State studies ways to distribute medical marijuana

Wednesday, Sept. 1, 1999 | 11:31 a.m.

RENO -- Nevada officials, anticipating that voters will once again approve a proposed amendment to the state Constitution to allow marijuana to be used medically, are looking at methods of distributing the drug if the ballot measure becomes law.

Voters approved the proposed amendment at the 1998 general election. Changes to the Constitution require approvals at two general elections, so the proposed amendment will once again be on the ballot in November 2000.

If the amendment passes then, the 2001 Legislature will have to decide such issues as whether marijuana will be sold in pharmacies just like any other medicine and whether doctors will actually have to write a prescription or only recommend that a patient be eligible for the drug.

Federal law has curtailed sales in other states where the marijuana initiative has been enacted.

The state Board of Medical Examiners Saturday appointed three of its members to join a coalition of health regulators to devise recommendations to be presented to the 2001 Legislature.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Louis Ling, who acts as legal counsel for the state pharmacy board, said the board is forming a committee of pharmacists, doctors and osteopath physicians to draft a plan.

Dr. Joel Lubritz of Las Vegas, a member of the medical examiners board, said he is "dead set" against the legalization of medical marijuana. "We have a huge problem with drugs now. This could lead to problems with other illegal drugs," he said.

Lubritz and Drs. Dipak Desai, also of Las Vegas, and Cheryl Hug-English of Reno, were named to the coalition, which will hold public hearings on the issue. Lubritz said, "I would like to be a thorn in somebody's side."

In 1998 59 percent of the voters approved the proposed amendment. Ling said it also seems assured of passage on the second time around. And the state must get ready to handle the delivery of the drug, which will then be treated as a medicine.

Ling said he has been asked to examine whether this should be distributed like any other drug. "Would you be selling marijuana cigarettes out of a pharmacy?" he asked.

"If this is going to be treated like medicine, we don't want people buying a handful of seeds and planting them in their back yard," he said. "That's not medicine at this point. You're not treating it like medicine."

Maybe the doctors will have to distribute the marijuana, he said.

How will law enforcement know whether a person is legally possessing marijuana for medical use? In Oregon, Ling said, patients possess identification cards to show police. "That's may be one way to go," he said.

If marijuana is considered medicine, will insurance cover its cost?

Those and many other questions will have to be answered by the 2001 Legislature.

California enacted a medical marijuana initiative. But the federal government cracked down on the places that sold the drug. And doctors, who recommended its usage, risked loss of their license to prescribe drugs, Ling said.

While there's been efforts for 20 years to change the federal marijuana law, he said he didn't see much chance of it being changed. "President Clinton opposes making marijuana more accessible," he said.

There may be some legal limited ways Nevada could distribute the drug without violating federal law, Ling said. But he said that will take extensive research.