Pubdate: Sun, 7 Jun 2009
Source: Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ)
Copyright: 2009 Newark Morning Ledger Co
Contact:  http://www.nj.com/starledger/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/424
Authors: Chris Megarian and Susan K. Livio
Note: Staff writer Rudy Larini contributed to this report.
Cited: Drug Policy Alliance http://www.drugpolicy.org/
Cited: Coalition for Medical Marijuana http://www.medicalmj.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

NEW JERSEY WRESTLES WITH MEDICAL MARIJUANA LEGISLATION

The State Police and the New Jersey Army National Guard took to the 
South Jersey skies in a Black Hawk helicopter last week to train 
officers how to locate and bust marijuana growers.

A day later, lawmakers in Trenton approved a bill they hope, if 
enacted, would allow seriously ill residents to legally use marijuana 
for medical purposes.

The two events highlight a thorny question for New Jersey: How do you 
make it legal for some residents to smoke pot, while it's against the 
law for everyone else? Lawmakers are looking at 13 states that allow 
medical marijuana to make sure the legislation they pass has enough 
restrictions so only those who really need it can get it.

One mantra they seem to have adopted: Don't be like California.

California has been widely criticized for adopting legislation that 
is too lax. There, retail outlets have been selling to an estimated 
200,000 registered users and have been the repeated target of federal 
drug enforcement raids.

New Jersey lawmakers "were very concerned about opening the 
floodgates, being irresponsible and allowing people who should not 
use this abuse this," Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Mercer), one of 
the sponsors of the bill, (A804), said during Thursday's Assembly 
Health Committee hearing. They "certainly did not want to send out 
the message we are encouraging illegal drug use," he said.

These concerns drove dramatic revisions:

Only people suffering from specific diseases -- AIDS, cancer, 
multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and seizure 
disorders -- would be allowed to use the illegal drug. The original 
bill defined eligible users by their symptoms.

Only the registered patient may retrieve the drug from the grower, 
or, if the patient is unable to do so, a courier service could be 
arranged to deliver the pot to the patient's home. The original bill 
allowed a designated caregiver to retrieve the illegal drug on the 
patient's behalf.

No one would be allowed to grow their own pot. The original bill 
would have permitted patients to grow as many as six plants -- and 
possess up to one additional ounce of usable marijuana. Under the new 
version, patients could only get the drug -- no more than one ounce a 
month -- through a licensed nonprofit growing facility.

"New Jersey appears to have learned some lessons from California," 
said Dan Abrahamson, director of legal affairs for the Drug Policy 
Alliance in California.

When the California law passed 13 years ago, "it gave very little 
guidance to anyone -- law enforcement, counties -- how to make this 
law work best for public safety and health," Abrahamson said. "There 
was some chaos that ensued."

Overnight, dispensaries operating whenever and however they wanted 
opened in communities that didn't want them, he said. Critics contend 
only a small percentage of medicinal users there have serious illnesses.

With cities and counties allowed to enact different laws, pot is sold 
legally from hundreds of shops in Los Angeles, and dispensaries have 
doctors on-site to assess patients' ills. Oakland allows people with 
a medical card to acquire as many as 72 plants, "for any illness for 
which marijuana provides relief," according to recent published reports.

Restrictions and Concerns

New Jersey, on the other hand, would have the most restrictive 
medical marijuana law in the country, lawmakers say.

Activists worry about that.

Jim Miller, president of the New Jersey chapter of the Coalition for 
Medical Marijuana, said restricting which conditions can be treated 
with marijuana and limiting how much patients can get is like saying 
"We want to limit how many people we can help, and we want to limit 
how much we can help them."

Miller, however, added: "It's better to ensure that a bill will be 
passed and then work to make it better."

The changes could make the issue less politically radioactive.

On Friday, Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden), who decides which 
bills get posted for a vote, offered qualified support.

"The speaker has said he is open to supporting a bill that contains 
safeguards to ensure marijuana would be available only to those with 
truly legitimate medical needs and only under strict doctor 
supervision," said Derek Roseman, a spokesman for Assembly Democrats. 
"The amended bill moves closer to meeting those requirements. But 
other major issues, such as requiring doctor and patient education 
and finalizing law enforcement matters around distribution and 
possession, still need to be addressed."

Roberts would not post the bill for a full Assembly vote until his 
concerns are met, Roseman said.

Attorney General Anne Milgram also said the bill is better. "It 
tightens up the provisions ... that could have become loopholes by 
people seeking to divert marijuana for illicit purposes," said 
spokesman Peter Aseltine.

New Jersey is among more than a dozen states wrestling with medical 
marijuana legislation, said Karmen Hanson, a policy analyst for the 
National Council of State Legislatures. In recent weeks, bills passed 
the state senates in Delaware and Illinois.

Hanson said the issue is in constant flux, with some states "starting 
from scratch, some tinkering" and others scaling back laws. 
Abrahamson, of the Drug Policy Alliance in California, said this 
ongoing review is helpful: "It needs to be flexible and change to fit 
the communities' needs."

But as the training by helicopter at Fort Dix last week indicates, 
law enforcement is not taking a softer stance on marijuana.

Using GPS and compasses for navigation, the spotters in the sky 
relayed coordinates to the teams on the ground, who trekked through 
the woods to find the marijuana plot.

The annual haul in homegrown marijuana varies, but in good years more 
than 3,000 plants can be discovered and destroyed, including 
marijuana cultivated indoors, said Detective Sgt. William Peacock, 
commander of the State Police Marijuana Eradication Squad.

"That's nothing compared to California," he said, "but for our 
built-up state, that's a bunch of marijuana."
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