The U.S. Supreme Court may turn Nevada's plan to have sick patients use marijuana into a ruling Monday. They provided no legal leeway for medicinal use of the drug. Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, a Democrat from Las Vegas, who sponsored Nevada's medical marijuana bill, said that the ruling doesn't affect the current plan before the Legislature that would allow patients to join a state medical registry and grow up to seven plants for personal use. "They're not doing to send 200 federal agents to bust grandma for smoking marijuana to help her with her glaucoma," she said. "All this court case says is that you can't have a center for distribution." Thirty thousand doctors are needed to launch the Ways and Means program. Though the Nevada people want to have marijuana for medical use, the Supreme Court is thinking otherwise. In Nevada, possession of any drug amount is illegal and a drug offense is a felony. Dan Geary of Nevadans for Medical Rights said Nevadans have a history of fighting federal mandates and he said medical marijuana may be no exception. There are seven other states that have the same plan as Nevada. The ruling focuses on whether or not a medical need is defense against federal statutes. The bill, SB371, was amended to create a state committee to study pain management. That panel would award grants for trials of drugs not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration. SB371 is pending in Senate Finance. During the 1998 and 2000 elections, nearly two out of every three Nevada voters supported the use of medical marijuana. Arizona, Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Oregon and Washington agree with Nevada's plan. The Hawaii Legislature passed a similar law that was signed by the government last year. Oregon had 400 people using medical marijuana when the plan was first approved and now there are more than 1,900 people using it
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