[Vision2020] medical marijuana

[JLBrown]

Common sense takes a step forward in another state.

Judy

 


New Jersey Assembly Approves Medical Marijuana 


By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/david_kocienie
wski/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 

Published: January 11, 2010 

The New Jersey Assembly approved a measure on Monday that would make the
state the first in the region and the 14th in the nation to legalize the use
of marijuana
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/m/marijuana/in
dex.html?inline=nyt-classifier>  for medical reasons. 

The measure was to be voted on by the State Senate later in the afternoon,
the final day of the legislative session. If passed, it would allow patients
diagnosed with severe illnesses like cancer
<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/cancer/overview.html?inline
=nyt-classifier> , AIDS
<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/aids/overview.html?inline=n
yt-classifier> , muscular
<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/muscular-dystrophy/overview
.html?inline=nyt-classifier>  dystrophy and multiple
<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/multiple-sclerosis/overview
.html?inline=nyt-classifier>  sclerosis to have access to marijuana
distributed through state-monitored dispensaries. 

Gov. Jon S. Corzine
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/jon_s_corzine/
index.html?inline=nyt-per>  has said he would sign it into law before
leaving office next Tuesday. Gov.-elect Christopher J. Christie
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/christopher_j_
christie/index.html?inline=nyt-per> , speaking at a press conference on
Monday before the vote, reiterated his support for legalizing the medical
use of marijuana as long as the final bill contained safeguards to ensure
that it did not end up encouraging the recreational use of the drug. 

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, a Democrat from Princeton, said the New Jersey
law would be the most restrictive in the nation because it would only permit
doctors to prescribe it for a list of serious chronic illnesses. The
legislation would also forbid patients from growing their own marijuana and
using it in public, and it would regulate the drug under the strict
conditions used to track the distribution of medically prescribed opiates
like Oxycontin
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics
/oxycontindrug/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>  and morphine. 

"I truly believe this will become a model for other states because it
balances the compassionate use of medical marijuana while limiting the
number of ailments that a physician can prescribe it for," said Mr.
Gusciora, who sponsored the bill. 

Mr. Christie said he wanted to make sure that New Jersey did not follow the
path of other states that have legalized the medical use of marijuana. 

"I think we see all what's happened in California," Mr. Christie said. "It's
gotten completely out of control."

Opponents of the New Jersey bill often use California's experience as a
cautionary tale, saying that medical marijuana is so loosely regulated there
that the state has essentially decriminalized the drug. Under California
law, residents can legally obtain marijuana to treat a list of maladies as
common, and undefined, as anxiety
<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/symptoms/stress-and-anxiety/overvie
w.html?inline=nyt-classifier>  or chronic pain.

The New Jersey Senate last year passed a less restrictive version of the
proposal, which led opponents of medical marijuana to predict that it would
pave the way for California-style "pot centers." David Evans, executive
director of the Drug Free School Coalition, said that such centers would
make marijuana more readily available on the streets and lead to an increase
use of drugs by teenagers. 

But after conference hearings among legislative leaders, both chambers
agreed on a more stringent bill. 

As the legislators prepared to vote on the measure, more than a dozen
chronically ill patients rallied at the State House to urge lawmakers to
pass it.

One of them, Scott Ward, who said he suffered from multiple sclerosis, said
he had been prescribed marijuana to alleviate leg cramps
<http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/symptoms/leg-pain/overview.html?inl
ine=nyt-classifier>  so severe that they often "feel like my muscles are
tearing apart" and that leave him virtually unable to walk. Other
prescription drugs either failed to ease the pain or left him so groggy he
could do little more than sleep, Mr. Ward said. But when he followed his
neurologist's advice and treated his pain with marijuana, Mr. Ward said, the
pain went away.

"I could do normal things like walk the dog," said Mr. Ward, 26. "It made a
huge difference in my life."

 

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