Pubdate: Mon, 21 Jun 2010
Source: Courier-Post (Cherry Hill, NJ)
Copyright: 2010 Courier-Post
Contact:  http://www.courierpostonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/826

IMPLEMENT MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROGRAM

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. 
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