http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2008/09/18/news/local_news/iq_23951978.txt Chronic delays Medical marijuana patients smolder while awaiting ID cards by JASON WHITED PHOTO BY BILL HUGHES "The state has not helped to advance the [medical marijuana] program at all," says activist Beth Soloe. IF there's ever an official poster girl for Nevada's medical marijuana program, one east Las Vegas woman would likely own the title for life. Racked with the pain of a crumbling spine, a series of broken bones and a short-circuiting central nervous system, 43-year-old Tammy ekes out her days in a dusty trailer park near the rocky lip of the Las Vegas Valley's eastern rim. Fibromyalgia wracks her body with a relentless pain and keeps her pretty close to home. So does a nasty case of reflex sympathetic dystrophy, a chronic neurological syndrome that causes constant burning and a hypersensitivity to touch. So do the blood clots; the plastic elbow doctors shoehorned into her right arm after a nasty fall about two years ago; the severe swelling in her right leg that won't go down no matter how many water pills she eats; and the herniated blister packs that used to be her vertebrae. On the days she can actually walk, Tammy ambles along with a cane or, if her husband can take her outside, a wheelchair. At night, she sleeps strapped to an oxygen mask that keeps her blood gases at the right mixture. This is some life. For 18 years, Tammy says, high-octane painkillers and prescription muscle relaxants allowed her some semblance of a normal existence. That is, until they stopped working and began to destroy her teeth. Two years ago, Tammy tried a new drug out of near desperation: marijuana. That chance encounter with the demon weed changed everything, Tammy says. For the first time in years, she could control her pain with just three or four puffs a day. A couple more drags on a pipe, and eating (and keeping on weight) became easier, too. Back then, Tammy applied for, and was accepted into, the state's medical marijuana program. With a special state ID, she could possess up to an ounce of cannabis. Today, however, having waited since the spring for her renewed medical marijuana ID, Tammy says she's risking that life to what's either an overworked or uncaring state bureaucracy that's managed this social program about as poorly as any in Nevada's 144-year history. "My first year, I sent my money in and got my ID, no problem. This year, it's been about six months that I've had to wait. I should have had a new card in my hands by now. Every time I call, they tell me, 'Oh, don't worry, Tammy. It'll be sent to you in the mail tomorrow.' Other times when I call, I get an answering machine." Seven years after state leaders bowed to voters' will and created the state's first-ever medical marijuana program, patients from across the state tell tales of lengthy delays in processing initial applications or their annual renewals. Other states such as California, Oregon and, most recently, Colorado have seen sustained expansion of their medical marijuana programs through supportive doctors and caregivers, sympathetic state officials and largely grassroots distribution systems. By contrast, Nevada's medical marijuana program, along with its patients, has gone largely unnoticed. Many of the state's roughly 860 medical marijuana patients say they're tired of officials who, despite at least $129,000 in annually generated medical marijuana application and renewal fees, have kept the program staffed with, on average, one state worker. This inattention, say patients, keeps medical marijuana out of the hands of thousands of bona fide patients who use the plant to stay well, not get high. "The program is a joke, it's an embarrassment to the state," says 62-year-old medical marijuana patient and retired corrections department personnel officer Francis Hall. "My card expired in April. The last time I tried to get a hold of someone there, I got a message that the voice mailbox was full. It hasn't impacted my life yet - unless I get stopped by the police." Indeed, Hall (and, for that matter, Tammy and the long line of other patients who tell CityLife their new ID cards are months overdue) have good reason to worry. Nevada statutes clearly state that state medical marijuana ID cards must be renewed annually. Patients without current marijuana IDs or temporary permits can face serious charges if cops catch them carrying cannabis or growing plants at home (Nevada law doesn't provide for marijuana dispensaries or co-ops; patients must, in the words of one activist, "wait for seeds or plants to drop, magically, from the sky"). Getting that initial card can mean a long wait and more than a little red tape. There's the initial application fee of $50, the required medical consultation and written permission for patients lucky enough to sniff out the roughly half dozen doctors statewide who will prescribe pot (state officials don't provide applicants with the names of cannabis-friendly doctors) and the annual $150 fee, payable up front. Then, there's the wait. Program manager Jennifer Bartlett says she's unaware that any patient, anywhere in the state, is still waiting for an annual renewal. She says the turnaround time for renewals is usually 30 days, 45 max. She says she's unaware that some patients have been waiting up to 11 months for their renewals. "If that's the situation, they need to contact this office. The program has actually picked up a lot in the past few months, which is always good in a self-funded program," she says. Many Nevada medical marijuana patients also say it would be nice if there were enough staffers to handle the workload. "One clerk to process all this paperwork -- doesn't work at all," says Hall. "It's crazy. We need to step into the 21st century with this program. I wasn't sure what the program was gonna do for me, but not having to scrounge on the streets [for marijuana] has literally been a godsend for me." State officials say they've now transferred the medical marijuana program to the State Health Division, per an official memorandum drawn up in early July. It makes more sense, they say, to house the program among other health-related entities and offices, as have other states with similar medical marijuana programs. For the next six months, state administrators say, they'll rigorously evaluate how the program is run. Health division workers will be able to assist Bartlett if she gets too busy. Adding staff is possible. "An awful lot will depend on what the workload is. We will have a better handle on that in the next six months," says Luana Ritch, chief of the Bureau of Health Planning & Statistics, the program's new home. Beth Soloe, executive director of the Nevada chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, says blame the floundering program on lawmakers who initially decreed that state agriculture officials should run it. "The state has not helped to advance the program at all. They wouldn't even provide money [to run it] until 2003, when they added the fees," she says. With a new medical marijuana clinic now prescribing cannabis for patients in Reno and a series of similar clinics planned for Las Vegas by national chain The Hemp & Cannabis Foundation (with its multi-million dollar operations spanning half a dozen states) state officials might want to reconsider upping the program staff -- before delays in processing new applications or renewing old ones reach critical mass. For existing patients, such as Tammy, chronic delays in receiving her renewed ID feels like cruel and unusual punishment. "These delays are wrong. My husband works hard, we pay our taxes. I don't sell it. I don't give it to children. I don't have a record for anything. There's no reason the state should make me suffer. The doctors tell me that there will be a point in my life where other types of pain management are not gonna help me. In the end, [marijuana] will be the only thing that will help me. Why does [the state] want to take this away from me?" Dang I'm glad I live in Cali! And while I have your attention, I want you to LOOK at the titles! "Chronic delays" "Medical marijuana patients smolder while awaiting ID cards" With what other sort of injustice involving human suffering, would they have a "cutesy" title that mocks people in pain? I get SO tired of this sing attitude the press has toward medical usage! So for content and title attitude- this gets Granny's award. Granny