News Nuggets (The Nation)

Nevada Supreme Court to review MMJ law

Nevada’s highest court has taken up an appeal of a district judge’s ruling that the state’s 12-year-old medical marijuana law is so flawed as to be unconstitutional.

The state’s compassionate-use law provides no legal mechanism for patients to obtain their medicine. While qualified patients are allowed to use the drug, other state laws prevent patients from purchasing it: Sales of cannabis, whether for medical or recreational purposes, remain illegal in the state.

That, explained District Judge Donald Mosley as he dismissed drug trafficking charges against two medical cannabis patients, makes Nevada’s medical marijuana program “absurd” and “ridiculous.” Now, in a development that could affect dozens of criminal court cases and change the way Nevada views pot, the Supreme Court will review both Mosley’s ruling and the medical cannabis law itself.

NORML challenges compassionate law delay

Attorneys for the pro-marijuana group NORML have filed a lawsuit against New Jersey over the state’s failure to implement its 2-year-old medical cannabis law.

The state’s Compassionate Use of Medical Marijuana Act was signed into law by then-governor Jon Corzine in January 2010, but has been opposed ever since by current Gov. Chris Christie. As a result, the lawsuit, state officials have done nothing to put the law into action. Specifically, the government has failed to provide licenses to treatment centers that would provide cannabis to qualified patients—as required under the 2010 law.

The lawsuit, which names the state’s Department of Health and Senior Services and the director of New Jersey’s Medical Marijuana Program as defendants, was filed by members of NORML’s Legal Committee.