New Jersey

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New Jersey to consider legalizing medical marijuana

By: TOM HESTER Jr. (Tue, May/09/2006)
phillyBurbs.com


TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey would become the 12th state to legalize marijuana for people with debilitating medical conditions under a bill slated to be discussed next month by state lawmakers.

Sen. Joseph Vitale, chairman of a Senate health panel, said he's scheduled a June 8 discussion to hear from experts on the bill proposed by Sen. Nicholas Scutari. Vitale said he supports the concept, but has questions.

"It's really an effort to provide some sort of relief for people and some compassion," said Vitale, D-Middlesex.

The legislation has long been proposed by Scutari, D-Union, but has never received a legislative hearing.

Though 11 states allow medical marijuana, in June 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the federal government can prosecute people who use marijuana no matter what a state law says.

Terrence P. Farley, an Ocean County assistant prosecutor and spokesman for two state anti-drug law enforcement groups, said the bill is a veiled attempt to legalize drugs.

"This is how they're trying to get marijuana legalized," said Farley, who also is director of the county anti-narcotics force.

The Assembly hasn't scheduled any hearings on the bill, but Gov. Jon S. Corzine said last year that he would sign a medical marijuana bill into law.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently reiterated its opposition to medical marijuana. The American Medical Association, National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society and National Multiple Sclerosis Society reject its use. An April report by federal Department of Human Services agencies found no data supported marijuana for general medical use.

The National Academy of Sciences has found marijuana can help patients with chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and AIDS wasting.

Scutari's bill lists cancer, glaucoma, HIV and AIDS, wasting syndrome, chronic pain, severe nausea, seizures and persistent muscle spasms as among the conditions eligible for medical marijuana usage.


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Article's URL: http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/ ... 53652.html

S88, from the State of New Jersey: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2006/Bills/S0500/88_I1.HTM

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05/11/06 - Posted from the Daily Record newsroom

Morris lawmaker supports medical marijuana plan
Morristown Memorial, St. Clare's take wait and see approach to bill

BY TEHANI SCHNEIDER
DAILY RECORD

A Republican assemblyman and a Democratic U.S. Senator said Wednesday they would support a bill state lawmakers are to discuss next month that would make New Jersey the 12th state to legalize marijuana for medical use.

Local hospitals, however, are keeping their distance, at least at this early stage of the legislative process.

State senate consideration of the bill comes, despite a U.S. Supreme Court June 2005 ruling that the federal government can prosecute those who use marijuana, regardless ofstate law.

The bill, proposed by Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, would authorize doctors to prescribe marijuana to treat debilitating medical conditions such as cancer, glaucoma, HIV and AIDS, seizures and persistent muscle spasms.

Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, R-Morris Township, a staunch conservative, said Wednesday that "Doctors have the right to prescribe all sorts of medicine. If a doctor believes that marijuana will have the desired effect for (their patients), then it's a good idea."

A spokeswoman for Morristown Memorial Hospital said the hospital had no comment on the bill, and would wait to see what lawmakers do.

Benjamin Martin, a spokesman for St. Clare's Health Systems, said the organization could not speculate on a bill that is not yet law.

"When and if the bill becomes law and the entire scope of any legislation is understood, St. Clare's will work with its medical staff to develop basic medical criteria for the prescription of such a substance and implement control mechanisms for its administration," Martin said.

Sen. Joseph Vitale, chairman of the Senate health panel, has scheduled a June 8 hearing. Scutari has long proposed the legislation, but it has never received a legislative hearing.

Lautenberg, too

A spokesman for state Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said the senator backs the bill, regardless of resistance that may arise from the federal government.

"If the state of New Jersey legalizes marijuana for medicinal purposes the senator will support the decision and believes the federal government should not interfere," said spokesman Alex Formuzis.



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Tehani Schneider can be reached at (973) 428-6631 or tschneider@gannett.com.

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05/12/06 - Posted from the Daily Record newsroom

Pot as medicine
State should allow its use for very sick people


Eleven states allow marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes. New Jersey should become the 12th. There will be a Senate committee hearing in June on legislation to legalize marijuana for those with debilitating medical conditions.

The idea is a good one.

There is admittedly debate about how effective marijuana is as a medicine. The American Medical Association rejects its use, but the National Academy of Sciences has found that marijuana can help patients deal with chemotherapy and AIDS. Those afflicted with cancer and AIDS deserve as much sympathy and understanding as possible. If marijuana is able to help people cope with deadly diseases, it should definitely be tried. Morphine and opium already are used to control pain.

Opposition comes from those who don't seem to understand the difference between a sick patient getting some relief and a teenager shooting heroin.

"This is how they're trying to get marijuana legalized," complains Terrence P. Farley, the director of the Ocean County anti-narcotics task force. We don't know what "they" Farley is thinking of. The only "they" involved here is not a Colombian drug cartel, but sick people seeking a little bit of comfort. The opponents should explain why they want to prevent a person on chemotherapy the relief that marijuana may bring.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that marijuana use for medicinal purposes is illegal, meaning that its use can be prosecuted notwithstanding state law. Despite that, New Jersey should still allow the medical use of marijuana. That would make a statement in favor of vulnerable patients. It is also debatable how vigorously the federal law is enforced.

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DPA Launches New Jersey Compassionate Use Campaign

The Drug Policy Alliance
Monday, May 15, 2006


The Drug Policy Alliance's New Jersey office has launched a campaign to support medical marijuana legislation introduced this month in the state legislature. Though similar legislation has been introduced in the past, 2006 will be the first time the legislature holds hearings on the subject.

The Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Services Committee will hold an information-gathering hearing in early June, and DPA's new Compassionate Use Campaign will prepare by educating legislators and ensuring that accurate information is avaiable to the committee. In addition, the Campaign will call on medical marijuana supporters in New Jersey to express their support for this overdue legislation to their Senators and Assembly members.

The bills, sponsored in the Senate by Senator Nicholas P. Scutari, and in the Assembly by Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, would allow seriously ill people access to medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation. The program would be run by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services.

If the legislation passes, New Jersey will be the twelfth state to permit the medicinal use of marijuana. DPA's new Compassionate Use Campaign will work hard to make that happen in 2006.

If you live in New Jersey, please visit our action center to see how you can get involved.

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North Jersey Media Group
Saturday, June 10

Medical marijuana advocates have gone to court to force the state to help patients participate in research studies on the drug.

Monica Jelonnek, a Morristown woman who has multiple sclerosis, and the New Jersey chapter of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws, filed suit in Superior Court in Hackensack on Wednesday. They want a judge to order state health commissioner Fred Jacobs to appoint a state review board to approve patients for federally approved medical marijuana studies.

A 1981 state law calls for the appointment of such a review board, but it was never implemented.

"There are many patients, and the plaintiff, who would benefit from inclusion in federal studies" of the safety and effectiveness of medical marijuana, said Fred DiMaria of Lodi, an attorney and chairman of NORML-NJ.

Marijuana has been shown by various studies to alleviate symptoms of muscle spasticity in MS patients, the suit said. But it is illegal for a patient in New Jersey who otherwise qualifies for federal clinical trials of marijuana to possess the drug. A bill being considered in the legislature would legalize the drug for use by some patients.

Donna Leusner, a spokeswoman for Jacobs, said Friday the state health department does not comment on pending litigation.

-- Bob Groves

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Williams joins push for NJ medical marijuana law

By ANGELA DELLI SANTI
Associated Press Writer
June 6, 2006, 5:51 PM EDT
NewsDay.com

<img src=bin/williams-montel.jpg align=right width=300>TRENTON, N.J. -- Television personality Montel Williams planned to tell a Senate panel on Thursday how marijuana relieves his chronic pain caused by multiple sclerosis, as he urges New Jersey lawmakers to join 11 other states that have enacted medical marijuana laws.

Williams, 49, who was diagnosed with MS seven years ago, said he turned to marijuana to relieve debilitating knee and foot pain after trying Oxycontin and a variety of other drugs to no avail.

Williams, a registered medical marijuana user in California, said he became an activist pushing for medical marijuana laws after being stopped at a Detroit airport by an Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms officer for carrying drug paraphernalia. The charge was later dropped.

"For me, marijuana eases the pain in my feet _ on a scale of 1 to 10, brings it from a 6 down to a 4 and keeps it there _ makes it manageable so I can deal with the rest of my day," said Williams. "Why should it not be available?"

Williams planned to speak at two events in Trenton: a Drug Policy Alliance-sponsored news conference supporting the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act on Wednesday and a Senate hearing on the bill on Thursday. He said he was also hoping to discuss the issue with Gov. Jon S. Corzine, though the governor's office said as of Tuesday Williams hadn't requested a meeting.

Corzine said last year that he would sign a medical marijuana bill into law.

Reiterating the administration's position Tuesday, Corzine spokesman Anthony Coley said, "All individuals should receive the best possible medical care available. If a doctor prescribes medical marijuana, we should honor his or her judgment and do what is in the best interest of the patient."

The proposal would allow certain chronically ill patients to use marijuana medicinally by smoking it, eating it or taking it in tablets. The drug would be prescribed by a doctor and the program would be monitored by the state Health Department. Under the proposal, the amount of marijuana a patient was allowed to possess would be capped at 1 ounce and patients would be issued cards identifying them as registered medical marijuana users.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Nicholas Scutari, lists cancer, glaucoma, HIV and AIDS, wasting syndrome, chronic pain, severe nausea, seizures and persistent muscle spasms as among the conditions eligible for medical marijuana usage.

The legislation has long been proposed by Scutari, D-Union, but has never received a legislative hearing.

New Jersey voters apparently support the concept, however.

A 2002 Eagleton poll found 82 percent of New Jerseyans supported allowing access to medical marijuana.

Terrence P. Farley, an Ocean County assistant prosecutor and spokesman for two state law enforcement groups, told The Associated Press last month that the bill is a veiled attempt to legalize drugs.

"This is how they're trying to get marijuana legalized," said Farley, who also is director of the county anti-narcotics force.

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OPINION COLUMNS

A compassionate solution

Wednesday, June 7, 2006
North Jersey Media Group
By NICHOLAS P. SCUTARI



I BELIEVE that we have a simple moral obligation to ensure that relief is available to those who are suffering. It was this belief that led me to sponsor Senate Bill 88, "The New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act."


S-88 establishes a clear policy for determining who is eligible to use medical marijuana. In order to obtain a medical marijuana registration card from the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, the patient must have a debilitating disease or medical condition resulting in wasting syndrome, severe or chronic pain, severe nausea, seizures, or severe and persistent muscle spasms. This includes people with symptoms common among persons with AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease, or glaucoma.

The patient would have to obtain written certification from a physician with whom he or she has a long-standing, bona fide relationship that alternate methods of treating the illness or disorder have been unsuccessful.

Once registered, patients would be permitted to possess and grow small quantities of marijuana for medicinal purposes. They would then be protected from prosecution by the state and its local jurisdictions.

While participants would still be subject to arrest and prosecution for violating federal law, it should be noted that roughly 99 percent of marijuana-related arrests are made by state and local law enforcement agencies. S-88 would be a fairly comprehensive shield.

Flawed opposition

Opponents make two basic arguments against medical marijuana. The first is that medical marijuana is a stepping stone that leads inevitably to legalization. This assertion is preposterous: cocaine and morphine are both legally available for medical use, and yet no one suggests that this has created an air of permissiveness about these dangerous drugs.

The second argument is that there is no need for medical marijuana due to the availability of marijuana-synthetics such as Marinol. This is untrue: many Marinol users complain that the drug is merely disorienting without bringing effective pain relief. Additionally, Marinol does little to relieve nausea or increase appetite, two applications at which marijuana excels.

Medical marijuana will not be the first option for treatment, but an additional option available to chronically and terminally ill patients with a doctor's consent. By adopting S-88, New Jersey would join the growing group of diverse states from Maine to Montana that have put aside politics and put the needs of suffering citizens first.

We owe it to our friends, our family and ourselves to establish a humane policy that places a premium on treatment and relief.

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Montel Williams urges OK for medical marijuana

By TOM BALDWIN
Gannett State Bureau
The Courier Post
Published: June 08. 2006 3:10AM

TRENTON
TV personality Montel Williams, who says he daily breaks the law by medicating himself with marijuana, presaged emotionally charged testimony expected today when New Jersey, for the first time, considers allowing prescribed pot.

"I break the law every day. I will continue to break the law every day," a sometimes teary Williams told reporters at a State House news conference where the Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey, which supports medical marijuana, issued results of a poll it commissioned which showed support for their positions.

Today the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee will hear testimony, but not vote, on a proposal to allow seriously ill patients to possess one ounce of marijuana and six marijuana plants, if their doctor recommends it. The state would oversee the program and issue registration cards. In the poll, provided those specific descriptions of the rules, 71 percent of registered voters approved.

One sponsor is Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Linden, who is a former prosecutor. "These people are not a threat to society," he said of the ill who seek salves for their pain. "We owe it to them to adopt a policy that places a premium on compassion and relief."

The Assembly version is jointly sponsored by two of the more liberal and more conservative lawmakers. Assemblyman Michael Carroll, R-Morris Township, Morris County, usually stands spheres to the right of Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, D-Princeton, but not on this issue.

"There is no such thing as an evil plant," Carroll says, noting medicines have always come from plants and that a decision to prescribe should be made by a doctor.

"It does not make sense for many of New Jersey's citizens to suffer when there is a viable way to ease their pain," Gusciora said.

Scutari said he felt the intent of the law was being trivialized by critics who suggested backers hoped to legalize recreational marijuana through a "back door." "Let's open a dialogue," Scutari said.

"The governor says that he will sign the bill, if it gets to him," he added.

Williams fought back tears as he described how marijuana eases night-and-day pain caused by multiple sclerosis, which the 49-year-old said was diagnosed with years ago.

Williams said he is a registered medical marijuana user in California. Ten other states allow similar prescription use.

Rating constant pain on a scale of 10, Williams said going marijuana-free leaves him suffering at level of six or seven, but with marijuana, he eases back to about four.

Glaucoma, some cancers, wasting syndromes, chronic unexplained pain and nagging muscle spasms have been said to be aided my properties in marijuana.

Backers and opponents presented conflicting polls on whether people in this state would OK use of marijuana as a medicine.

The Drug-Free Schools Coalition will also testify today. It followed Williams' appearance at the State House Wednesday to point to poll results that conflicted with those from the Drug Policy Alliance and showed public support for the idea waning.

"Marijuana is intoxicating. There's no surprise that sincere people report feeling better after taking it. They may be feeling better, but they're not getting better," said Catharina Evans, whose father is a cancer survivor.

Evans acknowledged, in response to a question, that there are a number of drugs prescribed as painkillers that don't cure illnesses.

Reach Tom Baldwin at tbaldwi@gannett.com

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Alternately angry and weepy as he addressed the Senate panel, Williams said despite his accomplishments as a former Naval officer, television personality and actor, he’s become known as a poster child for marijuana.

"What angers me so much is that all people want to consider me is a dope addict,’’ he said, "when all I’m trying to do is get up in the morning and go to work, pay rent.’’

Med pot debate center stage at State House

ANGELA DELLI SANTI, Associated Press
The Trentonian
06/09/2006

Of The TRENTON -- A White House drug enforcement official on yesterday dismissed efforts to pass a medical marijuana law in New Jersey, saying "anecdotal evidence should not drive our nation’s approval process for prescription drugs.’’


Dr. Bertha Madras, deputy director for demand reduction in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, described marijuana as potentially addictive and capable of causing harmful health effects, and said the federal Food and Drug Administration does not endorse its use as a pain reliever. The FDA has, however, approved use of a prescription drug made with an active ingredient found in marijuana.

Yesterday, a state Senate health panel heard from drug policy experts and patients it had solicited for information on a bill sponsored by Sen. Nicholas Scutari to allow chronically ill patients with diseases such as cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis to use marijuana medicinally. Eleven other states have medical marijuana laws.

Those testifying yesterday included television personality Montel Williams, a registered medical marijuana user in California, who said he turned to marijuana to relieve debilitating knee and foot pain after trying Oxycontin and a variety of other drugs to no avail.

Alternately angry and weepy as he addressed the Senate panel, Williams said despite his accomplishments as a former Naval officer, television personality and actor, he’s become known as a poster child for marijuana.

"What angers me so much is that all people want to consider me is a dope addict,’’ he said, "when all I’m trying to do is get up in the morning and go to work, pay rent.’’

Don McGrath, whose 26-year-old son Sean died of cancer two years ago, told the panel that when all other drugs failed to ease his son’s nausea from chemotherapy, an oncologist recommended marijuana "off the record.’’

"As a parent and a caregiver for Sean, I didn’t need several years of clinical studies or an FDA approval to determine that marijuana was effective,’’ his father said. "We relied on the recommendations of the medical specialists that were treating him and we saw clearly that it worked. And, I might add, it was working better than all the other FDA-approved, legal drugs that he was taking.’’

Scutari’s bill would allow certain chronically ill patients to use marijuana medicinally by smoking it, eating it or taking it in tablets. The drug would be prescribed by a doctor and the program would be monitored by the state Health Department. The amount of marijuana a patient could possess would be capped at 1 ounce and patients would be issued cards identifying them as registered medical marijuana users.

The legislation has long been proposed by Scutari, D-Union, but had never before received a legislative hearing.

Scutari was the first to defend the bill yesterday, criticizing as ridiculous opponents’ assertions that medical marijuana laws are a backdoor attempt to decriminalize the drug for recreational use.

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Jackson club hears views on medical marijuana use

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 08/9/06
BY MICHELLE GLADDEN
STAFF WRITER

There's much more than golf happening at the Riviera at Westlake, an adult community comprised of single family homes and an 18-hole sprawling course in Jackson.

One month after the state heard arguments for and against a bill that would legalize cannabis, commonly known as marijuana, for medical purposes, the Westlake Men's and Women's Clubs are addressing the debate by inviting opposing advocates to present their views.

"This is a community that is always on the cutting edge of current events and things that are controversial," Men's Club member Oriel Cohen said. "Now that we have the time, we are expending our energies in trying to improve, and most important, put back."

On July 13, the Men's Club welcomed Ocean County's first assistant prosecutor Terrence Farley, a narcotics specialist and longtime supporter of maintaining the federal ban.

While some 11 states allow the "compassionate use" of marijuana to alleviate medical conditions, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that those laws are vetoed by the federal Controlled Substances Act, which bans marijuana nationwide.

"If somebody is dying and in pain, I could care less what they take," Farley said. "But nowhere in modern science is any drug administered by smoking. Smoking kills more people than any other outside source on your body."

"About 435,000 people have died in the United States from smoking," Farley said. "Fifty thousand died from second-hand smoke. There are 200 more cancer-producing chemicals in marijuana than there are in tobacco."

The bill does not cover concerns about how to control the quality of marijuana, Farley said.

One third of the club's attending members said they were in favor of legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes prior to the meeting, but nearly half said they have questions as to whether the drug should be made legal.

<span class=postbold>See Also</span>: Science | Lung Cancer

<span class=postbold>See Also</span>: Puffing is the best medicine

<span class=postbold>See Also</span>: Science | A Cure for Cancer

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January 3, 2008
The Asbury Park PRess

TOPIC OF THE DAY: MEDICAL MARIJUANA

<span class=postbigbold>Proposed bill cost-effective</span>


About 1.4 million New Jerseyans lack health care coverage and our governor says we can't afford the solution. ("New Jersey eyes other states as it weighs health care coverage," Dec. 24.) Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, has been working on a plan that would require all state residents to have health care coverage that could cost the state $1 billion but we don't have the money to implement it right now.

There is another health care proposal that sat on Vitale's desk this legislative session. As chairman of the Senate Health Committee, he refused to post it for a floor vote. It's the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act. The program's cost would have been negated by the registration fees charged to participants. It would have cost the state virtually nothing. It would have saved New Jersey money in other areas. Not only is the proposed bill financially feasible, it would have eased the suffering of so many seriously ill and dying residents.

On a radio call-in show during his campaign, Gov. Corzine told me he would sign the bill into law if it reached his desk. He met my wife, Cheryl, shortly before she died and listened to her virtually beg for such a bill to be passed, telling him how it would be a great help to her. Considering that she couldn't move her arms or legs because of 32 years of multiple sclerosis, Corzine should have had the good instincts to believe she was telling him the truth when she said marijuana relieved her pain and spasticity better than the $200,000 in "legal" drugs the state's prescription program was willing to pay for her to have.

This proposed law will be swept off the table at the end of this session, and with it the hopes of thousands of sick and dying, clandestine medical marijuana patients. We failed to help those we could afford to help, then denied them an explanation. That is adding insult to injury in the most literal of ways. The sad irony is that as much as Vitale's mandatory health coverage plan will cost the state, it will not help people like Cheryl.

Jim Miller

TOMS RIVER

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A case for legalizing marijuana for the seriously ill

nj.com
Posted by Fran Wood February 13, 2008 4:25AM
Categories: Policy Watch

If New Jersey doesn't become the 13th state to legalize medicinal marijuana, it won't be for lack of effort by Scott Ward.

Ward has multiple sclerosis. He discovered some time ago that the only medication that did anything for his condition was marijuana -- and he resents having to break the law to have something that approximates a normal quality of life.

Now 24, Ward was diagnosed in November 2006, just six months after graduating with high honors from Rutgers.

"I was training for a marathon, and I began to experience some double vision when I was running," he says, citing a symptom common at the onset of MS.

MS, which typically strikes adults 20 to 40, is a chronic degenerative disease of the central ner vous system, causing nerve inflam mation, muscular weakness and erosion of motor coordination. It can cause permanent disability and, in some cases, death. There is no known cure.

Ward, who had been planning to apply to law school, first took a variety of medications prescribed by his neurologist. But he found the side effects intolerable.

"I went downhill very quickly," he says. "I remember going to Washington, D.C., for an interview with the State Department, and after my 10-hour interview, I was in terrible pain. I'd had a headache for two weeks, but now I was vomiting up everything I ate, and I was having terrible trouble with my left leg.

"I was staying at a friend's house, and he said he could ar range to get me some marijuana, that he'd heard it brought relief to many people with MS."

Ward had tried marijuana only once -- "I ate it, and I thought it was awful and knew I'd never try it again." But now nothing else was working, so he gave it a try.

"It was amazing," he recalls. "My two-week headache went away, I could eat and I could walk. I didn't have any pain. I felt like I was normal again."

When Ward returned home to New Jersey, he didn't have access to marijuana, and his symptoms re turned.

"In December, I was in bed for five days," he says. "I couldn't get out of bed or eat. My little brother had to carry me around the house."

He consulted a doctor at Johns Hopkins -- "who is supposed to be the end-all and be-all authority on MS" -- and reported the side ef fects he experienced from standard medication and his experience with marijuana.

"He said if marijuana was working, go ahead with it," recalls Ward. "A doctor can't prescribe it, of course, can't say this is what you should do. But they recognize it helps some people."

Indeed, many doctors are familiar with their patients' use of marijuana to mitigate the effects of a number of chronic illnesses -- among them epilepsy, ALS, Alz heimer's, arthritis, glaucoma, high blood pressure and various cancers.

But with MS, it seems to offer more. It is the only treatment that has been seen, in some cases, to fully arrest the symptoms, according to a report by researchers at the University College of London's Institute of Neurology in the July 2002 issue of the journal Brain.

A dozen states have legalized medical marijuana, but such laws have been challenged, and the federal government has intervened. In California, the Drug Enforcement Administration has conducted raids on patients, resulting in ar rests and sentencing.

Americans for Safe Access, founded in 2002 in response to those raids, has had some success in helping change drug law penalties when they involve seriously ill patients. The organization is continuing its campaign to meet the immediate needs of patients and to create long-term programs that encourage research.

Ward has become active with the Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey, an advocacy group whose Compassionate Use Campaign supports legislation that would allow seriously ill patients legal ac cess to marijuana.

Legislation was considered in New Jersey in 2006, but opposition thwarted it. Among the most prominent opponents was Terrence Farley, who, as a narcotics ex pert in the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, testified against the bill, suggesting it was just a stalking horse for legalizing drugs.

Ward hopes to help persuade legislators otherwise. He says his experience convinced him the need is acute.

"One month I was training for a marathon, running 10 miles a day," he says. "The next I was so sick I had to be helped out of tub. I couldn't eat. I couldn't read. I couldn't do anything."

The occasional use of marijuana changed all that, he says. He now can eat, get around without pain, focus on a book without getting a headache. He's active in his church. He recently took his law school entrance exams and expects to apply to law school this spring.

"That's the difference it makes in my life," he says. "Legal or not, I have to do this."

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Pot as medicine

<span class=postbigbold>Carroll's proposal deserves to be enacted</span>

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

For the last three decades, researchers have studied whether marijuana can be used to alleviate various disease symptoms -- such as the nausea associated with cancer chemotherapy.

One who is convinced that pot holds legitimate treatment possibilities is Assemblyman Michael P. Carroll, R-Morris Twp. He has proposed a bill that would allow marijuana to be used for medical purposes. Some may be surprised that a conservative such as Carroll would advocate such a thing, but his libertarian streak is definitely showing when he says, "This seems like a case when the law should get out of the way."

Or more accurately, the law should change.

Carroll wants the state Department of Health to create a registry card that would allow patients suffering from a "debilitating medical condition" to possess up to an ounce of marijuana for their own use.

Twelve states allow medical use of marijuana and we think New Jersey should join them. We see virtually no downside to allowing those suffering from a variety of diseases to explore whether marijuana can make their lives more bearable. The bad news is that this legislation has failed in the past, as it generally falls victim to opposition from those too stubborn to grasp the difference between ill people using pot and teens experimenting with heroin.

Hopefully, such irrational views will not prevail this year. Carroll's bill deserves to pass.

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N.J. may soon allow medical marijuana use

Monday, February 23, 2009
BY MARY JO LAYTON
NorthJersey.com


Patients suffering from cancer, AIDS and other chronic or debilitating illnesses could use marijuana medicinally under a bill passed by the state Senate today.

New Jersey would become the 14th state to have a medical marijuana law, which would allow patients to keep six marijuana plants and one ounce for personal use.

State Sen. Nicholas P. Scutari, D-Linden, said the legislation he sponsored was as "an avenue of last resort" for patients suffering from nausea, chronic pain, wasting syndrome, seizures and other ailments.

"This is not the legalization of marijuana for recreational use," said Scuteri, a lawyer and municipal prosecutor. "We're not talking about thrill seekers and drug addicts here."

Under the proposed measure, patients would have to be diagnosed by their physicians as having a debilitating medical condition. The patient would then obtain a photo registry card issued by the state Department of Health and Senior Services so they could obtain marijuana from an alterative medicine center without fear of arrest or prosecution.

Supporters of the bill, including Sen. Bill Baroni, R-Mercer, offered passionate testimony about suffering patients, including a 37-year-old father of three young children plagued by multiple sclerosis who found relief from medical marijuana, not oxycotin, sleeping aids or other prescription painkillers.

State Sen. Gerald Cardinale, R-Cresskill, was among several Republicans who opposed the bill, claiming it was written too broadly. Cardinale said he didn't object to the concept, but said that "a very small percentage" of users in states that allow medical marijuana are patients the law is intended to aid.

Cardinale cited an analysis of medical marijuana patient records reviewed by the San Diego County District Attorney, which revealed that less than three percent of patients were suffering from AIDS, glaucoma or cancer. Additionally, more than half of those permitted to use medical marijuana were under age 30 and research indicates the substance is harmful..

"Moderate use of marijuana causes brain cells to die," Cardinale said. "That's why the federal government made marijuana forbidden."

After the vote today, State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, a co-sponsor of the legislation, said she supported it because it could give relief to chronically ill patients who were not benefiting from pain-relief prescriptions.

Weinberg noted that this weekend was the 10th anniversary of her husband's death following a long illness. Hospice nurses provided morphine, but her husband wasn't able to remain conscious, said Weinberg, D-Teaneck.

"To get relief and still be able to communicate would have been much better," she said.

Stephen Cuspilich, 46, of Burlington County, lobbied lawmakers in support of the measure before the vote today. Using a cane and carrying a plastic bottle with more than a dozen prescription pain medications to ease suffering from Crohn's Disease, he said marijuana had alleviated severe pain in his hips and back and stopped his vomiting.

"It's a social issue, not a criminal issue," said the father of three, a union pipefitter who can no longer work due to his disability.

Opponents of the measure, including John Tomicki, executive director of the League of the American Families, vowed to fight the proposal when it is considered in the Assembly. Each member would be polled by his organization to determine their vote prior to the election, he said. "They are going to be called and asked 'yes' or 'no,'" he said.

David Evans, executive director of the Drug Free Schools Coalition, cited the lack of scientific evidence on marijuana use and noted that several law enforcement organizations and anti-drug groups -- including the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence of New Jersey -- oppose the bill.

"The majority of people who are getting it are using it for back pain, insomnia and other minor problems," Evans said. "The standards for who gets it are very loose."

However, the public typically supports legalizing marijuana for chronically ill patients, said Roseanne Scotti, director of Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey.

"It's polled as high as 86 percent in favor, Scotti said. "Everybody understands this could be me, my loved one, she said. "It's the option everybody would want."

The bill passed 22 to 16, mostly along partisan lines. Five Republicans voted for it. Two Essex County senators abstained from voting. It was unclear this afternoon when the Assembly might consider the legislation.

[palmspringsbum]

'A vote of conscience'

The Times of Trenton Editorial
Friday, February 27, 2009


We commend the state Senate for its passage this week of legislation allowing the use of marijuana to ease the chronic pain of those suffering from cancer, glaucoma, HIV and AIDS and other illnesses.

Compassion guided many legislators, such as Sen. Raymond Lesniak, D-Union, to vote for the bill. "This is a vote of conscience," he said. "My conscience tells me we should ease people's pain and suffering, and give them hope. ... God knows they have suffered enough."

Apprehension stayed the support of other lawmakers who fear a state system for the provision of marijuana could be too easily infiltrated and abused.

However, the bill calls for regulation of marijuana like other prescription drugs. Patients would need approval from their doctor as well as the state Department of Health and Senior Services, which would issue identification cards. Enrolled patients would be protected from criminal prosecution to possess up to six plants or one ounce of marijuana.

The state would also license "compassion centers" that would grow and distribute the plants, according to the bill. In short, the bill does not legalize marijuana for casual use.

The medical experts have testified for years about the positives effects of marijuana. In cases where other drugs fail or fall short, it can ease pain and anxiety, restore appetite and diminish nausea. What's more, it can accomplish this more effectively, at a lower cost and with fewer side effects than other medications, according to family members of a terminally ill patient who broke the law to find relief.

Thirteen other states have been convinced, most by voter referendum, that medical marijuana is a saving grace for those in chronic pain. There is strong evidence that it's favored by the majority of New Jersey residents, but another hurdle remains before it can become law.

Now that the Senate has endorsed it, the Assembly is again expected to take up its own version of the bill co-sponsored by Assemblymen Reed Gusciora, D-Princeton Borough, and Michael Patrick Carroll, R-Morris Township. And while Gov. Jon Corzine has promised, "absolutely," to sign the legislation should it reach his desk, it looks like Gusciora, who has championed medical marijuana for years, will have his work cut out for him in convincing colleagues of the merit and the need for this bill.

Perhaps members of the Assembly might consider this questioned posed by Roseanne Scotti, director of the Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey office:

"If you or someone you love is seriously ill, and none of the available medications relieved the suffering, wouldn't you want access to medical marijuana if a doctor recommended it?"


<small>
©2009 Times of Trenton
© 2009 NJ.com All Rights Reserved. </small>

[palmspringsbum]

Medical marijuana bill should advance in New Jersey

The Star-Ledger Editorial Board
February 28, 2009 05:20AM


On Monday, the state Senate passed a bill that would legalize marijuana for medical purposes.

It now goes to the state Assembly, where it is co-sponsored by a couple of assemblymen who "don't usually even agree on the time of day," according to one colleague. Reed Gusciora is a liberal Democrat from Princeton and Michael Carroll is a conservative Republican from Morris County, but both are backing this bill.

Gusciora supports medical marijuana for humanitarian reasons, while Carroll sees it as falling within the wider Republican tradition of getting the government out of our personal lives.

The primary objection to the bill comes from anti-drug activists and from the Fraternal Order of Police, which has been taking out advertisements arguing against medical marijuana on the grounds that "Every law enforcement officer in the state knows the error of such thinking."

That's a bit of an overstatement. Many officers believe that enforcing the laws against recreational marijuana smoking is a distraction from more serious offenses. As for the use of marijuana by the seriously ill, such as cancer patients, it's hard to see why this is a legitimate matter for law enforcement at all.

The real challenge is to ensure that such a bill has the necessary controls so that it doesn't become de facto legalization. Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts says he will make sure that is the case before he puts it before his fellow Democrats. As for the minority Republicans, they should follow Carroll's lead and give the bill serious consideration.

[palmspringsbum]

Law enforcement not unified against medical marijuana

Sunday, March 08, 2009
By TOM QUIGLEY
The Express-Times


It's not the patient in the end stages of terminal cancer that concerns area law enforcement officials about the proposed legalization of marijuana for medicinal use.

It's the patient at home who forgot to pick up the milk and drives to the market after smoking a joint.

"What if they kill someone?" asked Mansfield Township Police Sgt. James Newman. "It's just crazy to do something like this."

Newman also disputed the need to legalize medicinal marijuana when physicians already possess an arsenal of drugs, including powerfully numbing narcotics, to help patients in pain.

The proposal's ban on driving while using medical marijuana is almost laughable, Newman said. He said some people who legally consume alcoholic beverages or take certain prescribed medications make bad decisions.

"Marijuana does more than treat the pain," he said. "It affects your ability to drive a motor vehicle."

Clinton Police Chief Brett Matheis said police have devices to determine a person's blood-alcohol content.

"With drugs like marijuana, there's nothing except time-consuming blood tests," he said.

<span class=postbold>Dangerous to feds eyes, compassionate to others</span>

Not everyone in law enforcement has come out against the proposal to allow patients access to something the federal government ranks alongside heroin, ecstasy and GHB, the date-rape drug.

Hackettstown Police Chief Leonard Kunz said if allowing the medical use of marijuana brings comfort to those in pain "then we as a society should do so."

"When you jump from street-level marijuana to medical-use marijuana, you're talking a world of difference," Kunz said. "I would have to believe there are checks and balances in place that would prevent any type of abuse."

Clinton Township Police Lt. John Kuczynski said he's in no position to question the proposed law. He said he's seen late-stage cancer patients.

If medical marijuana helps those people, Kuczynski said, then "who am I to question that?"

However, the majority of police officials interviewed for this report, including Greenwich Township Chief Rich Guzzo, who was in the majority, said the proposal would create confusion and the potential for criminal activity.

"Taking something that is illegal for the majority of the population and making it legal for a very small portion of the population is going to make it hard for the officer on the street," Guzzo said. "It's going to be a courtroom nightmare."

Mansfield Township Police Chief John D. Ort likened the situation to physicians approving handicapped placards for people who really don't need handicapped parking.

"They'll do the same thing with medical marijuana," he said.

Ort said there's also the problem of the drug falling into the wrong hands.

"If grandma gets it, where do you think the grandkids are going to get it?" he said.

<span class=postbold>'Huge can of worms' </span>

Pohatcong Township Police Chief Paul Hager said he sees a whole new level of problems for police officers.

"Obviously people take advantage of any situation," he said. "Who's allowed to grow it and how do you monitor it?"

Hager noted he feels compassion for those in pain.

"You never want anybody to suffer," he said. "But do you really want to open this huge can of worms?"

New Jersey would become the 14th state to legalize medical marijuana. Under President George W. Bush and as recently as last month, federal authorities conducted raids on medical marijuana clinics despite state laws allowing them. Clients and workers at such facilities were arrested and in some cases prosecuted.

During his campaign, President Barack Obama opposed strict federal enforcement of the drug in states where medicinal use was legalized.

During a Feb. 25 news conference, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder indicated the federal government would ease up on raiding such facilities.

"What the president said during the campaign, you will be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we will be doing here in law enforcement," Holder said during the conference.
<small>
Reporter Sarah Wojcik contributed to this report.

Reporter Tom Quigley can be reached at 610-258-7171, ext. 3574, or by e-mail at tquigley@express-times.com.
</small>

[palmspringsbum]

Medical marijuana bill faces divided Assembly as patients await relief

Sunday, March 08, 2009
By stephen j. novak, bill wichert and sarah wojcik
The Express-Times


Lorraine Hunt said she has lived with excruciating pain for 11 years.

Hunt, 43, of Hackettstown, said her rare and painful case of neurosarcoidosis began in her lungs and has since brought severe pain to her feet, hands, back and face.

Neurosarcoidosis affects the central nervous system and, on a scale of one to 10, has kept Hunt's daily pain hovering around an eight, she said.

Though she carries around a plastic bag full of medication, Hunt said, there is one possible solution she's never tried: marijuana.

If the state Legislature votes to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes, Hunt said, it would mean she'd have another option to deal with the pain.

"I don't want to break the law," Hunt said. "I haven't tried to see how much marijuana would work to help my disorder.

"If I could get down to half the stuff that hurts, it would be so nice."

Sometimes debilitating bouts of pain have kept Hunt away from school functions for her three children and niece. Her therapy dog, Duchess, helps Hunt with simple tasks around the house. Cooking dinner is one of her few remaining acts of independence.

"If I can cook dinner, it means it hasn't won fully yet," Hunt said of her disorder. "But I feel like I'm running out of time."

<span class=postbigbold>In the Assembly </span>

The New Jersey Senate voted Feb. 23 to legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Advocates said that was a huge step toward making New Jersey the 14th state to allow residents with serious debilitating conditions to use it for relief.

The Assembly bill, A804, faces an uncertain future before the health and senior services committee. Assembly representatives have to tackle the issue a few months before seeking re-election.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a Democrat also facing a fight for re-election this year, has said he would sign the bill. Former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, a Republican considered Corzine's most formidable foe, has said the law needs more controls over how marijuana would be distributed.

The legislation would allow residents, with a doctor's recommendation, to receive a state-issued registration card and possess up to six marijuana plants and one usable ounce of marijuana. Individuals could grow in their homes or purchase the drug from an alternative treatment center designated to grow and distribute marijuana.

Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts, D-Camden, "is open to considering it as long as he can be convinced that it will be carefully regulated and available under medical supervision only to those with truly legitimate needs," according to a statement from Tom Hester, a spokesman for the Assembly Democrats.

Reaction to the legislation within the Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee remains mixed. In last month's Perspectives, the journal of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence-New Jersey, committee member Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini said such "reckless public policy" could lead to misuse and abuse.

Federal officials have not conducted studies to substantiate the medicinal benefits of smoking marijuana, according to Angelini, R-Monmouth.

The committee vice chairwoman and a co-sponsor of the bill, Assemblywoman Connie Wagner, D-Bergen, said she believes the drug could have helped her mother, who died of cancer many years ago. Unable to digest food, Wagner's mother weighed 95 pounds when she died six weeks before Wagner's first child was born.

"I do see it as just any other prescribed medicine," Wagner said. "When you see somebody going through that much pain, you want something to relieve that pain."

The fact that a doctor would not monitor the usage of the marijuana is part of what bothers Assemblyman-elect John DiMaio. Under the proposed legislation, keeping track of the available quantities of the drug remains difficult, DiMaio said.

"It'll be difficult for someone to convince me to support it," said DiMaio, scheduled to be sworn in March 16 to the 23rd District covering Warren and Hunterdon counties.

<span class=postbigbold>Medical opinions mixed </span>

New Jersey hospitals seem to be watching the progress of the marijuana bill without opinion or action. New Jersey Hospitals Association spokeswoman Kerry McKean Kelly said its members did not see the bill as a priority.

Susan Frost, a spokeswoman for Hackettstown Regional Medical Center, said because of a provision in the bill allowing patients to grow cannabis at home, it is unlikely to come into play in hospital operations.

"It would be a physician-based decision, based on his or her patient," Frost said.

The Medical Society of New Jersey, an advocacy group for physicians and patients, opposes the bill.

"While this bill will protect the physician/patient relationship it does not include clinical research studies to measure outcomes and utilization," the society said in a statement, calling for tougher controls to measure the effectiveness of marijuana on patients.

On the other hand, the New Jersey State Nurses Association passed a 2002 resolution supporting therapeutic marijuana use.

The resolution cited several studies -- some dating to the 1970s -- demonstrating marijuana's potential to relieve patient suffering from glaucoma, chemotherapy, multiple sclerosis and spinal injuries. The document added, "The benefits associated with medical marijuana use would outweigh any potential adverse effects."

Andrea Aughenbaugh, the nurses association's chief executive, said she expected nurses, many of whom deal with patients' pain on a daily basis, would understand the goals of medical marijuana. When the motion was presented to association members, she was still surprised how little debate there was.

"There was very little hesitation," Aughenbaugh said. "They said, 'If this works .'"

While allowing patients to grow the plant at home may cause concern in law enforcement circles, it is not a concern among the medical community, Aughenbaugh said.

"That just isn't anything we can really speak to," she said. "We just want it to be available."

<span class=postbigbold>'Anything to help someone you love' </span>

Ruth Ann Damato, co-chairwoman for the Warren County Relay for Life, cared for her father, John Damato, as he battled three bouts of cancer over 10 years.

The former Phillipsburg councilman eventually succumbed to bladder cancer last September at 76.

Her father had serious trouble with nausea from cancer treatments, Ruth Ann Damato said. Marijuana, believed to lessen those symptoms, could have helped, she said

While the Korean War veteran was "too old school" to consider the drug, its legalization could have made a difference, Ruth Ann Damato said.

"If it's going to ease their pain, for cancer patients, I'm all for it after just seeing what I went through," she said.

She wonders if critics understand the hardships endured by cancer patients.

"You'd do anything you could to help someone you love," Damato said.

Reporter Stephen Novak can be reached at 610-258-7171, ext. 3569, or by e-mail at snovak@express-times.com.

Reporter Bill Wichert can be reached at 610-258-7171, ext. 3570, or by e-mail at wwichert@express-times.com.

Reporter Sarah Wojcik can be reached at 610-258-7171, ext. 3631, or by e-mail at swojcik@express-times.com.

<small>
©2009 The Express-Times
© 2009 lehighvalleylive.com All Rights Reserved.
</small>

[palmspringsbum]

<small>Mar 13, 2009</small>

Cops: Real-Life 'Weeds' Mom Busted In N.J.

<span class=postbold>Pat Pardo Is Accused Of Operating Neighborhood Drug Store, Selling Marijuana To Her Son's School Friends</span>

POMPTON LAKES, N.J. (CBS) ― WCBS-TV Local Coverage


Lincoln Avenue in Pompton Lakes, N.J., apparently had a secret now it's out reports CBS station WCBS-TV. A woman living their facing charges for allegedly selling drugs to her teenage son's friends.

The cops watched the house for several days. They saw carloads of teens show up in the middle of the day and then quickly leave.

Then, police sent in a confidential informant who said he bought pot inside. They were then able to execute a warrant.

"A couple of us went in the bedroom and there's the mother smoking weed with a couple of the son's friends," said Sgt. Steve Seifried of the Pompton Lakes Police Department.

Pat Pardo was released on $10,000 bail on Friday evening. She said the pot is strictly medicinal.

"I was not selling it. I have stomach problems, spinal fusion and a bunch of medical problems as well as being bipolar and I have marijuana," Pardo told the station.

When told of Pardo's comments, Sgt. Seifried said the truth will come out.

"Well, I tend to disagree with her and we'll bring that out in court," Seifried said. "We have the proof that she sells. Number two, she told me that she sold and the reason that she told me that she sold was to support her own habit."

On Friday night, Pardo's mother told WCBS-TV her daughter is sedated and confused.

"She's under psychiatric care. She's been under it for the past two years. Supposedly a bipolar person goes on other drugs when they go off their medication," the woman said.

Pardo was released after posting 10 percent of her $10,000 bail.

<small>(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)</small>

[palmspringsbum]

Legalizing marijuana in New Jersey

South Bergenite
by Corey Klein - March 18, 2009


<span class=postbigbold>Day is closer than you think for medical purposes only</span>

Tim DaGiau has undergone five brain surgeries for epilepsy. After years of trying prescription medicines to stop his seizures, he now controls them with marijuana.

"I continued to have seizures while solely on prescription medications, and despite the surgeries. However, marijuana has completely controlled my seizures," DiGiau said.

DiGiau relocated from the Meadowlands area to Colorado last year for college. An added benefit for him residing in Colorado is that medical marijuana is legal there.

The problem is, he can’t come home. Despite missing his friends and family in New Jersey, he stayed in Colorado during Christmas and Thanksgiving, fearing a sudden detachment from marijuana would lead to more seizures. But DiGiau may be able to return home in the near future if a bill legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes becomes law.

On Feb. 23 at 4:20 p.m., legalized medical marijuana made it one step closer to reality in New Jersey. The New Jersey senate passed S-119, the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act. It’s now heading to the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, where legislators will further debate the bill. If it makes it through the assembly, Governor Jon Corzine, who has said he would sign it.

In an interview on WNYC public radio in New York, Corzine said he would "absolutely" support the bill. Advocates for medical marijuana, including Ken Wolski, head of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana in New Jersey, believed the senate would be the holdout on the bill, which had been held up in a senate committee for four years. Now that that hurdle is over, Wolski believes it’s only a matter of time before marijuana will be legally grown and possessed for medical purposes in New Jersey.

Another area resident uses medical marijuana for her asthma to open her airways. Instead of burning marijuana to smoke it, she uses a vaporizer to heat the plant to 180 degrees and inhales the mist. Marijuana acts as a broncodilator, opening up her air passages and relaxing her muscles during an attack. "When you’re having an asthma attack, your airways close up. You need a dilator affect to open up your airways," she said.

She has had asthma since the age of 9 and tried every asthma drug legally available. Her doctor recommended marijuana when she was 15 and she has been breathing easier since. "It’s like a miracle. I can’t say it enough," she said. "You need to give yourself every opportunity to feel better if you’re living with a disease."

She has been using marijuana discreetly ever since and is concerned that what she is doing is illegal, but looks forward to the day when she can use her medicine without the constant threat of being arrested she said. For her, that day may come soon.

<span class=postbold>Medical marijuana in New Jersey</span>

Current status: The Medical Marijuana Compassionate Use bill passed the state senate. An identical bill is being reviewed by the Assembly Health and Human Services Committee. Corzine said he would sign it.

What it could mean: Doctors could recommend marijuana to patients. Patients could then obtain an ID card allowing them to use marijuana.

Who could get it: Cancer, glaucoma, positive HIV/AIDS status patients or patients with diseases or treatments that cause "cachexia," or wasting syndrome, severe chronic pain, severe nausea, seizures or severe and persistent muscle spasms.

Amount limits: Patients would be able to possess up to six plants and up to one ounce of usable marijuana.
Who will get it and how

While the possession and use of marijuana remains illegal under federal law, 99 percent of marijuana arrests in the country are made at the state level, according to the bill. The bill would apply to patients who suffer from a "debilitating medical condition," which includes "cancer, glaucoma, positive HIV/AIDS status" or diseases or treatments that cause, "cachexia or wasting syndrome, severe chronic pain, severe nausea, seizures, severe and persistent muscle spasms." The Department of Health and Human Services may add other conditions, according to the bill.

In New Jersey, patients would be permitted to grow and use marijuana. If passed, the bill would allow them to grow up to six plants and possess up to one ounce of usable marijuana.

Patients and their caregivers would be issued an identification card from the state, which would allow them to possess marijuana. In addition, the state would permit "alternative treatment centers" to "produce and dispense marijuana for medical purposes."

Currently, 13 states permit medical marijuana. The model for legalized medical marijuana in New Jersey would look different than other states, such as California, which allow full retail access to marijuana, including vending machines that sell it in health clinics.

<span class=postbold>Supporters</span>

"Medical marijuana is eventually going to happen in New Jersey. The only question is how soon it’s going to happen," Wolski said.

Wolski, a registered nurse in New Jersey and Pennsylvania for 32 years, has witnessed marijuana’s medicinal value first hand. "Nurses are trained to see what therapies work and what therapies don’t work for patients. I see marijuana working for patients countless times in many clinical situations," he said.

Compared to other states, Wolski believes New Jersey’s bill is restrictive. "It’s a very conservative bill," said Wolski. "No state has a smaller plant limit or a smaller possession amount."

<span class=postbold>Current legalese</span>

Frederic DiMaria, the chairman of the New Jersey Chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), was very pleased with the bill’s passage through the senate. "It’s a tremendous step in the right direction," he said.

As a criminal defense attorney, DiMaria, a Lodi resident, has represented medical marijuana patients in court. He learned of the benefits it can have for the terminally ill after watching his uncle develop cancer 12 years ago. His uncle found a great deal of relief from marijuana and was able to keep his weight up.

NORML is dedicated to reforming marijuana laws in general, for medical purposes as well as recreational purposes. DiMaria dismisses critics who call medical marijuana a way to legalize marijuana for recreational use. "It’s certainly not a concerted effort on our part to get one foot in the door," said DiMaria.

DiMaria subscribes to the libertarian argument that people, sick or healthy, should be allowed to use marijuana. "It’s a little more poignant when sick people are involved," he added. "There is no doubt at this point that people are deriving a benefit from it."


<span class=postbold>Opponents</span>

Opponents of the bill believe it would permit widespread abuse. There is no standard for a doctor to follow when recommending marijuana and New Jersey, like the rest of the United States, does not allow doctors to prescribe marijuana in a traditional sense.

Data on the amount recommended for use, dangers associated with length of use and how it will react with other medications is scarce. "It should go through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)," said David Evans, head of the Drug Free Schools Coalition and a lawyer in Pittstown. "We run the risk of harming people."

Evans believes the bill leaves certain aspects open ended, such as provisions allowing the use of marijuana for any medical condition that causes pain, nausea or spasms. Also, Evans feels the plant limit is too high. "Six marijuana plants generate thousands of joints a year," he said. "There’s no reason anyone would need that much."

Evans calls evidence pointing to marijuana’s benefits for chronically ill patients "anecdotal" and believes they should be subjected to scientific or medical review. "The FDA is not perfect, but at least they make decisions based on science," he said. "We should get it out of the realm of politics and into the realm of science."

Evans is not alone in his criticism of the bill. The Medical Society of New Jersey released a statement highlighting its concerns with S-119. Among those were concerns that the bill contradicts federal law, promoting a misconception that marijuana is not dangerous; the high number of alternative treatment centers it would allow without any study on the legitimacy of its use; the lack of research outcomes the bill would create and the bill’s lack of a provision to promote "smoke-free" delivery of the drug.

[palmspringsbum]

New Jersey Medical Marijuana Bills: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bills/Bill ... umber=S119

[palmspringsbum]

N.J. Medical Marijuana Law Overlooks Many in Pain

<span class="postbigbold">Gov. Jon Corzine Signs New Law That Offers Relief to Those With MS, AIDS, Cancer, Not Pain</span>

By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES
Jan. 18, 2010—ABC News


Born without fingers and toes, Jack O'Brien faces crushing neuropathic pain. He can only sustain short walks on his deformed feet and the shooting pain up and down his arms and legs awakens him each morning.

"It's getting worse and worse," said O'Brien, 55, a disabled fishing-boat captain from Laurel Lake, N.J. "I have pain all the time. It's always there. It's constant."

But smoking marijuana in recent years has had a miraculous effect on O'Brien, working almost instantaneously.

"It's like having a valve on the forearm, turning it and having the coolness of relief through my extremities," he said. "I try to walk on these feet and I can go four or five blocks, with my wife. With marijuana, I can go forever."

New Jersey's outgoing Gov. Jon Corzine will sign into law Tuesday the most restrictive medical marijuana law in the country, one that won't allow people like O'Brien to access legally the one medication that makes their lives bearable.

The New Jersey Legislature made the state the 14th in the nation, joining Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont on the East Coast, to allow patients access to medical marijuana.

But only about a dozen specific chronic illnesses qualify and O'Brien's neuropathy is not among them. Legislators balked at broadening the law over the objections of advocates who say the measure shortchanges those who have legitimate medical claims. Doctors are divided on the issue.

Unlike free-wheeling laws on the West Coast that allow medical marijuana for anything from anxiety to headaches, New Jersey will only authorize use for people who suffer from diseases such as multiple sclerosis, cancer, glaucoma, epilepsy, Crohn's disease, AIDS, muscular dystrophy and Lou Gehrig's disease, but not for chronic pain. Within about nine months, patients will be able to get a prescription from their doctors to buy up to two ounces a month of marijuana at one of six dispensaries throughout the state.

The law, which passed with bipartisan support -- 48-14 in the General Assembly and 25-13 in the State Senate -- forbids patients from growing their own or using it in public and regulates the drug in the same rigid way as prescribed opiates such as OxyContin and morphine.

Patients will be issued identification cards by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services and may designate a registered caregiver to assist in obtaining marijuana.

There is a provision within the bill that other medical conditions could eventually be added with approval from the state Board of Health after its review in two years. But, until then, O'Brien said, he will have to break the law to ease his pain.

"I've never been arrested but I am waiting for it to happen at any moment," he said. "I am sick in my stomach because I don't want to break the law. I am not a criminal and I don't have a criminal record."

State Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, who was the prime sponsor of the bill, said legislators wanted to take a "measured approach" and didn't want to mirror California, where "every college student qualifies for medical marijuana and they allow patients to grow their own and it seemed to be spiraling out of control."

"I have great empathy for them and don't think we should be turning people with illnesses into criminals," he said. "But, at the same time, we had to do a measured approach. In two years, we will revisit the issue and add ailments. But people have gone without medical marijuana all this time and they will have to wait for another day."

<span class="postbold">Nurses Organization Backs Medical Marijuana</span>

The New Jersey State Nurses Association passed a resolution in support of medical marijuana in 2002, one that was followed by the national organization in 2003.

Ken Wolski, a trained nurse and executive director of New Jersey's Coalition for Medical Marijuana, which fought for a more liberal approach, said the law is too restrictive.

"There are a great many other patients who could benefit from medical marijuana in New Jersey," Wolski said. "It disqualifies half the patients.

"Migraine headaches can be disabling and so can anxiety," he said. "And for people to minimize these conditions proves the legislators are not medical people."

Doctors are divided about the effectiveness of medical marijuana. The active ingredient in cannabis is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a chemical that has only been proven to help reduce eye pressure in glaucoma, ease nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy in cancer patients and stimulate appetite in AIDS patients.

Marijuana can be added to food or administered in a sublingual spray or through a vaporizer that heats it just below the boiling point to eliminate the byproducts of smoking.

But scientists say medical marijuana shows promise in a host of other conditions. A 1999 report from the Institute of Medicine, chartered by the National Academy of Sciences, concluded that the active ingredients could be isolated and developed into effective pharmaceuticals.

About 73 percent of Americans say adults should be allowed to legally use marijuana if their doctors prescribe it, according to an October poll by NBC and the Wall Street Journal.

Brian Sercus, a 28-year-old Wharton resident who has cystic fibrosis, won't have access to medical marijuana under New Jersey's new law. The chronic disease causes thick, sticky mucus to build up in the lungs and digestive tract.

"In the later stages, wasting is a problem.," said Sercus, who left a job in Boston as a health care analyst in October to move back with family in New Jersey. "My appetite just goes. I end up losing weight because my body consumes a lot of calories just to maintain itself. It takes a lot of energy to fight the constant infection in my lungs."

Sercus must take in a minimum of 5,000 calories a day and is prescribed Marinol, a synthetic form of THC, to keep his appetite up. But he said marijuana, which he adds to baked goods, works better. It also helps his mood.

With a condition so serious that he is considering a lung transplant, Sercus combats bouts of depression and anxiety with the help of marijuana. Marijuana also helps the arthritis that he developed as a result of the illness.

"In college, it was something fun to do but, as I got sicker, it really helped me out psychologically," he said. "I was fortunate never to run into the law."

Curious about the effects of marijuana on those with cystic fibrosis, Sercus went online and discovered many others found it helpful for their symptoms.

"It has inflammatory effects and helps breathing," he said. "It's an expectorant and brings the mucus up. Some people even say their lung function tests better, at least temporarily. It's hard to tease out what is psychological and what is long-term.

"I do think it should be used broadly and for more people, but the fact that it's moving in this direction is very encouraging," he said of the New Jersey law.

<span class="postbold">How Do You Measure Effects of Marijuana?</span>

But Dr. Andrew Kaufman, assistant professor of anesthesiology at the New Jersey Medical School, said doctors still do not have the scientific research on the benefits of medical marijuana and determining what doses are effective is a challenge.

"How do we prescribe for it; one puff, two puffs?" O'Brien said. "Who will manage the centers that grow it? I'd like to see standards so if we are writing it, you are getting the same thing every time."

Marijuana is effective as an appetite stimulant, he said, but is not as reliable for pain relief.

"I've had a few patients say they tried it and it didn't do anything for them," he said. "A few others, a smaller subset, tried once in a awhile and it seems to quiet the pain down."

The American Medical Association has urged the federal government to reconsider its classification of marijuana -- now in the most restrictive category with LSD and heroin -- to open the door to more of the research Kaufman is looking for.

As director of University Hospital's Comprehensive Pain Center, Kaufman deals with "people at the end of the road."

"They come to me not because they are starting their journey, but ending their journey," he said. 'I have a patient with MS with burning pain all over her body and I am going to use every tool in my chest. But I have a problem with marijuana because of the way it is delivered; smoking."

Marijuana contains more than 400 different chemicals, including some of the most dangerous ones found in tobacco smoke, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Unlike tobacco, it is smoked without filters.

Now, under the new law, Kaufman might consider prescribing marijuana in conjunction with other medicines. But, he said, morphine works better for overall pain.

<span class="postbold">But he still has reservations.</span>

"There are marijuana addicts," he said. "Now we get into another can of worms with addiction and behavioral problems."

But that hasn't been the case with O'Brien.

"I go right to the edge, just before the high, and the pain in my hands and feet stops," he said. "I could get stoned out of mind but I don't want to. I want pain relief; that's what I'm after."

He said he worries more about addiction with the strong pain medications his doctors have prescribed over the years and which "cloud" his thinking.

One doctor put him on an antidepressant. "I am nowhere near depressed," he said. "The last doctor wanted to put needles in my fingers and toes with an experimental drug, which was absolutely ridiculous."

O'Brien, the father of a 22-year-old son and a 21-year-old daughter, has been honest with his children about his illegal marijuana use.

"As far as teaching our children, we can't lie to them," he said. "They are smart enough to see the difference when they see the pain I go through daily. This is my only option."

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