Limits on THC in medical marijuana unfounded
by Chris Goldstein - The Department of Health and Senior Services offered dozens of new restrictions on medical marijuana in their draft regulations for New Jersey’s law. But the limitation on THC content to just 10% is one of the key concerns.
“Are they serious?” was an almost universal reaction from dozens of potential patients who contacted me after the regulations were released. This time it was from Stephen Cuspilich of Burlington County, who lives with Crohn’s Disease.
“It’s awful. How is that supposed to work for me?”
DHSS held a public meeting for potential Alternative Treatment Center operators this week. Deputy Commissioner Dr. Susan Walsh took questions and a lot of heat about the THC issue.
Walsh stated that the department’s scientific research into THC content came primarily from the University of California San Diego and the University of Mississippi.
It happens that those two study programs work with only a single strain of marijuana supplied by the federal government. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) oversees that federal marijuana cultivation.
But NIDA is not concerned with producing quality medical marijuana. According to a Boston Globe feature article:
"…the institute's director, Nora Volkow, has stressed that it's 'not NIDA's mission to study the medicinal use of marijuana or to advocate for the establishment of facilities to support this research.'" READ FULL ARTICLE
Restricting any of the cannabinoid content of New Jersey’s medical marijuana was not part of the legislation and for good reason: Marijuana and the component cannabinoids are safe.
Greater cannabinoid levels, not just THC but also the non-psychoactive compound CBD, benefit patients in their treatment.
http://www.examiner.com/norml-in-philadelphia/nj-leave-thc-levels-unregulated
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