Medical marijuana bill proposed

CARSON CITY -- Wanna try some marijuana? Medical marijuana that is?

Well, it would become a lot easier to acquire your "medication" if a bill introduced Friday by Assemblyman Paul Aizley becomes law.

The Las Vegas Democrat, one of the Legislature's most liberal members, introduced Assembly Bill 235. It would allow marijuana farms and repeal most of the current regulations over the state's medical marijuana program.

Now the "patients" in the state program must acquire a registration card through the Nevada Health Division. They first must secure their doctor's permission, be fingerprinted and undergo a criminal background check. Initial-year costs are $250, followed by an annual $150 renewal fee.

Aizley figures if people are sick enough to need marijuana, then they'll just get a doctor's written permission and start smoking, and they don't need the state looking to see what's in their pipes.

He also wants to repeal the current law that limits legal users to the possession of no more than 1 ounce of usable marijuana, and no more than three mature and four immature marijuana plants. Instead, their doctors would determine how much marijuana they should possess.

Another big change: users no longer would have to grow their own. "Caregivers" could grow and sell the marijuana to many medical marijuana users, not just one as under the current law.

Luana Ritch, bureau chief of the Health Division's Bureau of Health Statistics, Planning, Epidemiology and Response, said she thinks some law enforcement authorities will oppose the bill, which she said essentially would "deregulate" marijuana. She said her agency is taking no stand on the proposal.

But it wasn't immediately known Friday what kind of support the bill will receive in the Legislature.

Ritch hopes that if legislators approve the proposal, they will look at a regulatory system like one in Colorado where marijuana is controlled by the agency that oversees alcoholic beverages. Growers and dispensaries are licensed and taxes are charged.

More than 3,000 Nevadans now have registration cards that allow them to grow and use marijuana to treat debilitating conditions caused by cancer, MS, glaucoma and other illnesses.

If the bill passes, Ritch wonders why the Health Division's registration program would be needed at all.

"There would really be no motivation (to get a user's card)," she said.

Aizley said his motivation is simple: Too many medical marijuana users simply cannot grow their own. They cannot acquire marijuana seeds -- which are illegal to possess -- or lack the gardening skills necessary to grow the plant. Since they are using the drug only for medical reasons, he figures the Legislature should make it easier for them to get their medication.

"I'm not a user," said Aizley. "I see this as providing medication to people who have been authorized to use it by their physicians."

Aizley, 74, a retired University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor, has introduced some of the most controversial and interesting bills of the legislative session. One of them would prohibit smoking of tobacco anywhere on the campuses of the state's colleges and universities. Another would prohibit employers from discriminating against transgender people.

Sixteen states now allow people with debilitating illnesses to use marijuana with permission of their doctors. California has more than 2,000 clinics where marijuana is available for a price.

Moves to legalize the drug for all adults in Nevada failed in the 2002 and 2006 elections, although support grew to 44 percent from 39 percent. Last year another pro-marijuana group considered, but decided against circulating petitions to put a new marijuana legalization question on the ballot.