Regarding Contributing Editor James Ahearn's "N.J. prepares for medical pot" (Opinion, Page O-2, June 13):

Not only should medical marijuana be made available to patients in need, but adult recreational use should be regulated. Drug policies modeled after alcohol prohibition have given rise to a youth-oriented black market. Illegal drug dealers don't ID for age, but they do recruit minors immune to adult sentences. So much for protecting children.

Throwing more money at the problem is no solution. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking.

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Christie Wants N.J. to Have Centralized Production, Distribution for Medical Marijuana

As Gov. Chris Christie's administration sees it, Rutgers University's agricultural center should grow the pot and hospitals dispense it under the state's new medical marijuana program, according to three sources briefed on the proposal.

If legislators agree with the administration and amend a law that passed in January, New Jersey would be the first among the 14 medical marijuana states to run a centralized production and distribution system. The proposed changes represent an even more restrictive program - beyond one that was already the most conservative in the country - and eliminate the option of entrepreneurial growers and dispensaries getting some of the state's marijuana business.

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Phil Duran hit the bull's-eye when calling for credible drug law reform in his letter "End war on drugs" (June 7).

At the very minimum, that means legalizing the relatively safe, God-given cannabis (marijuana) plant. God, our father, indicates he created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they're all good on literally the very first page of the Bible.

Stan White,

Dillon, Colo.

[end]

The economy is terrible.

We need a shot in the arm. A new invention, perhaps, since New Jersey is the home of Thomas Edison and all.

Maybe it is not a shot in the arm that will do it, but a puff on the dragon. You know, some crazy weed. Some pot.

Marijuana.

Yes, New Jersey is about to Get the Wind. Those jive sticks are about to make their way to a special pharmacy near you, selling loco weed by the kilo.

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The Situation Is Similar to That for Alcohol at the End of Prohibition.

CHRIS CHRISTIE wants to delay the start of New Jersey's medical marijuana program for as long as a year.

The law authorizing it, signed by predecessor Jon Corzine in January, was supposed to take effect in July.

The new governor says he needs more time to make sure the program will work. Given the circumstances, I think he should be accommodated.

New Jersey will be the 14th state to legalize marijuana for medical purposes, but it will be unique. Patients will not be permitted to grow their own pot, for one thing. They will have to buy it from one of just six authorized non-profit dispensaries, two in North Jersey, two in Central Jersey and two in South Jersey.

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Many people think that the country is in the middle of fighting two wars right now. In fact, it is fighting three. The war on drugs has been going on for at least four decades, has cost more than any other war in that period and has arguably destroyed more lives. When will our elected officials admit what most of us already know: This war has been a total failure in almost every sense?

We eventually lose whenever we try to fight against nature, whether it's Mother Nature or human nature. We tried to ban drinking in the 1920s (a total disaster) and gambling, right through the 1960s, with little luck. Once we got smart and legalized both (with the associated taxes), it became a revenue source for the state and cut back on the expenses of prison space and courts. There were drunks and gamblers before and there are drunks and gamblers now. The only difference is that now, these people are not in jail and the taxes for the rest of us are lower.

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It is reassuring to see people interested in opening the first medical marijuana dispensaries in New Jersey.

However, Governor Christie wants to postpone implementation of the law allowing sale of medical marijuana until at least January of next year ("Christie says marijuana law good as written," Page A-4, May 28). The one way to do it the right way is to start doing it when it was scheduled -- in July of this year.

My son, who is confined to a wheelchair, had to leave his home, family and friends in New Jersey for another state where medicinal marijuana is accessible for patients. I want my son back now.

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TRENTON -- Legal and medical marijuana advocates say they are gearing up for a court fight if the Legislature relents and gives Gov. Chris Christie the potentially year-long delay he wants before making the drug legally available to chronically ill patients.

The New Jersey chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws is "ready to fight the state of New Jersey," said Anne Davis, executive director and attorney from Brick. She spoke to a gathering of about 40 protesters and journalists outside the Statehouse today. "We will not accept any delay."

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MONTCLAIR, N.J.-After careers in human resources and business consulting, Marianne Bays is tired of the corporate world. The 57-year-old's choice for a change: trying to become one of New Jersey's first legal pot dealers.

In January, New Jersey became the 14th state to allow the sale and use of medical marijuana. The law goes into effect July 1, but it's expected to take several months before the state has regulations in place and the "alternative treatment centers" where patients will be able to get cannabis.

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FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP (Somerset) -- A Franklin Township man who was sent to prison for growing marijuana to treat his multiple sclerosis may remain free on $15,000 bail while his appeal is pending, a Superior Court judge ruled today.

John Ray Wilson, 37, is serving a five-year sentence for second-degree drug manufacturing and third-degree drug possession for growing 17 plants behind the house he rented in August 2008.

On Monday, the Appellate Division agreed to stay his sentence, leaving Judge Robert Reed to determine an appropriate bail. After today's hearing in Somerville, Reed imposed a figure far below the typical range for such an offense and ordered Wilson to surrender his passport to his defense lawyer.

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The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services has released a report on the progress of the state's five needle exchange programs (also referred to as syringe access programs). The findings are no surprise: The programs reduced the risk of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis for the people who used them by providing them with sterile syringes so they do not have to share or reuse syringes. The programs acted as a bridge to drug treatment and other social services. There were no negative impacts on the communities the programs serve -- no increase in crime, no increase in improperly discarded syringes.

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CAMDEN - On the corners around Camden's Waterfront South neighborhood nearly everyone has a story about one of several city officers they say plagued the community for years.

Young men grouped on street corners along Broadway and Ferry avenues bristle at the mention of suspended officer Jason Stetser and former officer Kevin Parry. Older men, resting on milk crates and cradling tall cans of beer, simply nod. Most are afraid to talk, fearing other officers may single them out as well.

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For nine months last year, Ron Mills was locked in the Camden County Jail.

For nine months he held firm to his story that the drugs he was charged with possessing didn't exist.

Last month Mills' story was validated when a former Camden police officer admitted in federal court that for more than two years he and four other officers arrested suspects with planted drugs, carried out illegal searches and wrote false arrest reports.

Mills' story, which was detailed by former Patrolman Kevin Parry in court, is now being laid out in one of a growing number of lawsuits planned against the city.

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Not only should medical marijuana be made available to patients in need, but adult recreational use should be regulated (Times editorial, "Sure, but slow," April 2). Drug policies modeled after alcohol prohibition have given rise to a youth-oriented black market. Illegal drug dealers don't check I.D. for age, but they do recruit minors immune to adult sentences. So much for protecting the children.

Throwing more money at the problem is no solution. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime.

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THERE'S NO way around the fact: The state of New Jersey was a latecomer in regard to needle exchange programs meant to fight the scourge of HIV/AIDS and to serve as a bridge to drug treatment, even though such programs have long proved successful across the country and around the world when incorporated into a more comprehensive HIV prevention strategy.

In recent weeks, though, we have learned that 2006 legislation to start such programs within the state, the Blood-Borne Disease Harm Reduction Act, is beginning to bear results. In a report released by the state Department of Health and Senior Services, data show that New Jersey's so-called sterile syringe access programs are a success at five pilot sites where they have been introduced. Researchers say the clean syringe programs show "beneficial outcomes in terms of reducing HIV risks and increasing access to drug treatment."

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Ed Forchion doesn't deny it. There was a pound of marijuana - "high-grade California Kush" - in the trunk of his rent-a-wreck when he was stopped in Mount Holly on Thursday night by a state trooper.

The dreadlocked Rastafarian, better known as "NJ Weedman," who ran unsuccessfully for New Jersey governor and U.S. and state representative on the Marijuana Party ticket, was released from the Burlington County jail on Tuesday after posting $50,000 bail on drug possession and distribution charges.

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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.

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When authorities smashed a street gang that dealt drugs and violence in Camden, they swept dangerous figures off street corners along Broadway.

But the alleged leader of the Nine Trey Headbustas was nowhere near the scene of the group's crimes between October 2003 and January 2008.

Investigators assert Michael Anderson, a high-ranking Blood known as the Original, Original Gangster, oversaw the Headbustas from a state prison cell -- his home since 1996.

Anderson, a 37-year-old career criminal from Essex County, still awaits trial on charges that include conspiracy to commit murder, racketeering and multiple drug offenses. But authorities says the alleged ability to run a group like the Headbustas from behind bars reflects the growing reach and sophistication of criminal street gangs.

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Two state lawmakers called on Gov. Chris Christie today to pardon a Somerset County man sentenced to five years in prison for growing marijuana to treat his multiple sclerosis and commute his sentence to probation.

Senators Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) and Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) described the prison term facing John Ray Wilson as "cruel, unusual and unnecessary" in a letter written to the governor today. Wilson, 37, of Franklin Township, was sentenced to five years in prison last week after he was found guilty of second-degree manufacturing and third-degree drug possession by a jury in December.

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SOMERVILLE -- A Franklin man with multiple sclerosis was sentenced today to five years in prison for growing marijuana that he has said was used for medicinal purposes.

The sentence handed down to John Wilson is the minimum prison term that he could have received.

Wilson's attorney, James Wronko, said he will file a motion to stay the sentence pending an appeal.

Superior Court Judge Robert Reed, who handed down the sentence, said that Wilson in six months could be eligible for the the New Jersey Intensive Supervision Program in which certain offenders, sentenced to state prison, are given an opportunity to work their way back into the community under intensive supervision.

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