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ASSEMBLY JUDICIARY COMMITTEE March 7, 1977

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ASSEMBLY JUDICIARY COMMITTEE March 7, 1977 MINUTES ASSEMBLY JUDICIARY COMMITTEE March 7, 1977 Members Present: Chairman Barengo Assemblyman Hayes Assemblyman Banner Assemblyman Coulter Assemblyman Polish Assemblyman Price Assemblyman Ross Assemblyman Sena Assemblyman Wagner The meeting was called to order at 8:00 a.m. by Chairman Barengo to hear testimony on AB 253 and AB 280. Both of these bills being concerned with the marijuana issue. Assemblyman Dale Goodman was first to speak as the introducer of AB 280. His written statement is attached and marked Exhibit A. He also gave to the committee a copy of the December 1976 issue of Psychology Today which he asked the committee to read. This article is attached and marked Exhibit B. I James Slattery was next to speak. He told the committee that he was appearing before them on behalf of his wife,who has glaucoma and is losing her eyesight. He stated her eyes had been tested in the east and he and his wife were told that marijuana has been very effective in the control of pressure in the eye which causes glaucoma. He said the doctors in Reno said they would like to use marijuana in treatment. However, the doctors are afraid that they might get caught. He said his wife has asked for the last two years for him to buy some marijuana so that she could use it in cooking. But, they were afraid of prosecution for possession:.. in Reno. He explained that he had heard of one fellow who went to the federal courts and got permission from the federal government to use marijuana for his glaucoma. Mr. Slattery stated he felt there are many, many people in the land who have glaucoma and, he thought, it would be a very good and wise thing if marijuana were decriminalized so that these people could get relief. In answer to a question from the committee, Mr. Slattery said that he did not feel that most people who smoke marijuana have glaucoma. However, he further pointed out that his wife is probably the only person in Nevada who has had an operation for glaucoma. He said her doctor had recently told her that he might have to freeze her eye because it had developed a wrinkle in it. The doctor also told them that one option would be the use of marijuana, which would relieve the water pressure in the eye and probably her sight t would be saved for a lot longer time. 630 ASSEMBLY JUDICIARY COMMITTEE March 7, 1977 Page Two Mr. Harold Albright, attorey in Reno, who practices criminal law, was the next to testify and stated as follows: There's a wind blowing across this country and it's a wind gener­ ated by people who demand that laws be responsible and applicable and meaningful, rather that arbitrary and capricious. It's a wind that has stripped bad laws from the statute books. It has stripped away discriminatory laws, unconstitutional laws and meaningless laws. I come here today,as an attorney who practices quite a bit of criminal law in the state of Nevada. I hear the wind from the grass roots,so to Speak. I talk to my clients and I experience their frustration and their confusion. And, their disbelief when this law is applied to them. I must say that I really do not like what I hear. My clients ask me, "What did I do wrong? I was sit­ ting in my home, I wasn't doing anything, I wasn't offending any­ body, I wasn't performing any illegal act, other than, I simply pos­ sessed marijuana." Virtually every meaningful law that we have on our books today, protects people from the effects of asocial behavior, murder, rape, robbery, assault and battery, trespass, obscenity laws, things of this nature. All of them attempt to pro­ tect us from the conduct of other people, and, to punish other people for conduct which effects us. Notso much with the current marijuana .laws. They punish people who merely possess a drug, whether they're using it at the time or not. And, they punish a person, regardless of the responsibility with which he uses the particular drug. Clearly, they cannot be punished for committing I one asocial conduct or one asocial act and they can be sentenced to prison for six years. I do not think that a marijuana law, or possession law, such as we have now, is necessary. Pursuant to the guidelines of NRS 453.146, you are provided with the tools to determine whether a material should be a controlled substance. Utilizing these guidelines, I have come to the conclusion that we do not need a possession law as such. Marijuana is not physically addicting, like heroin. Productive people still remain productive even though they utilize marijuana. States, like California and Oregon, have actually experienced a decline in the use of marijuana once it's been legalized. And, I believe the articles provided to you would substantiate the proposition that there has been no demonstrable proof of danger to the public health through the use of marijuana. In other words, NRS 453.146, provides you with the ability to change this law to conform to the winds that now blow and conform to the way that the wind is blowing, due to better knowledge and better information being provided to us. Information now seems to show that whether or not an individual uses or possesses marijuana is unimportant, as it has no effect on other people. I am here as a proponent of AB 280. AB 280 recognizes the concepts of which I speak and totally decriminalizes possession and relies on other laws to protect the people from the asocial effects of those who are abusing the rights to smoke marijuana. There is now a means available to detect the presence of marijuana in the blood, t breath or urine of an individual. This would protect us from a 631 ASSEMBLY JUDICIARY COMMITTEE March 7, 1977 Page Three person driving under the influence of marijuana. Also, we can be protected by laws such as the assault and battery laws, obscenity laws, trespass laws and other laws which are directed at asocial ' conduct of the person who is under the influence of marijuana. These laws are currently utilized to protect citizens from asocial effect of a person under the influence of alcohol. They can admir­ ably be applied to our particular situation with marijuana. I especially like AB 280 becuase it places stringent controls on smoking marijuana in a public place. We are all aware of the con­ troversy concerning smoking and the fact that smoking can effect people in an entire room. I think that the controls in AB 280 are adequate and I think that they are important. The second reason I favor AB 2§0 is that it frees the police from any time expenditure applicable to a marijuana arrest. One of the larger arguments that is generally put forth concerning marijuana, is the fact that the police would not be forced to spend a great amount of time if the law was not enforced. I think that even a misdemeanor convic­ tion takes a tremendous amount of time. A citation is written up, the people are arrested, booked, the criminal process is still put into effect, they're subjected to a trial then the right to appeal to the district court. We still have a tremendous expenditure of time and money. This law would allow for people, responsible peo­ ple, to use marijuana and then would punish them for asocial effects. And, thirdly, I especially like AB 280 becuase it places an age limit on those who can legally possess marijuana. I think that i this bill, coupled with the existing laws, will adequately protect people from what I would consider the important part of any meaning­ ful criminal system, that is, the effect of asocial conduct. i incerely and earnestly urge you to hear the wind as it now blows a·. allow it to blow this last vestige of meaningless law from our -~atutes. Thank you very much. Next to speak was James Brown, Esq., private attorney in Reno prac­ ticing criminal law. He testified as follows: I am appearing under the auspices of the American Civil Liberties Union. I am not going to spout a lot of statistics today. There's more statistics on marijuana, more studies on marijuana, than virtually any other subject in criminal law. What I would like to get across today are a couple of basic points. I'd also like to get across some of the practical inhuman aspects of the marijuana laws, as they stand in this state, which have come to my attention during my practice. I'd like to make three main points today. The points are: First, marijuana doesn't seem to be physically or socially harmful, by the state of the knowledge as we have it now. Second, is the virtually indisputable fact that if marijuana laws are meant as a deterrent to marijuana use, then those laws simpl-y-__ don't work. The third point is, that in my view, the harmful effect of the laws, as they now stand, are much greater than any potential effect of the mari­ t juana itself. 63~ ASSEMBLY JUDICIARY COMMITTEE March 7, 1977 Page Four I would like to address my first point which is, according to - current of the knowledge, marijuana is not harmful. The history of marijuana use is at least as long in the human race as the history of alcohol use.
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