PRESS RELEASE: Patients demand Gov. Christie, Legislature amend and implement medical marijuana law

The Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey - CMMNJ

PRESS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 17, 2012

CONTACT: Ken Wolski 609 394 2137

Patients demand Gov. Christie, Legislature amend and implement medical marijuana law

(Trenton) - Medical marijuana patients and advocates will demand that Governor Chris Christie and the New Jersey Legislature amend and implement New Jersey’s medical marijuana law. A CMMNJ Press Conference will be held at the State House steps in Trenton, NJ on Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 12:00 noon.

The “New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act" was signed into law on January 18, 2010. The bill was originally introduced in January, 2005. Today, not a single patient in this state has enjoyed the legal protection that this law was created to provide.

Ken Wolski, RN, executive director of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana--New Jersey, Inc. (CMMNJ) said, “Gov. Christie has delayed and obstructed this law since he took office. The Legislature is abandoning the seriously ill residents that this law was passed to protect. Qualifying NJ residents deserve to have this law working.”

New Jersey passed the first compassionate use law in the country that did not include provisions for patients or their caregivers to grow cannabis. Language to allow micro-plots of up to six plants was stripped away from the legislation at the Assembly Health Committee hearing chaired by Herb Conaway on June 4, 2009.

The Alternative Treatment Centers (ATCs) in the original bill were registered collective gardens but were re-designed as quasi-pharmacies after that hearing. Now seriously ill residents must rely on six regional ATCs for all of their marijuana. But ATCs have struggled to open, leaving NJ patients with no marijuana at all. Home cultivation is permitted in 14 states and this method guarantees safe and legal access to qualified, registered patients.

CMMNJ is calling on the Governor and Legislature to amend the Compassionate Use Act to restore the features that will move the program forward:

- Stop the physician registry and start the patient registry

- Restore home cultivation (six plants per patient/caregiver)

- Restore ATCs as collective gardens in addition to quasi-pharmacies

- Respect out-of-state ID cards

- Include explicit workplace and housing protection for registered patients

In addition CMMNJ reinforces our call on Governor Christie, the State Attorney General and the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs to immediately re-schedule marijuana under NJ controlled substances coding.

WHO: Medical marijuana patients, families and advocates

WHAT: Press Conference to demand that Governor Christie and the amend and the Legislature implement the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, two full years after it was signed into law

WHEN: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 12:00 noon

WHERE: The State House steps, Trenton, NJ

WHY: The governor has consistently delayed this law since he took office - patients have no legal protections

CONTACT: Ken Wolski 609 394 2137

CMMNJ, a 501(c)(3) public charity, provides education about the benefits medical marijuana.

Coalition for Medical Marijuana--New Jersey, Inc.
219 Woodside Ave., Trenton, NJ 08618
609.394.2137 www.cmmnj.org ohamkrw@aol.com

Tom's Story

Tom Ahern called me today. He was very upset that he was about to lose his job due to his medical marijuana use.

Tom was arrested in New York City five months ago. A passenger in Tom’s car had $20 worth of marijuana. Tom was arrested along with the passenger, even though the passenger insisted that the marijuana was his. The marijuana charge against Tom was dismissed—he was never found guilty of anything. But the New York City police contacted his employer. Tom is a blacksmith at the Belmont Racetrack in New York. He shoes horses for a living. As such, he must be licensed by the Wagering Board. The Wagering Board suspended Tom’s license due to his arrest and insisted that Tom complete a drug treatment program.

Tom enrolled in a drug treatment program in Long Island. He went for 13 weeks and had to pay $75 a week out of his own pocket. He passed half a dozen urine tests for drugs during that time. After the 12th week, the drug treatment program told him that he would have to attend an additional 13 weeks. They refused to tell him why. Angry and frustrated, Tom went home and smoked some marijuana for the first time in months. The next week, the drug treatment program tested Tom’s urine and Tom tested positive. Now he was told that he had failed the program altogether and the program was going to report that to his employer.

Tom asked me what he could do. Though he works in New York, he lives in New Jersey, and he knows that New Jersey just passed a medical marijuana law. Could I refer him to a doctor who could get him an ID card? Tom said that he uses marijuana to treat his depression and anxiety. No, I explained. The law just passed and it will not be implemented until July 2010. It will be the Department of Health that will issue the ID cards, based on a physician’s certification that the patient has a qualifying condition. The New Jersey law is very restrictive. Tom’s medical conditions, depression and anxiety, would not qualify him to use marijuana in New Jersey.

I asked Tom if he was ever treated by a doctor for these conditions. He said no, he had tried tranquilizers and anti-depressants and hated the way they made him feel. A few tokes of marijuana in the evening, though, was all he needed to lift his spirits, ease his anxiety, and make him feel human again. I suggested Tom talk to his physician and tell him that he has been self-medicating for these conditions. There may come a time when New Jersey does recognize that marijuana is a safe and effective treatment for a wide variety of mental disorders. But right now, New Jersey only allows marijuana for a few physical conditions. In the meantime I suggested that Tom hire a lawyer, who may be able to argue his case before the Wagering Board.

Tom was forced into a drug treatment program merely for sitting next to a person who had marijuana on him. Then Tom used marijuana, while off duty, to treat a medical condition and he may lose his job for that. The tyranny of these drug treatment programs is yet one more example of the social injustice that Tom faced. That Tom could arbitrarily, and without explanation, be forced to extend his program for another 13 weeks represents nothing short of greed and cruelty on their part. To force anyone into a substance abuse treatment program for marijuana use is absurd, when you consider that marijuana is less addicting than caffeine. According to a new report issued by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, nearly six out of ten individuals enrolled in drug treatment for marijuana were referred there by the criminal justice system. Treatment statistics show that over 37 percent of the nearly three hundred thousand people who entered drug treatment for marijuana in 2007 had not reported using it in the 30 days previous to their admission.

Substance abuse treatment programs for marijuana use are worse than a rip-off. They can literally destroy lives.