Nevada Revised Statute 453A was enacted, "To ensure that seriously ill Nevadans have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes where the medical use is deemed appropriate and has been recommended by a physician who has determined that the person's health would benefit from the use of marijuana in the treatment of cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraine, or any other illness for which marijuana provides relief."
However, bringing pot into the state is highly risky. According to our source at Las Vegas Metro, even if you have a permit from another state, it carries no weight in Nevada. (It can also get you banned for life from the World Series of Poker. Just sayin’.)
California woman Shira Monet Garfinkel tried to challenge on the grounds that it interfered with her right to travel, and was cruel and unusual punishment. During a Washoe County traffic stop, she had tested positive for marijuana. The Nevada Supreme Court turned a deaf ear to her plea.
In our opinion, NRS 453A is a fig leaf, a mockery of medical-marijuana patients. You can only use the stuff if you grow it yourself (and in small quantities; two adult plants and two "juvenile" ones). Jolly Green Meds President Sean Kinshella complains that you can’t even do that, since you can’t legally buy plants or even seeds. "It is ridiculous to expect people on chemotherapy to grow their own medicine," marijuana dispenser Pierre Werner told the Nevada Legislature in 2009.
As a KLAS-TV report explained, "Under Nevada law, there are no legal ways to actually buy or sell marijuana, even for medical purposes. Dispensaries are illegal." As a result, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, and Metro have been conducting a series of smash-and-grab raids in Las Vegas. They’ve even pounced on MMJ consultants, offices which help patients fill out their paperwork for permission to use medicinal weed. You can give marijuana free to patients but no form of ‘consideration’ whatsoever is allowed to change hands.
President Obama’s attempts to rein in the DEA have proven ineffectual, especially since the agency is rife with George W. Bush appointees who have ordered hundreds of raids upon MMJ-friendly jurisdictions. This may also be a sop to Big Pharma, which could make millions off of THC were it reclassified as a Schedule III substance, suitable for over-the-counter dispensation. Whatever the reason, Metro’s Lt. Laz Chavez told the Las Vegas Sun that "authorities are not targeting patients -- only those running the businesses," which may be a distinction without a difference from patients’ point of view.
The bizarre constraints of Nevada law have spawned a cottage industry – pardon the pun – of "grow houses." Police have found dozens, sometimes hundreds of plants at these sites, even in the hoity-toity suburb of Summerlin. At least 500 such operations are said to exist in the Las Vegas Valley. The proliferation of foreclosed homes in the area has provided no shortage of havens for growers, 108 of whose grow houses were raided in the first eight months of 2011 alone. But the granddaddy of them all was a 9,400-plant marijuana farm up on Mount Charleston. So large were the plants – up to seven feet high, in cases – that Lt. Chavez told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, "What looked like 10 plants from the air was really one giant plant." In the race between growth and eradication, the growers appear to be winning.
In terms of what kind of penalty you face if caught with marijuana, Nevada is one of the 14 states that has decriminalized personal use and first-offense possession of one ounce is punishable by a $600 fine instead of jail time. It remains a misdemeanor, however, and the individual is subject to arrest and drug addiction screening that could lead to mandatory treatment and rehab. A second offense carries a $1,000 fine and the drug addiction screening, while the penalties for third and fourth offenses are stiffer and possession of two ounces could land you in jail for up to four years.
