Pubdate: Fri, 29 Dec 2000
Source: Las Vegas Sun (NV)
Copyright: 2000 Las Vegas Sun, Inc
Contact:  P.O. Box 4275, Las Vegas, NV 89127
Fax: (702) 383-7264
Website: http://www.lasvegassun.com/
Forum: http://www.vegas.com/ubbcgi/Ultimate.cgi
Author: Cy Ryan, Sun Capital Bureau

MEDICAL MARIJUANA GROUP OPPOSES LIMITS

Spokesman Says Panel Ignoring Will Of Voters.

The group that promoted and gained voter approval for marijuana to be 
distributed to treat illnesses in Nevada is upset by recommendations of a 
medical group that the use be limited to patients in research programs.

Dan Hart, chief spokesman for Nevadans for Medical Marijuana, said 
Thursday, "It disturbs me that this self-appointed committee thinks its 
wisdom is greater than the voters."

He said he would carry his fight to the Nevada Legislature to allow wider 
access by patients to marijuana when it is suggested by a physician.

"The voters were specific," Hart said. "They didn't want a study. If they 
were going to have a study, they didn't have to vote."

The committee of doctors, osteopaths and pharmacists -- which was formed by 
three state health boards after the medical marijuana ballot initiative 
passed in 1998 -- released a report this week that recommended that the 
distribution of the drug be done through limited research programs approved 
by state and federal governments.

The process, the committee said, avoids the pitfalls of California, where 
the federal government has challenged the state initiative in court to stop 
the distribution of marijuana through buyers' clubs.

Voters in 1998 and this year approved a constitutional amendment to permit 
medical use of marijuana for such illnesses as AIDS, cancer and glaucoma. 
It will be up to the Legislature to fashion a system to distribute it legally.

Federal and Nevada law still consider use or possession of marijuana a 
felony, though the 2001 Legislature will consider a bill to change that to 
a gross misdemeanor or misdemeanor.

Hart said Oregon has a system for distributing marijuana that has not drawn 
the ire of the federal government. In that state, he said, physicians 
recommend the use and the patient can grow up to six plants, with three of 
them flowering at a time.

He suggested the state of Nevada could also cultivate its own crop of 
marijuana to be distributed to patients who are registered. He said the key 
is "registered" to make sure there is no illegal use.

But Louis Ling, counsel for the state pharmacy board and a spokesman for 
the Nevada Medical Marijuana Initiative Work Group, said the committee 
studied those other distribution plans. "The problem with all of them is 
they are not legal under the present law."

Under those systems, Ling said, a patient could be arrested for possession 
of the drug, and a doctor who prescribed marijuana could lose his license.

The health care committee -- which included representatives of the state 
pharmacy, medical and osteopath boards as well as the public -- considered 
marijuana as a medicine. "If you grow it in your back yard, it is not a 
medicine," Ling said.

Ling said he tried to convince Hart that the health care committee "was not 
the enemy." The committee, he said, believed "it was implementing the will 
of the people."

Hart was invited to the three meetings of the committee, Ling said, but he 
never showed up for any of them, though he sent a representative to one. 
Hart also was given a chance to suggest changes to the final report, but he 
didn't, Ling said.

Hart said he wrote a letter protesting the recommendations. The medical 
committee's proposal "involves lots of red tape" and delays because of the 
approval required from three federal agencies -- the Food and Drug 
Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the National 
Institute of Drug Abuse, Hart complained. And then there's the question of 
which patients will be included in the testing program.

Ling noted the medical committee was formed on its own and is not a 
lobbying group. He said members won't show up at the Legislature unless 
asked to. On the other hand, he said, Hart is a paid lobbyist for the 
marijuana proponents.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens