Pubdate: Wed, 20 Jul 2011 Source: Asbury Park Press (NJ) Copyright: 2011 Asbury Park Press Contact: http://www.app.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/26 CHRISTIE RELENTS ON MARIJUANA After nearly 18 months of using delaying tactics to block implementation of a bill that would allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes, Gov. Chris Christie announced Monday he will allow the state to begin dispensing marijuana to patients who derive a demonstrated medical benefit. The decision is long overdue. It will allow patients suffering from cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma and other ailments, many of them terminal, to legally use marijuana to relieve their symptoms. Of the 16 states that have legalized medical marijuana, New Jersey's rules will be among the most strict. Patients who use marijuana to relieve pain won't be allowed to grow their own marijuana at home. There will be just six nonprofit groups licensed to grow and sell to patients who are cleared by their doctors and the state. Christie was never wrong in wanting to ensure that medical marijuana in New Jersey doesn't become a wide-open door to legalized marijuana for all, as it comes close to being in California. But he was wrong in seemingly forgetting about the true pain that some people endure and that marijuana helps relieve, while repeatedly throwing up new roadblocks for key legislative Democrats behind the law who wanted to reach a compromise on reasonable rules governing legalized medical marijuana. All the political games of the past year and a half have meant that people suffering from constant nausea, aches, cloudy vision and other symptoms that marijuana alleviates have had to continue to risk arrest by purchasing or growing marijuana illegally. Christie's waiting for assurances from the federal Department of Justice that it wouldn't prosecute any state workers involved with the medical marijuana administration was silly. The federal government has never gone after state workers in places where medical marijuana is legal and most likely never will. Christie, of all people -- a former U.S. attorney for New Jersey -- should know that. In 2009, not long after Christie left that post, the Justice Department put out a memo that urged local federal prosecutors not to focus their strained investigative resources on patients and caregivers complying with state medical marijuana laws. We're glad Christie has finally come to see the light on this and is ready to show that he cares enough about people who are in pain to help them and take away some of their anxiety. The state should waste no more time in moving to the implementation phase. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.