New Jersey's Crazy Medical Marijuana Proposals OpposingViews /"Radical" Russ Belville" / 10,7,2010 New Jersey – the No Garden State – is already America's most restrictive medical marijuana state for not allowing patients to grow their own medicine. The carefully crafted medical law won't allow for patients with chronic pain to use cannabis and most patients will have to be virtually on their deathbed to get medical marijuana. But now, Republican Gov. Christie, who despises the law, and his allies in the Assembly are working to draft regulations for the fledgling program that would make the operation of the program nearly impossible and ineffective for most patients. (NBC New York) Sen. Scutari is taking particular exception to how the rules deal with the six combination manufacturing and distribution Alternative Treatment Centers that the law calls for (two in North Jersey, two in Central Jersey and two in South Jersey). Instead, Scutari said he was told two of the centers will be just for growing the marijuana, while the sale of the product will be allowed only in the other four. Scutari is also worried about proposed restrictions on potency and ingestibility, noting “We wrote the most stringent, conservative law in the country.†“I hope these rules are not so stringent that they strangle it,†Scutari said, adding “That's my fear right now.â€Here are some of the regulations being proposed for New Jersey's program: -- Qualifying conditions: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, terminal cancer, muscular dystrophy, or inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn's disease, terminal illness (<12 months to live), positive status for AIDS, HIV or cancer. -- You may also qualify if other treatments don't work for seizure disorder, including epilepsy; intractable skeletal muscular spasticity; or glaucoma. -- The registration fee for patients is $200 and will be valid for two years. -- Your doctor must have seen you for a year and documented four visits for the debilitating condition and must see the patient for follow-up visits. Because poor folks can easily afford a $200 reg fee + four doctor visits in a year. -- You can only have a maximum of two ounces in any 30 day period. -- You may not share or give away your medicinal marijuana, even to another patient. -- Marijuana should be available in July 2011 (sorry for you folks with terminal diseases and <12 months to live…) -- Caregivers can only take care of one patient and can not have any possession convictions in their past, as determined by a mandatory criminal background check and fingerprinting. -- Only four dispensaries in the whole state, supplied only by two dispensary-growers for the whole state, and you can only shop at the one you designate. -- Your medical marijuana card will have your name, photo, and home address on it. Let's hope you don't lose your wallet and some marijuana-stealing home invaders don't find it. -- A dispensary license costs $20,000, and $2,000 of that is non-refundable if your application is turned down. -- No eating or drinking at a dispensary (WTF?) -- Drug testing for dispensary employees. -- Marijuana available at dispensaries shall have a THC level not to exceed 10 percent. -- An dispensary shall cultivate no more than three strains of medical marijuana. -- Dispensary marijuana cannot be packaged in larger amounts that one quarter ounce. -- Dispensaries have to keep log books of the patients' self-reported pain every three months. -- Dispensaries can only keep on hand two ounces per patient registered for that dispensary… and must destroy any excess! -- Dispensaries must keep $1,000,000 worth on insurance on any delivery vehicles. -- A dispensary delivery cannot be made on the same day the patient orders the medicine. -- Dispensaries must tell patients not to engage in “extraneous conversations†with the delivery personnel. (Again, WTF?) -- Dispensaries ads must only be black text on white background, no illuminated signs, no t-shirts or other promo items. -- Patients cannot get their medical marijuana delivered if they live within a “Drug Free School Zone†(usually 1,000 feet from a school, or as most of us call it, “anywhere in a cityâ€. That's most of the ridiculous proposals in the 97 pages of draft regulations. This is clearly designed to prevent the medical marijuana program from working at all… just like Gov. Christie wants it. The governor is a prohibitionist and the situation in NJ will not change until he is voted out of office.
Yeah this is bad. Its like NJ did the complete opposite of every other mmj state. What good Is marijuana if you only have less than a year to live? It should be helping peoples lives. If you give it to somebody on their death bed, its not helping them. If anything it may be helping them cope with death.
Wow. Guess I'll keep getting it the illegal way until I move. Christie isn't going anywhere, anytime soon.
Holy fucking shit. I knew it was bad, but I didn't realize how bad. I realize they don't want it to become like California (I sure as hell do) but this is just ridiculous. And the "year to live" part is just flat out nonsensical.
wow and they are thinking about revamping the mmj law here in montana, they think it's a little too 'lax right now, just about anyone can get their card , good luck to you joyzy boyz.
One of my worries in Cali if Prop 19 doesn't pass, is that eventually some asshole somewhere is going to crack down on our MM laws here and we'll end up with some piece of shit like they are trying to do in Jersey. I hope you guys out there get justice. Everybody send out good vibes to us here to get it legalized. I just mailed two "YES" Ballots for it from our house. It's going to make things better for everyone if it passes. There's still a lot of "Reefer Madness" mentality out there and it's real hard to get people to let it go. The best way is to get as many people access to it as we can so they can see it's not nearly as bad as it's been portrayed to be. If we can get it legalized and the World doesn't come to an end, maybe it help change the image of Cannabis for the better and pave the way for more sensible Cannabis laws everywhere.
Sorry, just noticed this little bit of information, but it says "Terminal illness: <12 months to live" then it says "The fee will be $200 dollars for a two year membership"....can the people that have less then a year to live just pay a hundred dollars for a one year membership?
Its so fucked up. Not to make any assumptions but you guys probably have it better out in California right?
Your assumptions are correct. There is about 3% of people that still discriminate against Medical Marijuana Users in California. Everyone's hella chill out here because there's so many different kinds of people, literally every stereotype you've ever heard of is found somewhere in California=p But yeah, regarding MMJ, California is very, very awesome. The system is still fucked up sometimes, but not nearly as much as it used to be
Well at least we can get a recommendation for insomnia and chronic pain here. With that proposal you literally have to be dying to get any. What a bunch of bullshit. It's just Pot people! Jesus. Let the people have a safe drug to relax with. Those people need to smoke a joint. I agree with whoever said that all use is medicinal. Who doesn't use it to relax? If Prop 19 doesn't pass it's gonna be the "save the children" people that sink it though. There's a lot of Mom's who actually want it legal out here, so keep up the hope. If we get it legal here, it's going to cause it to lose it's stigma that much faster. I have an strong gut feeling Prop 19 will pass by a large margin. I have this weird sense that something is working behind the scenes to pave the way, because this is going way too easy. The other side is barely even putting up a fight and the arguments they do use just make them look like hypocrites. The vast majority of news stories are either neutral or have a positive slant, and I haven't seen a single Ad on TV from the opposition (nor our side either). It's like it's just going to quietly become law. Wow. Can you imagine if it does pass? It's gonna be a brave new world. I can 't wait to tour the Golden Triangle on a bud tasting tour.
Bud tasting tour=Awesome! As for Prop 19 passing, who knows. Many Californian's believe whatever they hear, so for some people, its whichever side gets to them first, not whose arguments are better. There's also a lot of ill-informed people about the prop, every time I talk to someone who doesn't know exactly what it does, I make sure to tell them to go read up on it and make their own opinion and not listen to what anyone else tells them.
Chris Christie is a fat prick. I cant stand the sight of him. And the fact that hes doing everything he can to make MMJ pretty much impossible in NJ, makes me want to push him over even more.
Unfortunately Politicians and Police are usually in bed with each other. They both want to take a big toke off all that public "anti-drug" money coming in... As Upton Sinclair wrote, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"
Can I add drug kingpins and mafia to your first sentence? Christie makes me sick. It's one thing to be anti-legalization, but to impose a bullshit law like that on sick people is just inhumane.