CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Medical marijuana patients in Nevada would have a legal way to purchase the drug under a bill introduced Monday by Democratic state Sen. Tick Segerblom.

SB374 authorizes the operation of nonprofit medical marijuana dispensaries and sets out requirements on how they should be managed.

Nevadans authorized medical marijuana in 2000. Legislators then approved a law allowing medical marijuana patients to grow their own plants, but critics argue there is no legal way for them to acquire it.

Segerblom on Friday will take members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to Phoenix, where they will visit a dispensary and look into how medical marijuana laws work in Arizona.

Another bill introduced in the Assembly would exempt medical marijuana patients from prosecution for having marijuana metabolite in his or her blood or urine.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.