FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP (Somerset) -- The judge who sentenced a Somerset County man to five years in prison Friday for growing marijuana to treat his multiple sclerosis noted there are others who suffer from the disease who don't resort to illegal behavior.

"Many people who suffer from MS and other chronic diseases do not use it as justification to break the law," Superior Court Judge Robert Reed told a Somerville courtroom packed with supporters of the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, which takes effect in July and will give patients with debilitating diseases structured access to the drug.

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Drug charges have been dropped in 185 cases tainted by five Camden police officers who are suspected of planting drugs on suspects and making illegal arrests, the Camden County Prosecutor's Office said Friday.

The announcement came hours after one of the officers pleaded guilty in federal court to depriving people of their rights.

Former Patrolman Kevin Parry, 29, acknowledged under a plea agreement that he and other officers planted drugs and threatened suspects with arrest with planted drugs if they didn't cooperate, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.

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COLLINGSWOOD - Donna Doak anxiously awaits the day when she can get a prescription for marijuana.

The Swedesboro nurse, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and spinal stenosis and is wheelchair-bound, said marijuana can ease her pain without the nasty side effects of her current medications.

"Now that it's been legalized, I want to pursue it," said Doak, who was among the roughly dozen people who attended a town hall meeting at the Collingswood Library sponsored by the Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey. "I just think it's going to really enable me to have a better quality of life."

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Harvard University economics Professor Jeffrey Miron spoke to more than 200 people Monday night about drug prohibition in the United States and the effects legalizing drugs could have on the economy and society.

Located in the Busch Campus Center, the lecture, titled "The Economics of Drug Legalization," focused on a positive and normative analysis of drug prohibition and the effects it has on the black market, while including comparisons between today's drug prohibition and the 1920s and early 1930s alcohol prohibition.

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Monday, March 08, 2010 New Jersey's medical marijuana law will not increase marijuana use among teens regardless of what the state's drug-prevention advocates are saying. In fact, once New Jersey implements its medical marijuana law, marijuana use among teens is very likely to decrease.

David Evans, with the Flemington-based Drug Free Schools Coalition, recently said that former Gov. Jon Corzine's administration complicated the message to teens, in part, by approving medical marijuana ("N.J. drug-prevention advocates encourage new administration to address drug policy as national study finds teen drug, alcohol use rising," March 4).

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I've been purchasing hemp seeds and oil for many years ("Marijuana could be farmers' new crop -- DJ-2/22), which is imported from Canada.

A nice enough country, but I'd rather purchase hemp products grown by American farmers. It's anti-American that communist Chinese farmers may grow hemp, but free American farmers may not. It's time to reintroduce hemp as a component of American agriculture.

Stan White

Dillon, Colo.

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VINELAND -- New Jersey farmers, including some in this area, see a chance to add an important new crop now that the state has legalized medical marijuana.

"We would all like to grow it because we think it would be a good cash crop -- literally," Fairfield nurseryman Roger Ruske said.

The New Jersey Farm Bureau, a trade group for agriculture, has looked into the issue in depth and found good news and problems with the idea.

New Jersey last month adopted a law allowing medical use of marijuana.

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In his last week in office, former Gov. Jon Corzine signed a bill revising the law on drug-free school zones. The revisions are appropriate and overdue.

The law applies to anyone convicted of selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school. The offender was formerly sentenced without exception to a minimum of three years in prison and $15,000 in fines in cases involving more than an ounce of marijuana.

The law was intended to express community opposition to crime, especially crimes committed near children. The unintended consequence was that 96 percent of those imprisoned for dealing drugs within the zones were black or Hispanic.

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We struggle to connect with teens as parents, teachers and mentors. Continuing to teach the "Reefer Madness" of Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini's Jan. 22 commentary, "New medical marijuana law will increase teen drug use," will only further disconnect our teens from the truth: Marijuana is medicine.

We bury thousands of people each year, teens included, from overdosing on prescription narcotics. I am tired of watching New Jersey residents die from drugs doctors freely prescribe. I'm thankful and fortunate enough to use medical marijuana to treat my multiple sclerosis and it always stops there. The federal government needs to change it from a Schedule I to a Schedule II drug in the Controlled Substances Act. This alone will save lives.

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With New Jersey's endorsement of medical marijuana, there may be no stopping the rehabilitation of cannabis from illegal drug to legitimate therapy.

Late yesterday, Gov. Corzine signed a law making New Jersey the fourteenth state to legalize medical pot. Four more states and the District of Columbia are expected to follow suit by year's end.

Many things are driving this sea change. The federal government last year announced that it would no longer prosecute medical marijuana smokers in states where it is legal, while the National Institutes of Health has begun funding research on medicinal use in a reversal of a long-standing policy.

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It was incredible to stand with medical marijuana patients at the Statehouse when the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana bill passed. ("Medical marijuana bill approved in Legislature," Jan. 12.) I have been involved with this for 18 years, and so many people have suffered, waiting for this day.

My wife died six years ago after a 32-year battle with multiple sclerosis. For almost a decade, she did everything she could to try to tell her state legislators how marijuana helped ease her spasticity and pain. But Assemblymen James Holzapfel and David Wolfe, as well as Sen. Andrew Ciesla, all R-Ocean, refused to even meet with her. Holzapfel led the charge against the bill on the Assembly floor. He talked about the association of needle exchange, reining in drug free school zones and medical marijuana.

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On her deathbed in 2003, Cheryl Miller made her husband James promise her that he would not give up their fight to have the use of marijuana for medical purposes legalized.

Having suffered from a debilitating form of multiple sclerosis since 1971, Miller used marijuana to ease the painful symptoms of her disease.

Together, the Toms River couple engaged in carefully crafted acts of civil disobedience that culminated in 1998 with chomping down a piece of marijuana outside the office of a congressman opposed to legalization of the drug for any reason.

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For nearly three decades, Elise Segal has worried that police might arrest her for using marijuana.

The 58-year-old Deptford nurse started smoking the drug in her 20s to relieve pain and muscle spasms brought on by her multiple sclerosis.

"I was blessed enough to find something to give me quality of life but the flip side of it . . . if I got caught or not I was breaking the law," Segal said. "That made me a criminal every day and that was very hard for me."

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This week Gov. Jon Corzine is expected to sign into law a measure that will allow for the use of marijuana as prescribed by physicians. It will also give the Garden State a green crop of another kind D legal weed, making it the 14th state in the nation to legalize the drug for medicinal purposes.

Does it mean that New Jersey is going to plunge deep into the throes of reefer madness?

Those who have championed the cause, like Ken Wolski, Chief Executive Officer of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana-New Jersey, say that's not likely.

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There's no self-service in New Jersey: not for gas, and, under the state's new medical-marijuana measure, not for grass.

Unlike the 14 states that have legalized medical marijuana, New Jersey will not let residents grow their own, according to the bill that passed the Legislature Monday night.

Instead, those suffering from a short list of severe conditions, including cancer, AIDS and Lou Gehrig's disease, will be able to get a prescription from their doctor to register for the right to purchase weed at state-regulated dispensaries.

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New Jersey's state legislature Monday approved a bill that would allow chronically and terminally ill patients to smoke marijuana with their doctors' approval.

Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, has told lawmakers he would sign it before leaving office next week. A spokesman for the governor couldn't be reached to comment.

New Jersey would join more than 10 states that give a medical exception to marijuana use despite federal laws prohibiting the drug's use. Those states include California, Colorado, Maine and Michigan. Attorney General Eric Holder said earlier this year that the federal government wouldn't prosecute people complying with state medical marijuana laws.

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TRENTON - New Jersey is set become the 14th state in the nation to allow medical use of marijuana, under a bill approved yesterday by legislators.

Gov. Corzine is expected to sign the bill during his last week in office. The law, which advocates have worked for years to get passed, would go into effect six months later.

Last February, the state Senate approved a medical-marijuana bill with bipartisan support. But after critics raised concerns that the bill could allow marijuana to become too readily available, sponsors tightened restrictions.

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New Jersey moved to the brink of legalizing medical marijuana last night when both houses of the state Legislature voted that it's high time to make the move.

The bill was expected to be signed into law by Gov. Jon Corzine before his term ends next week and incoming Gov. Chris Christie takes over.

It would let patients with severe and painful diseases, like AIDS, multiple sclerosis and cancer, buy up to 2 ounces of pot a month.

The weed would be doled out by authorized state suppliers under the bill, which would make the Garden State the 14th to allow purchase of pot for medical reasons -- though the home-grown type would still be outlawed. Driving while high would also still be illegal.

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Both Houses Pass Bill

TRENTON -- The New Jersey Legislature approved a measure on Monday that would make the state the 14th in the nation, but one of the few on the East Coast, to legalize the use of marijuana to help patients with chronic illnesses.

The measure -- which would allow patients diagnosed with severe illnesses like cancer, AIDS, Lou Gehrig's disease, muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis to have access to marijuana grown and distributed through state-monitored dispensaries -- was passed by the General Assembly and State Senate on the final day of the legislative session.

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The Garden State is set to bloom with weed.

Outgoing Gov. Jon Corzine is expected to sign legislation before leaving office next week making New Jersey the nation's 14th state to legalize medical marijuana.

Legislators approved a law Monday allowing chronically ill patients to buy up to 2 ounces of pot a month at state-monitored dispensaries.

"I don't think we should make criminals out of our very sick and terminally ill," said Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton), co-sponsor of the bill.

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