Las Vegas Criminal Defense Blog

Marijuana Trafficking Rises in Las Vegas as Marijuana Policy Project Moves into Town

The word “trafficking” is commonly used to refer to all kinds of drug transportation crimes. But in Nevada, NRS 453.339 defines trafficking of marijuana as any use of the marijuana, from simple possession to selling, as long as the marijuana weighs one hundred pounds or more. So, for example, while smoking a joint on a Reno street corner may land you a possession charge, storing one hundred pounds of pot in your home may lead to an arrest for Reno trafficking. This crime is specifically targeted at big-time drug lords who deal with large quantities of weed.

According to the National Drug Intelligence Center, marijuana trafficking is only getting more rampant in Clark County. The number of indoor cannabis cultivation operations that have been seized by Nevada state police has increased from 15 in 2005 to 38 just two years ago. Indeed, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, the number of individual marijuana plants seized by the police grew from 953 plants in 2005 to nearly six thousand in 2007.

Interestingly, many of the people who are trafficking pot in Las Vegas attempt to do so under the guise of medical marijuana laws. However, the Nevada State Division of Health permits cardholding medical marijuana users to grow only three mature plants at a time, and traffickers cultivate far more than that. According to Nevada criminal defense attorney Michael Becker, "Unusually high electricity bills often give police a tip-off that an otherwise normal looking house may in fact be a front for an underground marijuana lab."

With marijuana trafficking on the rise in Nevada, it is perhaps ironic that the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) just opened a new chapter in Las Vegas. Among the MPP’s goals is to overturn NRS 453.321, which criminalizes selling marijuana in Las Vegas and growing marijuana in Las Vegas.

Currently, selling weed in Clark County is a criminal felony that may carry one to six years of imprisonment. And if Senate Bill 262 passes in the state legislature, card-holding Nevada medical marijuana users may be imprisoned merely for cultivating marijuana in Nevada beyond the seven-plant maximum. Although the MPP is new to Nevada, it’s hopeful that it may one day achieve its goal of decriminalizing pot use altogether: On Election Day in 2006, a ballot measure to eliminate marijuana prohibition was approved by a record-breaking 44% of voting Nevadans.

To contact the new Nevada chapter of the MPP, you can write them at:
MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT OF NEVADA
P.O. BOX 82333
LAS VEGAS, NV 89180

Or else visit their website and contact them through their online form.

Last week, former Hard Rock Hotel employee Sara Ure won a $250,000 judgment against NBA star Dennis Rodman after he neglected to respond to a lawsuit for tortious assault and battery in Nevada. According to papers filed, in 2006 Ms. Ure was working as a beverage manager in the hotel when Rodman grabbed her, forced her to dance with him, rubbed his body against hers, and slapped her backside.

Although it seems Rodman was never arrested for this incident, Rodman’s alleged behaviors arguably fit the definition of Nevada criminal battery (NRS 200.481), which is the unlawful use of force on someone’s body, as well as the definition of Nevada criminal assault (NRS 200.471), which is putting another in reasonable fear of immediate bodily harm. “If Rodman were arrested for this incident,” according to Nevada criminal defense attorney Mike Becker, “he might have been able to raise some good criminal defenses to assault and battery in Nevada:”

First of all, Rodman could have tried to argue the intent defense for battery in Nevada—that he lacked any purpose to use unlawful force on Mrs. Ure's body. He also could have attempted to argue that merely dancing suggestively with Mrs. Ure does not meet Nevada’s assault definition of putting someone in "reasonable apprehension of immediate bodily harm." In addition, Rodman might even have tried to pull the Nevada consent defense for assault and battery—that he believed Mrs. Ure gave every indication that she wanted to dance with him, or that it was “common practice” for hotel beverage managers to dance with guests.

That Mrs. Ure sustained no bodily injuries in this incident is irrelevant in judging criminal guilt for assault and battery in Clark County. Certainly, a Clark County criminal judge may impose increased penalties for assault and battery in Las Vegas if serious bodily injuries are sustained. But since Ms. Ure’s only alleged injuries were “embarrassment, humiliation and anxiety,” Rodman probably would have received only the minimum Nevada punishment for assault and battery had he been found criminally liable. (A sentence for assault or battery in Las Vegas with no deadly weapon and no severe bodily injury is that of just a misdemeanor, penalized by up to six months in jail and/or $1,000 OR community service in lieu of jail and fines.)