Nevada Supreme Court to Reconsider Ruling on Marijuana

The Nevada Supreme Court is being asked to consider reversing its ruling on refusing to end fees for medical marijuana patients. The request also asks for the state to end mandatory state registration given that recreational marijuana is now legal. A patient living in southern Nevada, who wished to remain anonymous, says the state is “discriminating against medicinal pot users by regulating them more strictly than their recreational counterparts”.

A petition for rehearing was filed by attorney Jacob Hafter, according to Las Vegas Review-Journal. The attorney says the question was sidestepped regarding the “fundamental rights to health care” in a prior ruling. An argument of the petition for rehearing is that it is a violation of a patient’s constitutional rights to be forced into registering with the state for medical marijuana – it is being claimed that required registration is providing self-incriminating information to the federal government.

Hafter said, “We have a system where if you want to use cannabis as medicine, you need to get permission from the state first and they need to monitor your acquisitions. But if you want to party, you can circumvent the state and go straight to the same dispensary and buy the same product.”

The Supreme Court agreed with the lawyers for the state saying that patients agree to follow the requirements of the state when they enter the program, which includes being included on the state registry. The court says there are no Fifth Amendment violations or protections because applying for an MMJ card is voluntary.

Chief Justice Michael Cherry said, “No court has recognized a fundamental right to use medical marijuana recommended by a physician and the use of medical marijuana is still prohibited under federal law and the laws of 22 states.”

Nevada’s medical marijuana is more potent than recreational marijuana. It is the only state that allows out-of-state patients to obtain medicine while in the state.

According to Hafter the justices failed to “recognize the implications of the recent change in the law that legalized recreational marijuana.”

Hafter said, “Ultimately because a person can obtain marijuana legally without being included in the registry, the state no longer has a legitimate state interest in maintaining the registry.”