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. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom