Last week, columnist Aaron Applbaum argued that the possession of marijuana should be legalized in the United States. Further, he suggested in passing that even if the government does not heed his call the University should at least modify its own marijuana policy. The editorial board endorses the latter claim. The University should cease its current policy of imposing disciplinary consequences on students found in possession of marijuana in excess of those regulations required by law.

As was well-argued last week, the legal prohibition on marijuana use is simply silly. Marijuana is less addictive and less dangerous to health than both alcohol and tobacco, two commonly used legal drugs; in the absence of prohibitions against those drugs there is no good reason for the government to forbid individuals from using marijuana as well. In general, the University may have a variety of good reasons for enacting regulations that mirror law. Many laws actually do promote health, safety or public order. When a law is as pointless as the marijuana prohibition, however - when the prohibited conduct isn't harmful to individual students or to the University community - the University lacks a good reason to ensure student compliance. There already exist numerous local, state and federal government agencies unnecessarily tasked with regulating marijuana use; the University need not add its name to the list.

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If people are allowed to drive after drinking -- provided their blood-alcohol level is under the legal limit -- then why shouldn't people be allowed to drive after smoking marijuana? That seems to be the question raised by a bill in the Colorado state legislature, which would set a legal limit of under five nanograms per milimeter of THC in a person's bloodstream. As long as a driver's THC-blood level is under five nanograms, he would legally be allowed to drive. While some are in support of the current zero-tolerance policy, we agree with the idea of establishing a legal limit. If used responsibly, marijuana does not significantly impair a person's ability to drive. A 2004 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study shows that marijuana, if used responsibly, does not significantly impair a person's ability to drive.

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The world is rife with paradoxes and double standards.

One such incongruity is the disparity in attitudes toward and treatment of marijuana as opposed to those of alcohol and tobacco.

The manifestation of these attitudes are clear in the "Rights, Rules, Responsibilities" handbook.

For alcohol, "violations will result in a dean's warning," whereas even the possession of marijuana or its associated paraphernalia results in at least probation.

The only rational basis for the harsh treatment of marijuana is if it causes damage to the mission of the school more significantly than other substances. If Princeton's administration were to be internally consistent, they would make marijuana violations low priority offenses and choose to overlook violators in the same way that they do with alcohol.

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The Mexican war on drugs has been a contentious issue from the outset. Many have spoken for and against the war, but a commentator of particular note is former Mexican President Vicente Fox, who recently announced that he no longer believes in the prohibition approach. Instead, Fox argues that the best way to fight the drug trade is to legalize the sale of illegal drugs. Honestly, he makes a rather convincing case.

Make no mistake -- Fox does not just mean decriminalization, rather, he favors full legalization. He raises some very salient points regarding the failures of the war on drugs. In an interview with Time Magazine, Fox stressed the tremendous financial costs of waging a war on drugs -- including how much Mexico has suffered from a dwindling tourism economy as a direct result of the war on drugs. He also addressed the psychological toll it has had on Mexican citizens.

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The last thing chronically and terminally ill residents of New Jersey need is more delay in easing their suffering. They should not have to keep waiting for implementation of the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act. It's been more than a year, and not one cannabis plant has been grown for the program.

True, most of the problems have been caused by Gov. Chris Christie's overly restrictive regulations. But a plan by Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Middlesex, to force the administration to go back to square one to rewrite the regulations may wind up doing more harm than good.

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Senate Panel to Consider Rewriting Christie Proposal

TRENTON -- The terminally ill's lack of access to medical marijuana is one of the worries of a state senator who is trying to force Gov. Chris Christie's administration to change proposed regulations of the drug.

Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Middlesex, said the Republican governor's proposed rules have several flaws, including barring dispensaries from making home deliveries, even for terminally ill patients -- those defined in the regulations as having less than 12 months to live.

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I have argued for years that the criminalization of marijuana is perhaps the most unproductive way to deal with any negative effects that the use of marijuana might have on its users. Whether or not one believes marijuana is a dangerous product to be used by people, criminalization has proved itself to be the most costly and the least effective solution to the problem.

Now suddenly we have Pat Robertson, a well-known and well-respected spiritual leader acknowledging this truth. He does not support the use of marijuana, but he has said he believes "criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot and that kind of thing, I mean, it's just costing us a fortune and it's ruining young people."

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THE LEGISLATURE recently invoked a rarely used constitutional power to require the Christie administration to go back to the drawing board to rewrite the rules governing the state's medical marijuana law. We are now on the verge of an unprecedented move to overturn the regulations, with agreement by both houses that the governor has overstepped his constitutional bounds.

As sponsor of the law, it was an extraordinarily difficult decision to move forward with this, as I knew it would further delay a program that has already been held up for far too long. But it was critical to ensuring that people with debilitating conditions and patients dying of cancer, HIV and AIDS receive proper care.

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TRENTON -- The state Senate voted Monday to force Gov. Chris Christie's administration to revamp proposed rules putting into effect the new medical marijuana law, even though the state is back at the drawing board already.

The resolution says rules proposed for the program in mid-November by the Department of Health and Senior Services aren't consistent with what the Legislature intended in the law enacted on Gov. Jon S. Corzine's last day in office in January.

But the resolution, which compels the Christie administration to withdraw or amend its rules within 30 days, is sort of symbolic, though it does set a deadline in mid-January for new rules to be proposed. Health and Senior Services Department spokeswoman Donna Leusner said a new rule proposal is being developed.

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What you called a compromise on medical marijuana in "Easing the pain" (Editorial, Dec. 8) is not accurate. Six dispensaries were part of the law, so on that point what is the compromise? There was no compromise.

You didn't mention that the 10 percent THC limit for the product makes the program unworkable for many patients who use a higher percentage. They will not get enough medicine and have to turn to the street.

The limit of three strains per dispensary is also bad. Different strains have different results, and patients do better with wider variety.

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Re: "Christie refuses to ease marijuana rules" (C-P, Nov. 28).

As a Colorado resident, I'm disappointed Gov. Chris Christie decided to speak negatively about the present medical cannabis (marijuana) laws in my state, which work properly to protect sick residents from overzealous government. Those "doctors parachuted into the situation" are a godsend to many residents who have doctors who are afraid of the federal government and refuse to recommend cannabis.

Christie is an anti-Christian prohibitionist at heart and will do anything to thwart the will of voters, including cage sick residents who use what God says is good on the very first page of the Bible. The needs of sick residents should come before the needs of prohibitionists.

Stan White

Dillon, Colo.

[end]

A Challenge To Gov. Christie's Approach

New Jersey Senate Democrats are pushing ahead with a challenge to the Christie administration's rules for the state's new medical marijuana program, despite a supposedly bipartisan compromise the governor announced earlier this month.

Democrats are unhappy with regulations to implement the program, saying it falls short of a law already described as the most restrictive in the country. The rules would limit the potency of marijuana, among other specifications contrary to the law signed in January just before Mr. Christie took office.

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The New Jersey Senate voted Monday to give state health officials 30 days to come up with a new plan for implementing the state's medical-marijuana program.

Senators, in effect, rejected a compromise offered earlier this month by Gov. Christie, who continues to support rules more strict than the Legislature wanted.

Sen. Nick Scutari (D., Union), a sponsor of the resolution, said he hoped to meet with Christie's senior advisers to "get to the point where we can allow a functional marketplace so people that want to be in this business and people that desperately need this medicine can get together in a way that's legal and viable."

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Diane Riportella did not take pain medication Friday, hoping she could make it through the day. By evening, however, the pain from not being able to move was unbearable, the anxiety and fear inconsolable.

Rather than have her husband Paul give her a few drops of cherry-flavored liquid morphine, the Egg Harbor Township resident instead asked that he light her pipe with medical grade marijuana. Almost instantly, she said, the pain dissipated, her anxiety gone and she felt the will to live come back.

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Gov. Chris Christie and his administration are denying patients suffering severe pain from cancer, postherpetic neuralgia, which has no known cure, and other severe pain sufferers, relief from their pain. He is not a doctor; he is a politician making medical decisions. It is like having a shoemaker fix you car.

He is not qualified to make medical decisions. A doctor knows his individual patient's pain. A doctor also knows what strength and best means to administer the medical marijuana -- eating or smoking.

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Marijuana is not the villain that it is often portrayed to be. In fact, the plant has a lot of beneficial uses which will never be exploited because of our paranoia against "weed." Let's start with the hemp fibers that are extracted from the cannabis plant.

According the article "Hemp: A New Crop with New Uses for North America" by Ernest Small and David Marcus, posted on the website of the horticulture department at Purdue University, hemp is one of the earliest domesticated plants known. It is a low-maintenance, resilient, soft, and durable fiber that is used to make every thing from biodegradable plastics to textiles, clothing, paper, natural oils and fuels. It is used in construction and even has many medical uses.

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Re: "Christie refuses to ease pot rules" (C-P, Nov. 28).

Sometimes, politicians reveal more of the truth than they intended. In warning against the possibility that our state's medical marijuana law could lead to virtual legalization of marijuana, Gov. Chris Christie said: "I'm not doing it. I've seen too much in my previous career (as a U.S. attorney) of what can happen when drugs become that prevalent."

Unintentionally, Christie was admitting that our current national and state policy of drug prohibition for all ages is a failure. Illegal drugs have been prevalent since we adopted national drug prohibition in 1914.

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IF our elected public officials can't come together and find common ground when it comes to treating the most seriously ill among us, how can we expect them to reach consensus on more politically charged issues impacting the state?

Thankfully, last week, in a show of common sense, Republican Governor Christie and at least one Democratic lawmaker seemed ready to finally clear away the smoke and come up with a way to get medical marijuana to those in New Jersey who most need it, including the terminally ill. The goal is to settle on the parameters in order to begin dispensing the drug in July.

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If our elected public officials can't come together and find common ground when it comes to treating the most seriously ill among us, how can we expect them to reach consensus on more politically charged issues impacting the state?

Thankfully, last week, in a show of common sense, Republican Governor Christie and at least one Democratic lawmaker seemed ready to finally clear away the smoke and come up with a way to get medical marijuana to those in New Jersey who most need it, including the terminally ill. The goal is to settle on the parameters in order to begin dispensing the drug in July.

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Governor Chris Christie plans to put restrictions on the medical marijuana bill put in place almost a year ago. Last January former governor Jon Corzine signed a bill that made New Jersey the 14th state to legalize medical marijuana for individuals with cancer and other serious diseases.

The push to make medical marijuana legal stems from the benefits it provides patients. It has been proven to relieve pain, increase appetite, reduce anxiety and improve sleep.

While these purposes are allowing patients to smoke cannabis, Christie's administration worries recreational users could benefit from the legalization as well. That is why the restrictions have been established.

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