Medical use of marijuana reaches ballot

Tuesday, Aug. 4, 1998 | 10:46 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The initiative petition to allow ailing people to use marijuana has qualified for the November election ballot and now the battle begins.

Secretary of State Dean Heller said Monday a recount of signatures in Nye and Lyon counties revealed the petition had gained sufficient names to put the question before the voters.

"This has a lot of support," said Dan Hart, spokesman for Nevadans for Medical Rights, which started the petition.

Asked about opposition of district attorneys, Hart said, "There are some factions that misunderstand this. It's a matter of compassion."

This is about helping people with "catastrophic illnesses and nothing more," Hart said.

But Carson City District Attorney Noel Waters said, "As shown in California, this in large is a dodge for a whole lot of people to get high legally. We have enough ways to get high legally."

Marijuana, Waters said, "isn't the worse drug in the world" but it opens the door to life damaging drugs such as methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin.

Advocates of medical marijuana gathered 74,466 signatures in 13 of the 17 counties to put the issue on the ballot. There were 46,764 signatures required statewide and ten percent of the voters in 13 of the 17 counties.

Initially it didn't qualify in two counties. It fell seven signatures short in Lyon County and 36 in Nye County. The medical rights organization appealed the findings, saying there were adequate signatures in those two counties.

A re-examination showed another 25 valid signatures on the Lyon County petition and 51 in Nye County, putting the petition over the top. These are signatures that have been initially disqualified or miscounted.

Heller said, "In this entire process from the inception to this conclusion, two principles stand without question. The first is the right to petition. The second is that the end result be valid.

"This is the first time the signature verification appeal process -- added to the law in 1993 -- has reversed the results of a petition drive. In both previous cases filed in the last two months, the investigation of appeals verified the original results."

Hart said, "We were confident we would be ruled legal," and now a campaign must be put together to convince Nevadans to back the measure, which is similar to California's.

He had no estimate of the money that is expected to be spent on behalf of the proposed constitutional amendment.

Waters said the Nevada District Attorneys Association has not taken a formal stand but he has not talked to one district attorney who favors the ballot measure.

It will be a topic of discussion at its next meeting in a month or two, Water said.

Waters said there are a number of reasons he opposes the legalization of marijuana for medical use. It complicates the law, making possession a crime on one hand and on the other it's legal. He said it would conflict with federal law, as has happened in California with many doctors declining to prescribe marijuana, fearing they could be disciplined.

If enacted, Waters said it would cause another problem in prosecutions. The legalization for medical use would be another thing that would have to be considered in any marijuana case.

"I'm not convinced this legislation is medically necessary in view of the other drugs," that are available, Waters said.

If it passes in November, it must be approved again by the voters in 2000.

The petition says a patient, upon the advice of his physician, can use marijuana for "treatment or alleviation" of cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, persistent nausea, epilepsy multiple sclerosis or any other medical condition approved in the law.

It would require the Legislature to provide by law for the protection of the growing of the marijuana for medical purposes. And a registry of patients who are authorized to use the plant must be kept. Law enforcement officials could have access to the list.