Pubdate: Mon, 20 Jan 2014
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV)
Copyright: 2014 Las Vegas Review-Journal
Website: http://www.lvrj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/233
Author: Tom Ragan
Page: 1A

MEDICAL MARIJUANA DILEMMA

Frustrations Mount As Challenges Hindering Program Fail to Be Resolved

Las Vegas has been called the entertainment mecca of the world.

It's a place where gambling goes on 24 hours a day, nude dancers of
both sexes appear onstage every night, and prostitution, while not
legal, is widespread.

So you might think that people being allowed to use medical marijuana
to relieve their pain and ills would fit right in, especially when
it's under a doctor's orders.

If that's what you thought, you'd be wrong.

A law approved by the Nevada Legislature in 2013 allows 40 medical
marijuana dispensaries to be opened in Clark County, complete with
security, taxes and regulations.

If all goes as planned, such dispensaries could go on line later this
year throughout Nevada.

But the state's two biggest cities, Las Vegas and Henderson, and a few
Clark County commissioners aren't particularly excited about the
proposed business ventures.

Last week, Las Vegas City Attorney Brad Jerbic said he was going to
temporarily "bow out" from drafting the city's medical pot ordinance
because the dispensaries, which are legal under Nevada law, violate
federal law.

He wrote a letter to the State Bar of Nevada, asking for its
opinion.

"City attorneys across the country are dealing with the same issue,"
Jerbic said in an interview. "The bottom line is that state law does
not invalidate federal law. And the only legal advice I can really
give at this point is not to do it. Don't commit a crime."

His legal quandary comes two weeks after the Henderson City Council
imposed a six-month moratorium on dispensary land use applications and
permits for the same reason. Ditto goes for the city of Mesquite.

And Las Vegas was the first Southern Nevada city to approve a
moratorium late summer after its business licensing department was
flooded with calls from enthusiastic applicants from across the country.

Now, Mayor Carolyn Goodman and a few City Council members are having
reservations about welcoming the pot dispensaries.

The same goes for a few county commissioners, who represent the
world-famous Strip.

These second thoughts are occurring while medical marijuana
dispensaries are springing up around the country.

CITY SEEKS LEGAL REPRESENTATION

Jerbic's decision to withdraw, if only temporarily, left the city
scrambling for another attorney to handle the case as the state
prepares to finalize the new law's regulations on April 1. Those rules
will pave the way for 66 dispensaries, 40 of them in Clark County,
including the cities of Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, Boulder
City and Mesquite.

After wrestling with the issue as far back as October, the city
attorney made his intentions clear last week, taking a few of the
council members off guard and drawing their criticism.

Councilman Bob Coffin, who supports the dispensaries, called the
recusal a "chicken move," given the precedents established in
Colorado, Washington and other states.

Coffin said attorneys from other states have had no problems with
dispensaries, so why is Jerbic balking.

Councilman Steve Ross praised the move, calling it sensibly cautionary
and in the city's best interest.

"I applaud it," he said. "What some people don't understand is that
the federal government could come in at any time and seize our assets
if we started allowing dispensaries. That's the deep dark crazy
scenario at work, but I don't think it will ever happen."

The Obama administration has made it clear that the enforcement of
federal marijuana laws is a low priority.

With this in mind, Coffin thinks the city had better get moving on the
ordinance soon or prepare for possibly "losing all control" with
either a weak ordinance or no ordinance at all.

Councilman Bob Beers elaborated, saying he's not particularly fond of
the "present interpretation of the state law," which allows the state
to hand-pick the dispensary applicants, then rank them before handing
them over to the city.

He said that could be a recipe for disaster. If the city is going to
pass an ordinance, then it should be the one signing off on the
applicants, not the state.

"I do not have a problem with medical marijuana," Beers said. "But
these are the sorts of issues that the city is going to have to
address before we decide to go there. But we're going to have to just
wait and see what the state hands down."

County Commissioner Steve Sisolak, who favors the diepensaries, also
doesn't like the fact that the state might pick their operators.

"We're running into one problem here: the determination of who gets to
own and operate them," Sisolak said. "And the issue for me is, if you
put it in my ward, then I have to deal with the fallout from upset
constituents. I want to make sure that it's an upstanding company
that's doing it the right way."

AUTHOR OF BILL FRUSTRATED

State Sen. Richard Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, the author of Senate
Bill 374 that authorized the dispensaries, is a bit upset by all the
indecision. His bill was intended to end a decade of Nevada having a
medical pot law on the books but failing to provide places where
patients could actually buy the drug.

He said he's going to ask the County Commission to write all of its
cities and ask them to make a decision one way or another.

"I just wish people would stop sitting on their hands, and bite the
bullet and tell us: 'Yes, we want the dispensaries,' or 'No, we don't
want the dispensaries,'" he said. " It's a pretty simple question, and
meanwhile patients, real patients - mind you - are suffering."

Time is of essence because if all the major cities in the county
decide against the dispensaries, then the county could end up holding
the entire bag of 40. And deciding where to place those 40 would take
some time.

"I'm thinking at least a few on the Strip, in county territory,"
Segerblom said. "I just don't get it, though. I've gotta say. In a
city like Las Vegas, where everything supposedly happens and where
everything stays, here we are debating this in the 21st century while
cities across the country are having no problem with it."

Some of the Las Vegas council members say they're also concerned about
coming up with a solid law rather than a flimsy one, which is the
reason for the delay.

"It's one thing to say you're OK with medical marijuana being legal in
the state," said Sam Bateman, a Henderson City Councilman and
prosecutor for the Clark County district attorney's office. "It's
quite another thing to say, 'Do we want this in our backyard? Do we
want to be licensing businesses that are conducting business that is
illegal by the federal government?' "

Said Las Vegas Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian: "I just want it to be
clean. I don't want it to start getting wildly out of control and
before we know it everybody is getting their hands on it and not just
the patients."

CONFLICT WITH U.S. LAW AN ISSUE

Mayor Goodman said she will vote against the dispensaries unless the
federal government reverses its law.

"We don't want to be meddling with the federal government," she
said.

But if the law is changed, she said she would make sure that the
marijuana was sold at fair market value, so that nobody could be
gouged, and that it was certified by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration. Medical pot advocates counter that such a thing might
be a long time in coming.

Las Vegas Councilman Ricki Barlow, who visited California and Arizona
to get a firsthand look at how their dispensaries operate, said he was
"highly impressed" with the manner in which the different grow houses
and dispensaries were able to "drill down deep and pull out the
components of the dope and extract the medicinal qualities from it."

"It's not just about inhaling," he said. "There are a variety of
lollipops and brownies that you can eat."

Las Vegas Councilman Stavros Anthony, a former Metro police officer,
scoffed at the notion that a weed can actually contain medicinal
qualities. It hasn't even been approved by the federal Food and Drug
Administration yet, he noted.

"It's just an excuse for some people to get high," he said, adding
that its usage could lead to harder drugs, not an uncommon school of
thought in law enforcement.

But don't tell that to Mike Betts and Barry Stieb, Las Vegas nightclub
workers who hope to open their own dispensary.

In fact, they are probably the most chill of the bunch in the wake of
the bureaucratic delays.

Some strains of medical marijuana can be good for anxiety, said Stieb,
32.

"Other strains can actually help eliminate seizures," said Betts,
28.

One strain called "Charlotte's Web" helped a Colorado girl named
Charlotte to cope with Dravet syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy that
afflicts mostly children under the age of 5, he said.

Just last week, the state legislature in Florida was entertaining the
notion of passing a medical marijuana bill to help children with seizures.

As it turns out, the oil in that strain has helped Charlotte to
survive, according to her mother, who testified at a legislative
hearing in Tallahassee last week.

Whether the new state law ends up being a success largely depends on
Marla McDade Williams, the deputy administrator for the Nevada
Division of Public and Behavioral Health. She's still waiting for
funding to staff the office that will handle the dispensary
applications.

The cost to apply is $5,000, and it's nonrefundable. The cost for the
license itself is $30,000. Every year, it can be renewed at a cost of
$5,000.

And when exactly are the applications going to get
rolling?

"That's the $100,000 question. My gut instinct is that we'll start
accepting them in the late spring or early summer," she said several
weeks ago.

But that's always subject to change.

RULES FOR DISPENSARIES DEVISED

Once she starts the program, it will take anywhere between 130 to 160
days for the approvals to start rolling in, Williams said.

Applicants need to pass criminal background checks and demonstrate
that they have $250,000 in cash or assets that can be converted to
cash in 30 days. But mostly they have to show the state that their
dispensary will be safe, that there's a good deal of security and that
they're going to accept only legitimate medical marijuana cards.

"We want to make double sure the product doesn't walk out the door and
into the illegal market," McDade Williams said.

So far the County Commission is the only entity that has directed its
staff to start preparing for the onslaught, although even a few of the
county commissioners have their reservations.

In a perfect world, Commissioner Susan Brager said it would be nice if
the Legislature would revisit the issue and extend the time frame.

"It's an awesome task before us," she said. "Before we know it, April
1 is tomorrow." As for City Attorney Jerbic's letter? Phil Pattee,
assistant state bar counsel in Las Vegas, handles ethics cases, and
said that anytime the U.S. attorney's office indicts or convicts a
lawyer for either a minor infraction or a felony, it's a big deal.

"We are required to notify the Nevada Supreme Court, and they take
appropriate actions," he said.

"With a guy as bright as Brad, he's erring on the side of caution,"
Pattee said, adding: "We're sort of in limbo for medical marijuana,
but it will all shake out eventually."
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