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MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL PENDING INTRODUCTION

I have been lobbying for medical marijuana rights for seriously ill and dying New Jersey residents for more than a decade.  I began doing so after seeing how marijuana, not marinol, was able to relieve my late wife's spasticity and pain.  Cheryl died last year after a 32-year battle with primary progressive multiple sclerosis, but her dream of a better life for others looks like it may soon come true.  A medical marijuana bill is pending introduction in the New Jersey Assembly.  Although it comes too late for Cheryl, it is not too late for many others, yet. 

Cheryl's neurologist told us in 1992 that he was worried she might not live long enough to keep her next appointment.  Her downward spiral frightened him enough to prescribe marinol, even though marinol is not officially on the list of indications for MS and the National MS Society did not ( and still does not ) recommend using marinol for multiple sclerosis.  The doctor found marinol had far less dangerous side effects than other medications he was already prescribing for Cheryl. 

While marinol proved to be somewhat beneficial for Cheryl, she had to wonder if marijuana would be better.  The day we were married in 1984, she in a wheelchair, I promised Cheryl I would do for her whatever her arms or legs couldn't, until the day she died.  I could not have imagined then that such a wedding vow would one day include acquiring a controlled dangerous substance and distributing it to her.  However, I did just that, and we found that marijuana was far superior than marinol or any other prescription for relieving Cheryl's pain and spasticity.  It also helped put weight on her 86-pound body and helped her feel good.  When Cheryl was without access to edible marijuana, which was more often than not, marinol was used with less effectiveness. 

Years later Ocean County's First Assistant Prosecutor Terrance Farley started voicing his opinion that dying patients feeling good was a bad thing if it came from marijuana use.  If Farley was a doctor he wouldn't have needed me to tell him that feeling good is a benefit to patients who are fighting any disease, especially multiple sclerosis.  There is a long list of prescriptions that do nothing other than to help you to feel good, but they are less effective and have more serious side effects than marijuana. 

Prosecutor Farley passed on a chance to increase his medical marijuana knowledge by attending the Third Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics in Virginia last May, with all of his expenses to be paid by the sponsors.  The conference was cosponsored by the University of Virginia Medical School's Office of Continuing Education.  I showed him a list of speakers that included Dr.  Donald Abrams, head of the hematology and oncology Section, University of California, as well as Dr.  Denis Petro, chief of neurology, Malcolm Grow Medical, Andrews Air Force Base.  Farley could have attended and stated his concerns to Raphael Mechoulam, Ph.D., Lionel Jacobson Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, endowed chair, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, or Billy R.  Martin, Ph.D., chairman of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicity at Virginia Commonwealth University. 

When confronted with an opportunity to have his own medical marijuana concerns addressed by real experts, all Farley could respond was "all of these people are FOR medical marijuana?" Farley wasn't even interested in talking to Richard Bonnie, professor of law, University of Virginia School of Law.  I can understand why.  Credentials such as these are undoubtedly intimidating to a first assistant prosecutor, It's safer for him to stick to writing unsubstantiated letters to the editor. 

What Terry Farley seems not to understand is that science does not discriminate based on the researcher's opinions, pro or con.  Science is science, no matter what you want the outcome to be.  The best Farley can do is to continually come up with new and innovative ways to distort the message that science brings us.  I would have loved to have seen him try to convolute the findings of medical research to the researcher's face.  By refusing to try to confront those experts whom he repudiates in public, Farley proves he is not stupid, just ignorant by choice. 

I was on Comcast's "It's Your Call" a few months ago with Terry Farley.  He reminded me on air how he told me four years ago that he would not charge Cheryl with intent to distribute marijuana, even if she possessed a half of a pound.  While Cheryl appreciated his public statement, she wondered at what point Farley qualified a person to be sick enough to receive his special prosecutorial treatment.  Cheryl didn't think it was fair to other medical marijuana patients that Mr.  Farley might not recognize how sick they are, and thereby not give them the same legal break as her. 

Towards the end of the show, the host of "It's Your Call," Lynn Doyle, asked Farley what harm came to anyone because of Cheryl's illegal use of medical marijuana.  He responded "it depends where it ( Cheryl's marijuana ) came from," worrying that proceeds from Cheryl's illegally purchased marijuana might benefit a Colombian drug cartel, organized crime, or street gangs.  When I told him that I grew it for her he responded "Where did the seeds come from?" If a dollars worth of seed money going to a Colombian drug cartel is his real worry, he need not worry any longer.  He soon may also not have to decide which medical marijuana patients get special prosecutorial treatment from him and which don't. 

Liberal Democratic Assemblyman Reed Gusciora has authored the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, which is pending introduction in the New Jersey Assembly. 

The Gusciora bill would put the New Jersey Department of Health in charge of patient validation and registration.  That would mean using medical guidelines rather than prosecutorial discretion.  Terry Farley has continually maintained that he doesn't make the law, he just enforces it.  Does that mean we will not be hearing from the Ocean County Prosecutors Office, through Terry Farley, about the merits of this legislation?

The bill also provides that registered medical marijuana patients will be able to grow their own marijuana.  This will mean no more seed money going to the drug cartels.  Whew!

Most importantly, the Gusciora bill will help doctors care for seriously ill and dying New Jersey patients and it will ease the burden of their loved ones.  Just don't tell Terry Farley that it might help dying patients feel good, or he will accuse them of simply wanting to get high.  Cheryl was insulted to the point of tears by Terry Farley's callous statements about her and medical marijuana.  It's time that the Ocean County Prosecutors Office realizes that their spokesman is bad medicine and that it's time to protect medical marijuana patients. 

Text of New Jersey's first ever medical marijuana bill and how you can help make it happen can be found at www.cherylheart.org

Jim Miller

Silverton