distribution centers. California physicians have sued the federal government to clarify their rights. Federal authorities have threatened to strip any doctor who prescribes pot of his right to issue any medical prescriptions.

"It's just a big spongy mass out there," Erdoes said.

She said her job is to provide lawmakers with all the legal background and analysis she can when the 2001 Legislature opens its doors in February, but she doesn't know what form laws governing medical marijuana will take in Nevada.

"That's up to the legislators," she said.

Those legislators will get some advice from a variety of sectors, including physicians who want to make sure they are protected from legal action, the pharmacy board and advocates. Gammick said they're also going to hear from him.

"I think this is something this state is going to regret doing and in a big way," he said. "I talked to a lot of DAs in California and they're having an absolute nightmare with it."

He said he'll recommend lawmakers find that medical marijuana is already available to those who need it in a pill called Marinol available from pharmaceutical companies.

"The only difference is they don't get the intense high from Marinol," he said.

Users, however, have said for years that Marinol has almost no effect on the symptoms they want to relieve where smoking marijuana gives powerful relief for cancer patients, those with immune diseases such as AIDS, health problems that prevent them from eating enough to maintain health and even certain disorders that result in severe anxiety and other mental problems.

Gammick says it's a sham.

"They're pulling on the sympathies of people to get this through and it was totally dishonest," he said. "This just makes it that much more available and acceptable to our kids. That's what's wrong with it."

One agency trying to keep a low profile at this point is the Attorney General's Office. Assistant Attorney General Tom Patton said at this point, the law remains exactly what it was before the election and that visitors need to know marijuana possession is illegal.