MEDICAL MARIJUANA: CITY GIVES BUSINESS GREEN LIGHT

Man Granted License to Operate Company That Helps People Get Pot

Bill Kosinski got buzzed five times Monday.  But he only had to smoke weed four times.

His natural high came when city officials reversed course and said he can legally operate a Las Vegas business that helps people go to pot.

Kosinski, whose back pain turned him to toke four times a day under the state's medical marijuana program, said the news Monday that his company, Medical Marijuana Consultants of Nevada, can legally help residents benefit from the state's Medical Use of Marijuana Act gives him "a great feeling."

In June, the city denied Kosinski's application for a license.  Jim DiFiore, manager of the city's Business Services Division, said there was concern that Kosinski might be planning to grow or distribute marijuana.

"If he were acquiring marijuana for individuals who want it for treatment of an ailment, then he would be violating federal law," DiFiore said Monday.  "But he's simply going to assist someone with an ailment who needs to see a doctor, who would prescribe medical marijuana.  ...  We have no law that denies his opportunities to do that."

Kosinski, whose back was injured in a car accident, repeatedly has said that he has only wanted to help people with debilitating health problems, such as cancer and glaucoma, work through the state bureaucracy.  He said it took him more than a year to get a registration card to use marijuana for medicinal purposes.

For a fee, he connects people with health problems to doctors willing to recommend that they use marijuana to cope with their pain.  He also advises them about Internet sites where they can learn where to buy marijuana seeds and how to grow the plants.

Much of the confusion over Kosinski's application, DiFiore acknowledged, was caused by the city's inexperience with such businesses.

"This is the first one that is actually going to be licensed by the city," he said.

Kosinski said he worried that he had been lumped in with a businessman who was arrested after growing marijuana and selling it or distributing it to people who were sick.

Jennifer Bartlett, manager of the Nevada medical marijuana program, said 455 people have been issued registration cards to use marijuana.  She also said the state cannot advise people on what doctors to see or on how to grow the drug.  She said that in her dealings with Kosinski, he has always "been completely professional."

About 170 doctors, Bartlett said, have recommended marijuana for their patients.  One doctor, who asked to remain anonymous "because of the stigma still attached to marijuana," said he thinks Kosinski has been "a real service to people."

"So many patients end up getting addicted to pain medicine," he said.  "And they end up needing more and more, so it's really bad for them."

A retired East Coast police officer who is still recovering from a tire-iron beating said morphine and other painkillers caused cysts on both his kidneys and liver.  "I was always in a bad mood before," said the officer, who requested anonymity because of the stigma that comes with the narcotic.  "Now I feel much better, and the cysts have stopped growing."

The retired police officer's wife said medicinal marijuana has "been a godsend.  He's happy again."

Federal law, as pointed out in the city's initial denial of Kosinki's business license, does not grant exemptions from prosecution for possession of marijuana for medical purposes or from prosecution for attempting or conspiring to obtain marijuana for medical purposes.

"You're just asking for trouble if you start advertising that you're using marijuana," the retired policeman said.

Under Nevada law, which is based on the medical marijuana law from Oregon, participants can only keep an ounce of marijuana on hand.  They can grow seven plants, but only three can be mature.

Currently, the state charges an annual $150 registration fee and a $50 charge for mailing application forms.  If people hire Kosinski to help them through the system -- he also helps them through the fingerprinting process -- he makes $100 the first year and $50 thereafter.  Five of six people who are mailed applications by the state never return them.

The program was created after voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment in 1998 and 2000 that allows people with medical problems to use marijuana.

Las Vegas City Attorney Brad Jerbic said that what Kosinski is doing "is not illegal today." But he said a case now in a federal appellate court could change that.

"If the law changes, he won't have a license," Jerbic said.