cannabisnews.com: Implement Medical Marijuana Program
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Implement Medical Marijuana Program
Posted by CN Staff on June 21, 2010 at 05:20:24 PT
Editorial
Source: Courier-Post
New Jersey -- Look at other states and use the best model to get New Jersey's program running this year. In January, New Jersey became the 14th state to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes. It was an affirmation of what thousands of sufferers of cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and other conditions already know -- that marijuana is one of the few substances, for some, the only substance, that can take away their daily pain and mask some of their symptoms.
New Jersey's law is restrictive, probably more so than all other states that have legalized medical marijuana. Patients certified by a doctor and registered with the state won't be allowed to grow the plant themselves. Rather, they'll have to purchase marijuana from one of a handful of dispensaries around New Jersey that will be created to provide small, strictly governed amounts of marijuana.The dispensation of medical marijuana to patients was supposed to begin in October, but now the Christie administration wants a delay to fine tune the rules and parameters of the program. One thing Christie's Health and Senior Services commissioner is looking to do is create a single site for growing all the marijuana that would be available to patients who qualify to use medical marijuana.The administration had sought a delay of up to a year in implementing the law. That's unnecessarily long. State Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, the law's sponsor, has proposed a more reasonable delay of 90 days.We can understand the governor's desire to get this right. He's trying to ensure that medical marijuana doesn't open a Pandora's box to fully legalized marijuana for recreational use, which is not what the Legislature intended in approving this law.We just don't see how it would take up to a year to get it right. There are 13 other states that allow patients to use marijuana for legitimate medical purposes. Some of them administer it better than others. Simply look at the other states and find the ones that do it right by making it easy for people who truly need the drug to get it while preventing recreational users from abusing the system to get the drug.Health and Senior Services need not waste time reinventing the wheel while legitimate sufferers with chronic and even fatal conditions are denied a pain medication that has been shown to work. For many, marijuana has far better results in suppressing nausea, restoring vision and easing pain than any pill or liquid the pharmaceutical industry has come up with.There are workable medical marijuana programs out there in states that legalized marijuana for this use years ago. Copy how these programs work and get it going in this state quickly. Patients ought to be able to legally obtain marijuana through the state by the end of this year.Source: Courier-Post (Cherry Hill, NJ)Published: June 21, 2010Copyright: 2010 Courier-PostURL: http://drugsense.org/url/NvIhVc3VWebsite: http://www.courierpostonline.com/Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/SuuG7xhYCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #9 posted by charmed quark on June 21, 2010 at 16:20:57 PT
NJ Bill changes
Looks like it's just a 90 day delay, no changes.Still - I wish we had binding public referendums like Ca. Removes it from the politicians' hands
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on June 21, 2010 at 11:21:50 PT
Hope
I agree. They are good people.
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Comment #7 posted by Hope on June 21, 2010 at 10:40:02 PT
And
their sweet, bright smiles.
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Comment #6 posted by Hope on June 21, 2010 at 10:39:11 PT
Jocelyn Elders and Jimmy Carter
I love them.
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on June 21, 2010 at 10:37:43 PT
Jocelyn Elders and Jimmy Carter
As I recall they both had especially big, brilliant, beautiful, loving smiles.
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on June 21, 2010 at 07:37:19 PT
runruff
You made some really good points. Thank you.
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Comment #3 posted by runruff on June 21, 2010 at 06:58:24 PT
Life Magazine around 1970 said legalize!
Jimmy Carter said why not? He was lambasted and smeared like no other until Jocelyn Elders announced that mmj should be treated like any other drug?Carter was given the bum's rush and so was she! Anyone going into national office with a plan to change federal law is quickly shown the reality of their folly, like Obama!When Tim Leary won his case in the supreme court, challenging the stamp act, there was a small panic in Washington. Alexander Haig went to Nixon and suggested that he create a federal drug act and create a drug schedule. Whatever he chooses to place in sched. 1 will forever be kept in a lock-box which no one can unleash. Marijuana would be public enemy number one. With this new federal authority in place, Nixon could place a federal presence in every precinct in America. Nixon bought it up! This was the hammer he was praying for. Now he would show them stinking hippies and dope heads! Even then Nixon did not know he was doing the bidding of the mega-drug corps. Even then the mega-drug corps were setting in place a controlled market were they would be kings and reap billions and even trillions by the 2000s!There are very powerful people behind prohibition where they will continue to make billions of dollars every day that Prohibition is in place. If the 50Th and last state holds out and they can keep one useful idiot in office to obfuscate the will of the people......they will!
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on June 21, 2010 at 06:00:59 PT
NoCowLevel
I am so sorry about your Mother's knee pain. I really hope we can get the laws changed everywhere soon. It is so hard for me to understand why so much fighting about marijuana is still going on.
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Comment #1 posted by NoCowLevel on June 21, 2010 at 05:40:07 PT
Straighten it Out
For the past few years, my mother has been living with chronic knee pain and it has gotten progressively worse. It began about 3-4 years ago, and every year she has undergone various treatments to stop or halt her knee damage, some to moderate success, but nothing really worked. For the past year an a half she's been using painkillers (Vicodin, Percocet, Tramadol, etc.) daily. I told her about medicinal cannabis after doing research about it myself. About a month ago she asked her doctor about the medicinal marijuana which would have gone into effect this July. His doctor said despite her having staggering knee pain, she could not be prescribed as the NJ laws are ridiculously restrictive (only AIDs/HIV and cancer patients may receive it). This year, the pain/functionality has really caught up to her. In fact, she is scheduled for a total knee replacement in September. Still, despite this, her doctor cannot prescribe it to her.Hopefully this 90 day extension of the bill will allow the state government to realize that cannabis can be used as a pain killer.
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