Friday, April 17, 1998 | 2:54 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- A group that seeks to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes in Nevada has won a victory in federal court over campaign financing.
U.S. District Judge Philip Pro ruled Thursday it is illegal to restrict campaign contributions to $5,000 or less to support an issue on the election ballot.
Americans for Medical Rights filed suit, claiming the limit violated free speech and there have been similar rulings in other federal courts. Dan Hart, spokesman for the organization, said "we expected to win all along. There was never any doubt about this."
It will permit individuals or groups to contribute big sums of money towards promoting an initiative petition to allow patients, upon the advice of a physician, to use marijuana to treat or to relieve their suffering from cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, persistent nausea, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and other medical problems.
The organization must gather the signature of 46,764 registered voters by June 16 and there must be 10 percent of the registered voters signing in 13 of the 17 counties. If that task is accomplished, it must be approved at the elections this year and in 2000 before it becomes part of the Nevada Constitution.
Hart said some signatures have been collected but the drive was nowhere near complete. Hart also said he expected some "significant" contributions to start to roll in.
The ruling is seen as a victory for the Republican Party which also challenged the limit in its "Payroll Protection" initiative. A suit is also pending on that issue in Las Vegas.
Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa said she was disappointed that the court stopped the enforcement of a portion of Nevada's Constitution on campaign contributions.
Nevada voters in 1994 and 1995 approved a constitutional amendment to impose a $5,000 limit on campaign contributions to candidates and for ballot questions. The marijuana group said this interfered with the right to free speech and free association under the U.S. Constitution in limiting the campaign contribution from a source.
Del Papa said, "The people of Nevada have twice voted overwhelmingly to amend the state Constitution to place reasonable limits on the amount which can be contributed both to candidates and ballot questions.
"The people have spoken, they want reasonable campaign finance reform," she said.
Deputy Secretary of State Pamela Crowell, who is in charge of elections, said she was happy the issue has been settled. She said the office wanted direction on what should be enforced.
The office had asked Del Papa for a legal opinion and it said the $5,000 limitation was presumed to be constitutional. But Del Papa also said the issue probably would be decided by a court.
Americans for Medical Rights is a California group that helped pass that state's medical marijuana law.
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