There are many questions about which physicians are uncertain.

One of them centers on the use of marijuana to treat illnesses.

A measure pending in the state Legislature could authorize the use of medical marijuana to relieve symptoms in seriously ill patients.

The state would maintain a registry of people with debilitating medical conditions, such as HIV or AIDS, cancer and glaucoma. Photo identification cards would be issued to those on the registry, and they could possess a limited number of marijuana plants and usable marijuana.

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The movement in the New Jersey Legislature to enact the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act has much to recommend it. It is in fact a sound policy to allow those suffering great physical pain to use marijuana to relieve various symptoms. Nevertheless, creating an exception for the medical use of marijuana under state law does not create an exception under federal law. By using state law to sanction marijuana use in the medical context, New Jersey will be encouraging a violation of federal law. That is a problem that must be resolved before the policy deserves full support. The proposed New Jersey statute is admirable in the care with which it sets forth the medical exception. It cabins the possibility of abuse as well as can be expected. That is to say, it establishes a narrow, meticulously circumscribed exception to the general prohibition on marijuana use. The premises for the exception are found in the legislative findings, which include:

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According to the writer of the Dec. 20 letter, "Pot bill will let children smoke," we will see children legally smoking pot at malls soon if New Jersey's medical marijuana bill becomes law. Not only that, they could also be able to buy rolling papers and marijuana at the mall.

I don't know which is more scary. The thought of masses of kids smoking pot at a mall, or the possibility that some readers of The Press might be gullible enough to believe that such a thing might actually happen. Lost in the mix is any discussion of the sick and dying New Jersey patients whose lives will be improved because of the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act.

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In reference to The Times' editorial "A safe prescription for marijuana use" (Dec. 18), I applaud the six state senators on the Health Committee who voted in favor of the bill to legalize marijuana for medical use in New Jersey.

I also applaud The Times' endorsement. My wife and I have been advocates of the bill from its inception in 2004, and we are encouraged that it is gaining some traction.

While opponents of the bill continue their tired arguments against medical marijuana, is it a coincidence that none of those vocal critics have medical backgrounds and that some have financial interests in keeping it illegal?

It's time to admit that marijuana is a medicine and should be legally available to the seriously ill people who need it. Most state residents, and now most state lawmakers, realize that.

DON McGRATH, Robbinsville

[end]

Those who favor a sensible and compassionate approach to the use of illegal drugs in New Jersey must continually contend with a tough bunch of hard-liners at the Statehouse.

It took more than a decade for them to win approval for a cautious test of programs that give intravenous drug users access to clean needles to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS and other blood-borne diseases.

And they've been trying for nearly four years to legalize the medical use of marijuana under tight restrictions for sufferers who could benefit from its use. Once again, they're butting heads with legislative drug warriors for whom any policy other than banning the stuff represents -- like the pool table Professor Hill warned the people of River City about -- "the road to degradation."

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Drug has been proven effective in treating some medical conditions and should be legal to use for those patients.

New Jersey lawmakers took a key step toward allowing those suffering with cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and other conditions to legally use marijuana to relieve their pain.

Last week, the state Senate's Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee, by a 6-1 vote, approved the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act.

Legalizing the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes remains controversial in part because it runs counter to federal drug laws regarding marijuana, and also because there are many people who do not want to see any door opened toward legalizing drugs.

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New Jersey should become the 14th state to legalize the use of medical marijuana.

Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, sponsor of the "Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act," noted this week, "Society is able to distinguish between the lawful use of a substance and recreational use or drug abuse."

Exactly right.

The measure, which passed out of the Senate Health Committee by a 6-1 vote on Monday, is wildly controversial. Opponents argue it endorses drug abuse, will make it easier for marijuana to fall into the wrong hands, and they contend there is a lack of scientific evidence or thorough study on the long-term effects of marijuana usage. Supporters, naturally, see something else: a way for chronically ill patients to relieve their pain when prescription drugs don't do their job or cause debilitating side effects. People with AIDS, multiple sclerosis, cancer and other serious illnesses are all on the list of beneficiaries.

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We realize it's too much to ask for a debate about the benefits of medical marijuana to focus solely on health issues and not turn into a social morality play. That's what happens when the subject is an illegal drug often used for recreational purposes that generates heated passions on both sides of the legalization discussion.

But when it comes to limited legalization for medicinal reasons, critics simply don't have a viable case against it. On Monday, the state Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee approved a bill that would provide chronically ill patients with access to marijuana. The patients would have to petition the Department of Health and Senior Services for permission, with certification from a physician.

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Instead of milk and cookies, Trenton wants our children to light up a joint. The New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, approved by the state Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee on Dec. 15, is so loosely written that children will be permitted to smoke dope at the malls provided a parent agrees and a doctor prescribes it. Indeed, our malls may even house an approved "alternate treatment center" dispensing rolling paper and ganja to our kids.

All our children need to smoke the weed is a doctor's prescription based on a diagnosis of chronic pain as simple as depression, migraines, arthritis, back pain or fibromyalgia. Heck, anyone can fake depression or headaches. Parents may even seek out such a diagnosis for Johnny, as sort of a "get out of jail free" card for their party animal children.

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Marijuana in the medicine cabinet?

That could become a legal reality in New Jersey, where a Senate panel this week voted 6-1 in support of the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, which now moves to the full Senate for consideration.

If the bill should become law, New Jersey would join 13 other states that allow the medical use of marijuana to ease the pain and symptoms associated with such debilitat ing illnesses as multiple sclerosis, cancer, AIDS and glaucoma.

Unfortunately, the stereotypical image of a pothead has obscured the proven medical benefits of marijuana. A 1999 study by the Institute of Medicine found that "nausea, appe tite loss, pain and anxiety ... all can be mitigated by marijuana."

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TRENTON - Gov. Jon S. Corzine said Tuesday that he supports and would sign a bill allowing medicinal marijuana use, but added that economic issues are his top priority.

"I don't think that we ought to be having fights on issues that don't go to the heart of the needs of a broad majority of folks," Corzine told reporters Tuesday afternoon. "I think that this is one that if it can be moved expeditiously because there's a consensus, I think that's great. I have studied the issue and I think that if properly structured, it's an initiative that's sensible."

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Moved by pleas from chronically ill patients, a state Senate commit tee approved legislation yesterday that would regulate the sale and use of medical marijuana for people who can show they need the drug to ease their suffering.

Over the objections of family rights groups and attorneys who warned the bill sends a conflicting message to youth about illegal drug use, the majority of members from the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee said they felt compelled to approve the bill.

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N.J. Senate Measure Would Allow Chronically Ill to Own Six Plants, 1 Ounce

TRENTON - New Jersey took a major step toward becoming the latest state to allow certain patients to use marijuana Monday, when the Senate's Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee approved the Compassionate Use Medicinal Marijuana Act by a vote of 6-1.

Elise Segal, who testified in support of the legislation, said the committee's vote "really brings me to tears, not just for me as a someone suffering from multiple sclerosis, but as a registered nurse and for all the people that I've treated."

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A state Senate committee will discuss legislation today that would make New Jersey the 14th state to legalize marijuana for medical purposes.

If Senate Bill 119 eventually is signed into law, patients with debilitating illnesses, including cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and multiple sclerosis, would have access to marijuana to relieve their pain if prescribed by a doctor.

The bill is sponsored by state Sens. Nicholas P. Scutari, D-Union, Somerset, Middlesex, and Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic.

The legalization of marijuana - considered the single most abused illicit drug in the United States by the National Institute on Drug Abuse - for medicinal purposes already has happened in 13 other states, most recently Michigan.

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Men Spared Prison; Long Valley Roommate Was Growing Marijuana

Two former Long Valley residents who were charged in February, along with a third roommate, with running a marijuana harvesting operation in their attic were spared prison sentences Friday by a judge who gave them probation, community service and ordered them to write essays.

Superior Court Judge Thomas V. Manahan ordered John Coates III of Great Meadows and John A. O'Connell of Succasunna, both 24, to read "Judgment at Nuremberg," a 1957 play by Abby Mann that was adapted into the Academy Award-winning 1961 film about Nazi war criminals brought to justice for their crimes against humanity.

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The Freehold Regional High School District Board of Education was presented with the district's violence and vandalism report for the 2007-08 school year at its Nov. 17 meeting held at Freehold High School, Freehold Borough.

State law requires each school board in New Jersey to hold an annual public hearing in order to discuss the information contained in the violence and vandalism report.

While the number of vandalism incidents decreased from 47 incidents in 2006-07 to 36 in 2007-08, reports of violence and substance abuse rose. There were 96 reported incidents of violence in 2007-08, up from 85 incidents in 2006- 07.

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Regarding Stephen Wallace's Your Turn column "Marijuana decriminalization poses a clear & present danger," illegal drugs are not uniformly more dangerous than legal drugs. One example is that "model airplane glue" is available at several stores at a price so low no one sells it on the street. But if it were driven underground, like marijuana, its price would rise to enable the violence and corruption that attends any lucrative, illegal market. No drug is without risk. Rather than debate the merits of each substance, we should debate whether prohibition causes more societal damage than it prevents.

John Chase

Palm Harbor, Fla.

[end]

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - "I don't want it misunderstood," said Lynn Evelyn, 52, the mother of three teenage girls. "I'm not in favor of kids using drugs or alcohol.

"My approach is to tell them: 'I don't want you to do it. I think it's absolutely the wrong kind of behavior for adolescents to engage in. But if you do choose at some point to experiment' - and my girls are all social - I talk about how, in our own family, there's a history of alcohol dependency. They know my older brother died of drug addiction."

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TRENTON -- Liberal New Jersey lawmakers are pushing for quick approval of same-sex marriage and medical marijuana so Gov. Jon Corzine can sign them into law before he leaves office on Jan. 19.

Less than three weeks into 2010, New Jersey will have a new governor, Republican Chris Christie, who has promised to veto same-sex marriage and rejects the rest of the liberal agenda being promoted by lawmakers like Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton) and ex-con advocate Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), the Assembly majority leader.

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I have picketed political offices for 14 years to advocate medical marijuana, and all officials have honored the fact the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects my right to do so. That streak ended Election Day at the Ocean County Republican headquarters on Route 37 in Toms River.

I had gone to the office Nov. 2 with my late wife's "memorial wheelchair" to express my disappointment in 3rd District congressional candidate Chris Myers. At a debate days earlier, Myers was asked whether he would support legalizing medical marijuana if he was elected. His brief reply, "Ah, no," was insulting to the sick and dying residents he would have represented. He responded as if he didn't even know why he was against this.

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