Pubdate: Mon, 04 Feb 2013
Source: Record, The (Hackensack, NJ)
Copyright: 2013 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.northjersey.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/44
Author: Mary Jo Layton, Staff Writer

NEW JERSEY'S LONE MARIJUANA DISPENSARY OVERWHELMED WITH REQUESTS

Patients registered in New Jersey's medical marijuana program are
waiting weeks - even months - for appointments to obtain the drug from
the only dispensary in the state.

The waits are not likely to end soon. The number of patients continues
to grow - 645 people are registered, more than twice the amount the
dispensary in Montclair anticipated in its first year. Meanwhile,
other dispensaries aren't expected to open for months as they go
through a rigorous process to meet state regulations for medical
marijuana centers.

"We always wanted to be a small mom-and-pop medical marijuana
dispensary," said Joseph Stevens, president of the Greenleaf
Compassion Center in Montclair, which opened in December. "Now we're
servicing the whole state."

Lisa Segal, a 61-year-old South Jersey resident with multiple
sclerosis who suffers debilitating muscle spasms, registered in
November to legally obtain marijuana. She learned this week she is
still months away from getting an appointment to have her prescription
filled.

"They told me it's going to be a really long wait - hundreds of people
are ahead of me," said Segal, who said she will continue to buy
marijuana illegally because it's the only remedy that relieves her
pain.

"I've been waiting four weeks, and every time I call it's the same
answer: I have to keep waiting," said Marta Portuguez, 52, of Union
County. She said she suffers from a host of chronic illnesses and that
marijuana is the only drug that alleviates her pain.

Dr. Anthony Anzalone, a Rutherford physician, said he has called
Greenleaf on behalf of several patients and could not get them an
appointment.

"It's taking eight weeks for some of them and we can't do anything
about it," he said. "They're the only dispensary in the state and
they're jammed with patients."

The Montclair center is jammed because it was supposed to serve only
North Jersey. Other facilities were supposed to open soon after it
did, but they have been delayed finding locations and meeting the
regulations. The next opening is slated for this summer in Egg Harbor
Township in Atlantic County, but experts question whether the facility
will open as planned. Several calls to that center, the Compassionate
Care Foundation, were not returned.

The state's regulations permit the Montclair center to cultivate
marijuana only after a patient is registered - and it takes three
months to cultivate a plant. The first day of the program, the state
signed up 200 patients, Stevens said.

Two ounces of marijuana is the maximum that can be prescribed, and
there's enough for all patients, but Greenleaf is asking them to limit
their purchases to half an ounce, Stevens said. Patients who are
driving up to two hours from South Jersey for prescriptions are
typically given the entire two ounces, he added.

Donna Leusner, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, said
the department is "monitoring Greenleaf to ensure that it complies
with program rules, but the department is not responsible for its
scheduling process."

A lawsuit was filed last April seeking major changes in the state
program. Last week the suit was transferred to the Appellate Division
of state Superior Court in Trenton.

Attorneys representing two South Jersey patients criticize the state
for opening only one dispensary in three years since the law was
approved and have requested that the Coalition for Medical Marijuana
of New Jersey be appointed to monitor the program.

"Patients are being done irreparable harm by not having access to this
critical medication," said William H. Buckman, a Moorestown attorney.
"People are dying, and they're dying painful deaths."

Leusner said the department has no comment on the lawsuit.

Seventeen states and the District of Columbia permit medical
marijuana. Other states have moved more quickly with their programs -
New Mexico opened three dispensaries in the first one and a half years
since the law was passed, experts said.

New Jersey's rules are the most stringent, however, including
regulations that were added after the law was signed in early 2010.
Governor Christie and many legislators have said the rules are meant
to prevent the problems discovered in other states. In California, for
instance, U.S. attorneys shut down at least 500 dispensaries last year
after investigations revealed countless prescriptions were obtained
for recreational use.

New Jersey is permitting six dispensaries. Patients must register with
the state and obtain prescriptions from a physician who has either
treated them for a year or seen them on at least four visits. The
state also gives physicians the discretion to decide, after examining
a patient and the medical history, when to make a recommendation.

Advocates for medical marijuana have praised the quality of operations
at the Montclair dispensary and lamented the long waits. Some fear
that other dispensaries won't proceed until thousands of patients are
registered, to ensure ample demand for the prescriptions. If that's
the case, the waits could grow even longer in Montclair, the advocates
warned.

"Any patient who should have legal access to medical marijuana should
have it," said Roseanne Scotti, state director for the Drug Policy
Alliance.

"We'd all like to see a less bureaucratic system," she said. "Can you
imagine if there were only one pharmacy in all of New Jersey?"

Ken Wolski, executive director of Coalition for Medical Marijuana,
said he routinely hears of waits of two to three months in Montclair.
"These regulations were inappropriate. ... Why is there such a delay
in opening these alternative sites?"

Patients are also having a difficult time finding a prescribing
physician. As of last week, 199 physicians had registered to prescribe
the drug, but not all of them were doing so.

In Passaic County, 11 physicians are on the list - but only one is
prescribing for new patients. Four physicians told The Record they
weren't participating even though they had registered, and one had
closed his office permanently.

In Bergen County, 35 physicians are licensed to prescribe. The Record
contacted 14 of them, seven of whom are prescribing. The other seven
said they are not participating even though they had registered.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, an anesthesiologist and pain management specialist
in Mahwah, has proceeded slowly: To date he has treated three
established patients who have multiple sclerosis, and two other
patients, one suffering from cancer and the other struggling with
multiple sclerosis.

"We've had several inquiries but we are extremely selective," he
said.

When he writes a prescription for medical marijuana, he now warns
patients not to expect quick relief. "I definitely hear they're going
to wait several weeks for an appointment," Gottlieb said. "That's what
happens when there's only one dispensary." 
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