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By Dave Toplikar (contact) 
Monday, July 9, 2012 | 2 a.m.
Judge Donald Mosley asks a question to attorneys during a bail hearing for Leonard Schwingdorf in District Court Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011. Schwingdorf is among defendants facing charges in connection with distributing medical marijuana.
Sun archives
- Judge sets Nevada medical marijuana law arguments for November (10-11-2011)
- Marijuana co-op case back before Judge Mosley again (9-28-2011)
- Judge OKs Las Vegas medical pot case, says laws aren’t too vague (9-27-2011)
- Judge to rule soon on Las Vegas medical marijuana co-op case (9-16-2011)
- Attorney: Marijuana dispensary case should go to Supreme Court (6-22-2011)
- Case shines light on medical marijuana law as 6 plead not guilty (6-22-2011)
- 6 arrested in raid on alleged marijuana dispensary (11-23-2010)
- 12 arrested with ties to Las Vegas medical marijuana clinic raids (1-6-2011)
A ruling that Nevada’s medical marijuana law is unconstitutional has put the issue before the state Supreme Court and has lawmakers again pushing to clarify how patients can legally obtain the drug.
After several medical marijuana dispensaries set up shop around Las Vegas in recent years, a task force from the Metro Police Department and the District Attorney’s Office began working with federal authorities on a series of high-profile raids.
The busts began about two years ago to snuff out the pharmacy-like outlets and grow operations sprouting around the valley.
But contradictory rulings by two Clark County District Court judges have sent some of the pending criminal cases to the Nevada Supreme Court, which is expected to start sorting out the matter this summer.
Will it end there? Several people tracking the issue — including a Las Vegas state lawmaker — say no.
They predict the 2013 Nevada Legislature, not the Supreme Court, will be the real battleground for spelling out what voters intended when they approved the use of medical marijuana in 2000 with a 64 percent majority, opening a Pandora’s box for interpreting what is allowed under the law.
“The people in Nevada have voted to legalize the use,” said Assemblyman Paul Aizley, D-Las Vegas. “Let’s see if we can set up a system to provide it just the way we can get any other type of legal prescription drugs. The way we’re doing it now just doesn’t make sense.”
Fixing the law
Nevada is one of 17 states and the District of Columbia that have enacted laws for the use of medical marijuana, after Californians first approved it in 1996. Thirteen of those states, including Nevada, have state registries for those wanting to obtain medical marijuana.
Eleven states, including California and Arizona, allow dispensaries. Nevada does not.
At the federal level, marijuana is still classified as a Schedule I drug, a category for substances considered to have a high potential for dependency and that have no medical use.
That means even Nevadans with state-issued medical marijuana cards can technically be arrested by federal authorities. The Obama administration, however, has instructed federal prosecutors not to go after people who distribute marijuana for medical purposes in states that allow it.
Under Nevada law (NRS 453A), people who need marijuana for medicinal purposes are allowed to grow their own plants and to possess up to an ounce of marijuana. The law, however, allows no legal way to buy the seeds or purchase marijuana for those who can’t grow it themselves.
Aizley and six other state lawmakers co-sponsored a bill last year to give “caregivers” the right to grow and share marijuana with more than one patient. Under the current law, a caregiver can grow for only one person.
Proponents of changing the law say it’s difficult to grow medicinal-quality marijuana, and many people fail at growing their own.
But other matters took precedence during the 2011 Legislature, and the medical marijuana bill never got a hearing.
Aizely said he will try again to push the same bill that would give caregivers the right to grow and share marijuana.
“Things have changed. I think there might be more of a response now,” Aizley said. “I’m not a user. I’m doing this for the people who need medicine and are having trouble getting it. That is my motivation.”
There has also been talk among high-ranking state Republicans to explore whether marijuana should be decriminalized.
Assemblyman Tick Segerblom, a Las Vegas Democrat running for the 3rd District seat in the state Senate, said he has directed the legislative research staff to draft a bill that would license dispensaries to buy or grow marijuana legally and sell it legally to Nevada residents with state medical marijuana cards.
“We’re still working on the mechanics of it,” Segerblom said.
The research staff is looking at laws that license dispensaries in Colorado and Arizona to provide something similar in Nevada, he said. Most likely, people who get state medical marijuana cards would be able to buy up to an ounce, he said.
Segerblom said he also has directed the research staff to determine what that change in the law would mean for state revenue.
Currently, there are about 3,500 people who purchase a medical marijuana card for $150 a year, which brings in about $525,000 to the state. If dispensaries made marijuana more easily available, more people would get cards, generating more revenue for the state, he said.
There is also the possibility of taxing those who grow and sell marijuana, he said.
“The reality is, it is going to be a multimillion-dollar revenue source,” he said. “We need to look at all avenues to bring in money for the general fund.”
Supreme Court challenges
Two court cases are pending before the Supreme Court as the result of contradictory rulings issued by Clark County District Judge Doug Smith and former District Judge Donald Mosley.
Smith let a case involving the Jolly Green Meds dispensary move forward through the District Court process. Mosley threw out a similar case involving the Sin City Co-op dispensary, calling the state law unconstitutional.
On Sept. 27, 2011, Smith allowed an indictment stand against six people arrested in the police raid of Jolly Green Meds, but he hinted at the difficulty he had reaching a decision. The case has been appealed to the state Supreme Court.
The other case before the Supreme Court came about when Mosely, on March 2 — his last day on the bench — ruled on the Sin City Co-op case. Mosley dismissed drug trafficking and other charges against two people, Leonard Schwingdorf and Nathan Hamilton, and said the law was unconstitutional.
Mosely’s order said the state law was “poorly contemplated or purposefully constructed to frustrate the implementation of constitutionally mandated access to the substance.”
Schwingdorf and Hamilton operated Sin City Co-op, where those with state-issued medical cards believed they could legally buy marijuana.
Co-op organizers accepted donations to provide members with marijuana. But prosecutors say the donation constituted a sale, which violates state and federal laws.
District Attorney Steve Wolfson immediately began the process of appealing Mosley’s ruling with the Nevada Supreme Court.
Bill Gang, public information officer for the Supreme Court, said briefings are expected to be filed with the court in late July in the Sin City Co-op case.
“It could take a year for a decision to come out of the court, from start to finish,” Gang said. “We’re still relatively early in this whole process.”
Mosley’s order
Mosley, not a proponent of medical marijuana, said the statute is specific in spelling out the requirements for registration, ID cards and the exposure or lack thereof to state and federal prosecution.
But the law falls short of providing a realistic manner in which a qualified purchaser and a qualified distributor of marijuana may function, thus frustrating the clear intent of the constitutional amendment, he said.
Mosley wrote that the constitution mandates the Legislature set forth and authorize an appropriate method for supply of the plant.
“In an apparent effort to comply, the Legislature directed the State Department of Agriculture to establish a program to produce and deliver marijuana for medicinal purposes. This has not been done,” he wrote.
Prosecutions continuing
As the issue snakes its way through the Legislature and the Supreme Court, arrests and prosecutions are continuing.
“We are prosecuting cases as if [the law] is constitutional. We have one judge who says it is fine and one judge who says it isn’t. We are proceeding as if it is constitutional,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Laurent, the prosecutor in the Sin City case. “Of course, we’re challenging Judge Mosley’s ruling.”
Laurent said people are using medical marijuana within the limits of the statute, they won’t be prosecuted. If they’re outside of the bounds of the statute, his office will file charges.
Laurent estimated there are 50 to 100 such cases pending in the system. He said he receives between two and 10 arrests to screen each week before deciding whether to file charges.
Most of the medical marijuana dispensaries in Las Vegas have been shut down, he said. They were acting as for-profit entities and required a donation to belong, he said.
Under the law, the donation constituted a “sale” and was therefore illegal, he said.
Police continue to go after people growing more than the seven-plant limit set out in the state law, he said.
Most large operations are indoors, although there have been some grow sites shut down on Mount Charleston, he said. “People are growing everywhere,” he said.
Most of those being arrested are men between the ages of 18 and 30 who don’t appear to have any debilitating diseases, he said.
“Yet they went in and got a medical marijuana card by going to some doctor who probably didn’t examine them — and paying a fee to get that,” Laurent said.
Laurent said it isn’t his office’s intent to deny medical marijuana to anyone who truly needs it.
“I think when the people of the state passed the medical marijuana referendum, they wanted to make sure we took care of those people who were suffering and needed it,” he said.
“I don’t think we as a people intended it to make marijuana the new alcohol...but I could be wrong.”
The time has come to install the infrastructure that supports those who legally have a medical marijuana use card. It is also time for the Federal government to change the classification of marijuana. With a national medical system that continues to be costly or inaccessible to the little guy American, it makes sense to decriminalize marijuana. As the population of baby boomers seek medical care for management of their health conditions, the Federal government needs to look at the millions of people who would benefit from the medical use of marijuana and adjust laws so that the delivery and use of it is no longer criminal, but will be regulated and taxed.
When this is done, the State of Nevada can also benefit with increased revenues. This will diversify our economy. As Segerblom stated that "he also has directed the research staff to determine what that change in the law would mean for state revenue." And also, "If dispensaries made marijuana more easily available, more people would get cards, generating more revenue for the state, and there is also the possibility of taxing those who grow and sell marijuana."
At one time in American history, even the members of our Founding Fathers were growing it. Now please tell me that early Americans were experiencing "reefer madness" and behaving erradically. They did NOT. But as time and bureaucracy sets in, the FDA was created to provide jobs as political favors, and today we not only see the mess our national medical system is due to corruption, but we have the rich getting richer, and BIG PHARMA dictating prices, accessibility, and more! How is that working out for you on a more personal level?
Something has to be done, because in today's world, people are suffering. Decriminalizing marijuana, regulating, and taxing it, is a step in the right direction.
Blessings and Peace,
Star
When 19 heads of state collaborated with medical researchers and law enforcement and came up with the report from the Global Commission on drug Policy, what they found and said is pretty easy to understand.
They said we have screwed the pooch, and the evidence is all around. Gangs with gobs of money, all killing each other in turf wars around the globe. Market share is what it's all about.
The report identified several ways to alter the situation, but so far the only guy in the America's to come up with a policy to implement significant change is in Uruguay.
Here's what he announced last Friday
http://www.examiner.com/article/uruguay-...
His plan includes taxing it to help their economy instead of outlawing it to help the gangs, waste time and money on enforcement, courts and corrections.
When we consider how big PHARMA has had their way with policy in drugs, medical insurance, and healthcare in general, it's an easy comparison to the power of other gangs in controlling the populace - it's all about market share, huh??
Read the article and comment. I welcome your informed opinion because everybody is somebody, and your opinion means something to me too.
"They predict the 2013 Nevada Legislature, not the Supreme Court, will be the real battleground for spelling out what voters intended when they approved the use of medical marijuana in 2000 with a 64 percent majority, opening a Pandora's box for interpreting what is allowed under the law."
Toplikar -- excellent article!
Clearly the blame should be laid exactly where it belongs, the legislature. All state officials take oaths to protect, support and defend Nevada's Constitution. That includes Article 4, Section 38, have a look @ http://www.leg.state.nv.us/Const/NVConst...
"At one time in American history, even the members of our Founding Fathers were growing it."
star -- excellent point. To support it here's a handy quote from Thomas Jefferson -- "Tobacco, hemp, flax and cotton, are staple commodities." -- vol. 3 (Notes on Virginia I, Correspondence 1780-1782), "A Notice Of The Mines And Other Subterraneous Riches; Its Trees, Plants, Fruits, &C."
"They said we have screwed the pooch, and the evidence is all around."
airweare -- it's like nobody learned a lesson from that earlier experimental disaster called Prohibition, no?
Because of our legislature's neglect -- or blatant disobedience, pick one -- of the past 12, years untold suffering to the people they swore oaths to serve has been inflicted in the state's name, and Nevada became more of a police state.
"If the exercise of constitutional rights will thwart the effectiveness of a system of law enforcement, then there is something very wrong with that system." -- Escobedo v. State of Illinois, 378 U.S. 478, 490 (1964)
People, it is only a matter of time before medical marijuana is legalized. Please Google US Patent 6630507 to see that the U.S. Govt has issued, and awarded a patent on Cannabinoids. The Govt is probably right now working with the pharmaceutical companies on how to package and market it.
glad i'm an anarchist
KillerB,
Joe Kennedy did ok with rum running during prohibition. Have you seen that place in Hyannis Port or the $100,000,000 he tossed to JFK to run for pres?
So did the hillbillies, until revenuers cam around.
Nowadays it's the gangs, drug cartels and big PHARMA hogging all the profits while we peons pay high taxes for cops to bust street kids, pay court fees and corrections!
Smart, huh??
Legalize it for adults and be done with it.
I'm surprised a casino hasn't gone and made a medical marijuana resort. A place where you could smoke openly, all they ask is you keep your card with you. A niche market that's only growing.
Las Vegas should legalize it in some way. Smart guys could figure it out. People in this town who say it would be bad for the locals are full of it.
Anything that brings money into this town is good for the locals! We should be able to deal with any of the problems.
Governments' requiring citizens to "register/obtain "ID" cards for the implicit possession and use of a schedule 1 federally prohibited narcotic not only make criminals out of their citizenry but of themselves.
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Gillespie is responsible for 90 year old people suffering in pain.
Star 6:08 a.m.
Well said.
I just started a petition on the White House petitions site, We the
People to ask President Obama to consider the re-classification of Cannabis. Will you sign it? We need all the help we can get. Please share with others if you believe in our cause. http://wh.gov/OBh7
In reply to Joe Lamy; okay Joe; I've done a good bit of reconsideration on illicit drugs that have its proponents working in the direction of legalization. Since our last debate on this issue that severed our respect for each other in these discussion forums, I know a man of your intellectual intelligence must have, somewhere, appropriate reason to have this stance.
After reevaluating your points, I've come to understand what you are saying on this issue. But, by the same reasoning, my opposition to this issue should be mutually taken under your considerations. Maybe then, we can come to a common ground approach. It is true, my absolute "hate" for illegal drugs is as strong as your valid reasons for having them legalized.
In my stance on illicit drugs, here are a couple of examples that were in the midst of many drug related incidents;
As a young novice Marine overseas, we were ordered to get our gear, and report to the ships helicopter debarkation stations for deployment on a specified military operation. (This was no drill or training operation). With the exception of one Marine, we'll call him Eddie; those of us in our squad were cross-checking each other's weapons, equipment and supplies. Eddie was "stoned" and incapable of performing his duties as an 81 mm mortar man. We needed Eddie, but covered for him, this time. Eddie had great knowledge when it came to mortars. You can bet we were damn lucky that we did not have to provide timely cover fire for the Marine company grunts that were in forward positions from our ground location. Unbelievably, on our next deployment, Eddie did it again. But, this time he was high from "huffing" aerosol cans. This time, per se, we threw him to the wolves. Eddie was dishonorably discharged from the Marine Corps.
In Italy, on a training operation, several Marines from my platoon were high on hashish. Somehow, during their patrols, they came across a group of preteen girls. The girls I had to assume were invited to partake in the hashish smoking. The involved Marines committed acts of no less than statutory rape. The fathers of these young girls either retaliated themselves or had someone hired to attack these same Marines some days later as they went on liberty into the port of Naples. One Marine died on-scene, the other two Marines died later from complications developing from the original wounds received in the attack. The stories could go on and on, Joe.
I do understand your points of ending the "War on Drugs". Agreed, it has not been successful. I also understand that these now illicit drugs could have positive uses for the terminally ill and elderly. However, my point is, it never turns out that way. In my line of work, a clear mind is essential, especially to my comrades. Their lives are in my hands, and vice-versa. Thanks for taking my perspectives on this issue into consideration.
Petition for the re-classification of Cannabis, as posted By jacob13221
July 9, 2012
8:27 p.m.
Recommend I just started a petition on the White House petitions site, We the
People to ask President Obama to consider the re-classification of Cannabis. Will you sign it? We need all the help we can get. Please share with others if you believe in our cause. http://wh.gov/OBh7
On the internet, there are all kinds of websites, but one in particular, www.stopthedrugwars.org
gives an active political picture of the battles that are raging in the Court system of our country. Because of corruption and BIG PHARMA, what is next? Criminalizing those citizens who require and are continuously prescribed pain management medications? By the way, the other on Facebook, there was a release stating many OTC (Over the Counter) that THC is currently used in several products lotions, shampoos, and conditioner products. Inpact on the public=zero. FEAR needs to be taken out of the conversation about marijuana/canabis/hemp. Keep the conversations rational, please.
Blessings and Peace,
Star
In response to Bradley's post, it was shameful, what these men did, putting comrades in harm's way, and abusing young women (or any human being for that matter). These are examples of individuals who were warped in their thinking before imbibing any substance. They gave themselves permission to bahave in such manners and proceeded to commit such actions.
There will always be outlayers in the crowd, in life. There is no getting away from it. Certainly, part of employment or service is to report READY and ABLE to perform, and this was NOT the case with "Eddie." We need to look at individuals rather than the whole, to avoid condemning innocent people. I, certainly, would never deem Marines as bad because of the individual behaviors of the few.
Healthcare is truly a slippery slope, due to confidentiality, and above all, the uniqueness of individuals and their needs. Our planet is full of both functional and dysfunctional people and it behooves us to find some sort of balance.
Blessings and Peace,
Star
In reply to Star; you are exactly right. In finding a balance on legalizing marijuana, or any other presently classified illicit drug, do you really think finding a balance is possible?
Maybe you and Joe are right. When I look deeply at my position on this issue, I find myself in some personal contradiction. I believe Americans should have choice. I guess this should apply to drugs, as well. But, I just can't grasp the fact that outside of appropriate medical use, that another's joy for their taste of, or addiction to illicit drugs is at a risk to me and others. Alcohol consumption is no different. Prescription and over the counter medications apply as well.
I fully understand there are medical marijuana uses that are justified. However, when I look at the ratio of legit medical marijuana users against that of illicit marijuana uses, there is no comparison. The illicit uses are overwhelming.
However, once again, I have to slap myself on the wrist. In the case of Eddie, yes, he surely began smoking marijuana. When his source was dry, he improvised by huffing aerosol cans. Now, in this debate, this can go both ways. One, Eddie's first venture of marijuana led him to use "huffing" and other more powerful drugs as an alternative high. Or, Eddie was predisposed, no matter what, to get high on whatever he could? I don't know where that balance would be.
I once knew this elderly lady who ingested huge amounts of "Nyquil" to relieve her pain and help her to sleep. However, during this time she had several car accidents that normally, any other time, should have been easily avoidable. Finally, the car keys were taken away from her. But, there was that duration that she was extremely dangerous to others on the road.
At times, I endure extreme bouts with lower back pain. My physician has offered me strong levels of pain medication. I have opted to refuse this medication. I would rather utilize back braces to help relieve this pain rather than consume levels of pain medication that will ultimately takeover my life, and put others at risk when I'm behind the wheel of my vehicle. And trust me; the size of my truck in a collision would make mincemeat out of most other vehicles and the people inside.
Yes, choice. I agree, this is a very important aspect. Where the balance would be both ethically and legislatively? I don't know.
I guess there are present illegal drugs that should be made legal. But, I do know this; there are a lot of legal drugs in our society that that should be classified as "controlled substances". And, even in this category, there is really no control. Most anyone who wants any type of drug or alternative high can get it. I guess there can be no balance achieved. It will all be the choice of the potential user, even if it's at the risk of others.
I'm with Brad on this back pain thing. Mine got crushed, and pills or surgery were my options...So being a poor boy, i passed on both. No, i don't smokie the dope but I s'pose I could get me a card but then i'd probably smoke and I choose to keep my mind as quick as i can keep it. I can still do energy audits in my head quicker and more accurately than folks with computers and manual Js and Ds. I can add, subtract, multiply and divide and I like using my head so i don't drink or smoke or use pills because of choice.
But what's happening is most folks do actually take mind-altering drugs regularly nsuch as beer, wine, pot, pills, whiskey, gin,, coke etc. And when most of the profits from this downgrading of our collective productivity all get funneled into criminal elements, POOF! we have strong gangs, Big PHARMA buying Senators and failing schools, dropping patents and wife-beaters, homeless kids, etc.
Uruguay is choosing to pocket the dough, stop the slaughter and reduce the move to supporting gangs. I'm for people with personal power, not pro-dope, pro-booze, pro-anything but engendering what we have inside us. It's a brief moment here in paradise. We're super-screwing the pooch, and i just think we could unscrew her a bit by not giving all our power away.
Right on, Guys! This whole conversation comes down to our personal power, owning it--for good or ill. We have information labels, the information highway, personal testimonies, physician consultations, television documentaries, history, peer support, guidance from trusted beings, and any and every kind of information to CHOOSE from.
It light of all of that, ultimately, there is a CHOICE and consequences, be it legal or illegal.
I guess that is why treating one another, all creatures great and small, all living and non-living things bears witness of our honor, content of our character, and integrity. It costs us nothing to be kind and compassionate, and may make the world a better place, maybe making a difference more than we will ever know.
Blessings and Peace,
Star
For what it's worth, the best smokin' book out there is the star book...
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Journey of the Universe
Check it out, dive in and slurp up. Hold your hit... and join the caravan of others before it's too late and we run out ! 'stars are cauldrons of connectivity'... dang! an' I thought they were just burning balls of gas. We came from them, my fellow Sun readers, you and I.
Thanks for the return posts "Star" and "Joe". I get the points. Good job. The "old goat" was brought to the table, ate some balance, and liked the meal.