Nevada Judge Allows Lawsuit Challenging State’s Refusal To Reschedule Marijuana To Proceed

“I think it’s clear that the goal of the petitioners is to have marijuana descheduled altogether.”

By Dana Gentry, Nevada Current

A legal effort by the ACLU of Nevada to force the Nevada Board of Pharmacy to remove cannabis from its Schedule I of controlled substances will proceed, Clark County Judge Joe Hardy ruled Wednesday when he denied the board’s motion to dismiss the ACLU’s lawsuit.

ACLUNV says individuals are still being arrested for cannabis possession based on the Board of Pharmacy’s inclusion of the substance as a Schedule I drug. It is suing on behalf of Antoinette Poole, a man convicted of possession of a controlled substance for possessing marijuana.

ACLUNV is seeking a judicial order telling the Nevada Board of Pharmacy to remove cannabis and its derivatives from the list of Schedule I substances, which are defined as having no accepted medical use or unable to be safely distributed.

@aclunv

UPDATE: The District Court has denied Nevada Board of Pharmacy’s motion to dismiss our case brought against them on behalf of CEIC! #courtcase #aclutok #nevadalaw #lawyertok

♬ Aesthetic Girl – Yusei

The civil liberties group argues the position conflicts with Nevada voters’ approval of medicinal marijuana in two consecutive elections more than two decades ago.

The Nevada Constitution allows for the “use by a patient, upon the advice of his physician, of a plant of the genus Cannabis for the treatment or alleviation of cancer, glaucoma, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome…or other chronic or debilitating medical conditions.”

“The standard for determining whether a drug has accepted medical use in treatment in the United States is how it’s treated on the federal level,” Brett Kandt, general counsel for the Board of Pharmacy, told Hardy.

“The Nevada Legislature has never deemed it necessary to deschedule or reschedule marijuana to fulfill that constitutional mandate,” Kandt noted. “In that time, they have passed at least nine pieces of legislation to implement the voters will. They’ve never deemed it necessary.”

The Nevada Board of Pharmacy continues to schedule #cannabis as a Schedule I substance, which violates the Nevada Constitution. Stop treating cannabis like a crime! It’s time to go to court!https://t.co/I38Ws4jhAV

— ACLU of Nevada (@ACLUNV) July 13, 2022

ACLUNV attorney Sadmira Ramic argued the Legislature had no need to do so because it would have been redundant. She said the state’s creation of the Cannabis Control Board to regulate marijuana eliminated the Board of Pharmacy’s role.

“I think it’s clear that the goal of the petitioners is to have marijuana descheduled altogether,” Kandt said. Hardy asked Kandt why he believed that was the plaintiffs’ goal.

“That’s the result, because if this is a judicial determination, that schedule one is unconstitutional, and further judicial determination that the Board of Pharmacy has no authority to schedule marijuana, then it’s simply descheduled all together,” Kandt replied.

BIG UPDATE: The District Court has DENIED the NV Board of Pharmacy’s Motion to Dismiss our case on behalf of @CEICNV et al. challenging the constitutionality of the Board’s listing of cannabis on Sched. 1. Case to be decided on the merits! Great argument by @ACLUNV‘s Samie Ramic! pic.twitter.com/oDAcBpLNiF

— Athar Haseebullah, Esq. (@atharesq) July 13, 2022

Hardy denied the Board of Pharmacy’s motion to dismiss the suit.

“I want to think this will be an issue that resolves with briefs but I don’t want to state at this early juncture that we’re not going to have a trial,” he said. “That’s always a possibility.”

This story was first published by Nevada Current.

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