Snuffed out? Legalize It. Don't Criticize It.

Barring an outbreak of courage or luck, the chance that state lawmakers will substantially reform the state’s broken medical marijuana program fades by the day.

Despite bipartisan efforts to push through three bills to allow the thousands of Nevada’s medical marijuana patients to buy the plant from someone besides a drug dealer, legislative insiders say time is running out for legislators to codify change.

The reasons? They range from state Assembly committee chairs refusing to hold hearings on the measures to the leadership of the state house itself, say lawmakers, lobbyists and longtime Carson City watchers.

“It’s dead. I can’t see much of any chance for anything to pass this session,” says Dave Schwartz, head of marijuana reform group Sensible Nevada. Since the state stood up its medical marijuana program in 2001, state statutes haven’t allowed anyone to buy, sell or trade the plant, its seeds or its flowers in exchange for money or anything of value — what the law calls “consideration.” As a result, many state medical marijuana patients say they have to obtain the plant from local street dealers, often at an inflated cost. Schwartz says that’s just plain wrong.

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