Assembly Passed Bill to Make It Easier for the Severely Sick to Use the Drug. It's now up to Gov. Christie to decide whether he wants to amend the state's medical marijuana law and regulations - the strictest in the country - to make it easier for severely sick children to use the drug. The New Jersey Assembly overwhelmingly passed a bill Monday, days after the Senate passed identical legislation, that would streamline the approval process and allow children to use an edible strain of cannabis that does not get them high. [continues 765 words]
For the first time, marijuana can be grown legally in South Jersey, now that the state Health Department has granted a permit allowing seeds to be planted at a soon-to-open medical marijuana dispensary in Egg Harbor Township. Dave Knowlton, chairman of Compassionate Care Foundation, said the nonprofit, which got the permit Thursday, hopes to begin selling marijuana to registered patients in mid-September out of the Atlantic County facility. Normally, it takes three to four months to cultivate the crop and prepare it to be sold, said Donna Leusner, a spokeswoman for the Health Department. [continues 550 words]
The New Jersey Assembly has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would prevent medical-marijuana patients from being disqualified for receiving organ transplants because they are using a drug that historically was deemed illegal. The bill would make sure hospitals and doctors don't "exclude people who are otherwise eligible for organ transplants" just because they use medical marijuana, said Assemblyman Peter J. Barnes (D., Middlesex), a prime sponsor. New Jersey legalized medical marijuana three years ago and restricts the drug's use to people suffering from debilitating illnesses, including cancer, multiple sclerosis, and other conditions. More than 900 patients are registered statewide. [continues 243 words]
Woodbridge site could join one in Egg Harbor as a dispensary of medical marijuana in New Jersey. Two more medical marijuana dispensaries may open soon in New Jersey, bringing the total to three, state Health Commissioner Mary O'Dowd said Thursday in response to a legislator's questions about the progress of the three-year-old program. Assemblyman John J. Burzichelli (D., Gloucester) asked whether the program's budget should be cut, noting that only one of the six dispensaries that were preliminarily approved had opened. [continues 384 words]
TRENTON - Three years after New Jersey passed a law allowing patients with serious ailments to use medical marijuana, debate has erupted over whether the program is languishing. On Thursday, hours after the Coalition for Medical Marijuana of NJ held a panel discussion in the Statehouse annex to criticize the state's handling of the program, the Department of Health issued unexpected news. Donna Leusner, the department spokeswoman, said in an e-mail that five of the six nonprofit companies that have been preliminarily approved to open marijuana dispensaries have "secured locations." [continues 537 words]
A Nine-Month Sentence Was Handed Down to the NJ Weedman. The man who calls himself NJ Weedman was sentenced Tuesday to a harsher term for violating probation than he had received for possessing a pound of marijuana. Ed Forchion, 48, received nine months in the Burlington County Jail for failing to sign up immediately with the probation department after he was sentenced in January to two years on probation on an April 2010 drug charge. Forchion, a former New Jerseyan who lives in Los Angeles, was arrested Jan. 31 at Philadelphia International Airport as he prepared to fly home. [continues 205 words]
A Superior Court judge in Burlington County sentenced the man known as NJ Weedman to two years of probation and more than $3,400 in fines and fees Wednesday for possessing a pound of pot in his car nearly three years ago. Marijuana activist Ed Forchion had used the inconsistency of criminal and medical-marijuana drug laws to win acquittal on the more serious charge of drug distribution when he was tried in October. Forchion could have faced 10 years in prison on the distribution charge. [continues 497 words]
A dispensary in Essex County sold the drug to 300 people after a long fight to legalize sales. When Jay Lassiter took his first-ever toke of medical marijuana Tuesday evening, he knew it would relieve the nausea he experiences from the nine prescription drugs he consumes daily to treat HIV. For years, the political consultant has kept a marijuana-filled pipe in his Cherry Hill kitchen to calm his frequently upset stomach and to nudge him to eat when his appetite flagged. [continues 1250 words]
N.J.'S First Licensed Dispensary Served Only 20 Patients on Its First Day Open. For many advocates of medical marijuana, the opening of New Jersey's first dispensary was a milestone worth celebrating, even though the door was cracked open long enough to let in only 20 patients that day. So far, 354 seriously ill people have state-issued licenses to buy the drug, but Greenleaf Compassion Center in Montclair said it could accommodate only a limited number when it finally opened Thursday, three months later than it had anticipated. [continues 811 words]
Lawmakers Behind the Bill Say They Were Not Told About Imposing a Sales Tax. A lawmaker who was influential in getting New Jersey's medical marijuana law passed said he was stunned by the Christie administration's announcement last week that the drug would be taxed. State Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D., Mercer), who spent five years gathering support for the bill before it was enacted in 2010, said the Treasury Department's rationale was jarring, given the history of the bill. [continues 609 words]
More than two years after New Jersey legislators passed a law allowing doctors to prescribe medical marijuana, patients qualified to receive the drug may register for identification cards beginning Thursday. That doesn't mean they will soon receive a prescription for cannabis. The state Department of Health has granted preliminary approval to just six nonprofit marijuana dispensaries, and only one is expected to have the drug available by next month. The Greenleaf Compassion Center in Montclair, Essex County, announced a few months ago that it would likely harvest a crop in September, but it has not received final approval to sell the drug to patients. [continues 380 words]
Outside the Burlington County courthouse in Mount Holly, a protester was shaking hands with a string of passersby who had stopped to read his sign: "Medical Marijuana. What Do You Say to Unjust Law?" Inside, Ed Forchion, better known NJ Weedman, was venturing into uncharted territory, trying to persuade a Superior Court jury to acquit him of drug charges because he holds a medical marijuana patient card in California. He says he needs the drug to alleviate pain associated with giant cell cancer in his bones. [continues 770 words]
The Harvest and Dispensary for the Gravely Ill Will Be in Egg Harbor Township. South Jersey's first pot farm and dispensary is expected to open in Egg Harbor Township in the fall, 21/ 2 years after the state legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes. The Philadelphia Inquirer None of six dispensaries authorized by the state has yet opened for business. The Atlantic County town recently issued the facility a zoning permit, a prize that proved to be elusive in a string of other South Jersey towns after residents packed local meeting halls to protest. [continues 643 words]
A New Jersey assemblyman, saying he feels a "moral obligation" to help alleviate the pain and suffering of "deathly ill" people, plans to introduce legislation to make it easier for medical marijuana businesses to get local zoning approvals. Since October, governing bodies in Maple Shade, Westampton, Upper Freehold, and Camden have rejected plans for pot farms and marijuana dispensaries. The votes were taken after crowds of residents at town meetings expressed fears of increased crime and a stigma against their communities. [continues 349 words]
The array of disciplinary challenges facing today's educators has resulted in the development of a multi-tiered policy at Martha's Vineyard Regional High School's (MVRHS) that covers infractions ranging from profane language to terrorist actions, and everything in-between. One of the biggest issues high schools face is substance abuse. Although policies addressing drugs and alcohol are fairly standard among schools, how they are enforced varies. Some students and parents may not realize that the substance abuse policy extends to all MVRHS activities, including school trips and even the bus stops. "We extend our purview to the fullest extent of the law, in terms of Massachusetts state law," said principal Peg Regan last week. [continues 1193 words]
Two Hours After His Drug Arrest, A Bordentown Man Got A Year's Sentence. A Retrial Has Been Ordered. It was a case of justice rushed, a Burlington County judge decided yesterday, freeing a Bordentown Township dishwasher who had been arrested, charged, convicted and sentenced in municipal court to a one-year term for drug offenses - all in about two hours. Leonard Juniors Jr. served three weeks in the county jail and five weeks in the Mid-State Correctional Facility at Fort Dix before Superior Court Judge Victor Friedman vacated his sentence yesterday during an appeal hearing. [continues 465 words]
A maintenance worker accused of nurturing 130 marijuana plants -- some as tall as eight feet -- in the courtyards of a Cinnaminson motel was spared at least temporarily yesterday when the jury considering his case deadlocked after four hours of deliberations. Richard Rowand Jr., 41, who lived and worked at the Garden State Motel on Route 130 when he was arrested last year, was charged with the first-degree crime of possessing marijuana with intent to distribute, which carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years. Rowand's attorney, James Logan Jr., had argued that his client "was the low man on the totem pole" and was made into a scapegoat after police discovered the plants on Aug. 18, 1998, while investigating a complaint of a Peeping Tom on the premises. No Peeping Tom was found. [continues 154 words]
MOUNT HOLLY -- He wasn't their father, but he admitted that he had taken care of his girlfriend's two children during the year he lived with them in Southampton Township. So, because police said he went with his girlfriend to Camden to get high on heroin and left the children home alone for two days last summer, he also faced a criminal charge of child abuse. Yesterday, Kevin Hines, 35, a part-time painter who still lives in Southampton, pleaded guilty to the fourth-degree charge for abandoning the children, ages 8 and 11, from early July 18 to about 10:30 p.m. the next day. The charge carries a term of up to 18 months in prison, but under a plea agreement, the recommended sentence will be probation. [continues 145 words]
BEVERLY -- The section of this city that has been plagued in recent years by rampant drug dealing soon could receive relief as a Quality of Life Special Enforcement Zone, the first such designation in Burlington County. The state Attorney General's Office created the special zones to identify locations known as hot spots, or open-air drug markets. Drug dealers caught in these areas, which are similar to the special zones near schools, face stiffer prison sentences. Beverly City Mayor Robert Lowden Jr. said he planned to notify the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office this week that Beverly officials would like to designate the center of the city as a special zone. The zone, which would encompass about half the city's area, would include Broad, Cooper, and Magnolia Streets. [continues 254 words]
