Pubdate: Fri, 02 Apr 2010
Source: Times, The (Trenton, NJ)
Copyright: 2010 The Times
Contact:  http://www.nj.com/times/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/458
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

SURE, BUT SLOW

It took years of concerted effort to convince New  Jersey legislators 
to approve the use of marijuana as a  medical treatment for 
debilitating pain. Yet, since the  New Jersey Compassionate Use 
Medical Marijuana Act was  signed into law early this year, thousands 
of state  residents whose painful symptoms persist despite 
conventional treatment are still waiting.

A recent Newhouse News report mapping the bureaucratic  route to 
relief for those with multiple sclerosis,  cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and 
other chronic conditions  described a tortuous path.

While a fall harvest of the first crop of marijuana  grown by the 
state for sale and distribution to  registered patients is planned, 
the relief may be  postponed by a thicket of restrictions mandated by 
the  nation's most stringent law on medical marijuana use.  The 
sluggish pace has been further slowed by what  appears to be the 
reluctance of state officials who  have asked to extend the 
nine-month start-up period  required under the law.

In the next six months, state health officials must  decide who 
should be permitted to grow the drug and  where, how it should be 
tested for potency and safety,  and in which communities it will be 
sold. The health  department has informally approached 
Rutgers  University's School of Environmental and 
Biological  Sciences to play an unspecified role, but no  discussions 
have taken place.

Granted, that's a lot to work out. However, because New  Jersey will 
be the first state to provide medical  marijuana through its own 
centralized production and  distribution system, once the logistics 
are  established, it should be a much easier system to  control than 
those in states where users are allowed to  grow their own.

Officials will have to devise a system to screen the  hundreds of 
aspiring marijuana entrepreneurs who have  called, looking to break 
into an industry that has been  thriving in other states. While this 
will be new  territory for New Jersey to negotiate, it should result 
in much needed revenue for the state.

Officials also are leery of running afoul of the  federal and state 
laws that still recognize marijuana  possession and distribution as 
crimes. However, U.S.  Attorney General Eric Holder has made it clear 
that the  federal government is not interested raiding medical 
marijuana facilities in states that have deemed them  legal, and the 
U.S. attorney for New Jersey is  similarly disinclined. It doesn't 
seem to add up to  much of a stumbling block.

Health and Senior Services Commissioner Poonam Alaigh  is right to 
adhere to the state's "first priority" of  creating a structure that 
will be the "most  restrictive, in the way the law was meant to be." 
However, the well-being of those who suffer daily must  also be 
considered a priority.

Advocates say at least 5,000 New Jerseyans with  debilitating 
diseases are waiting for the state to  implement the new law. One 
group predicts that number  will eventually top 30,000. They should 
not be forced  to seek illegal treatment for their inordinate 
pain  while the legal remedy is so close at hand.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom