MedicalNeed
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THE CAMPAIGN to legalize marijuana for medical uses in New Jersey has taken so many turns it's enough to make you, well, dizzy.
To go back to January, on Jon Corzine's last day as governor he signed into law a bill that would make this state the 14th to let patients use marijuana to relieve pain.
The New Jersey distribution plan was the most restrictive of any of them. For openers, patients would not be allowed to grow pot for their own use. They would have to obtain it from one of just six non-profit dispensaries to be established: two in North Jersey, two in Central Jersey and two in South Jersey.
A new governor, Republican Chris Christie, took office. As a former U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, he had taken a tough line on the matter last fall in campaigning for election.
Recreational use
He said then that the still-pending bill might encourage recreational use. He cited California, where such vaguely defined ailments as anxiety and chronic pain qualified for marijuana treatment. However, the New Jersey bill had closed that loophole.
It authorized physicians to prescribe marijuana for six specific diseases: cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, Lou Gehrig's disease and muscular dystrophy. In addition, a doctor could prescribe it whenever a patient had less than a year to live.
In sum, if New Jersey was going to get into medical marijuana, the new law looked to be as restrictive as it could be and still work. After assuming office, Christie took time to look into the matter. His spokesman, Michael Drewniak, said in early June that the governor was impressed. He had concluded that the law was good, in fact, that it was very good.
Wow. Talk about a turnaround! It appears to have been the only time Christie bestowed unreserved praise on an accomplishment of Corzine, his Democratic predecessor.
Within a couple of weeks, there had been further developments. They involved the state administration and Rutgers, the state university. More specifically, they involved the university's School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and the associated Agricultural Experiment Station.
Under consideration was a novel idea: Amend the law to designate the school as the sole grower of medical marijuana in New Jersey, and let hospitals do the dispensing.
It is unclear just who came up with the plan. Christie insists that it was Rutgers, that it would not have occurred to him. The university has refused to get into a public dispute with the pugnacious governor, who controls how much state aid it gets.
However, the concept surfaced when Poonam Alaigh, Christie's health commissioner, ran the idea past Sen. Nicholas Scutari, the Union County Democrat who was chief sponsor of the law. He didn't reject it out of hand.
Role for hospitals
Then, in mid-July, hospitals got into the act. The 16 largest teaching hospitals in the state sought designation as official dispensers of the marijuana that Rutgers was to grow. The 16 included Hackensack University Medical Center, St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson and Morristown Memorial Hospital.
Richard Goldstein, executive director of the state Council of Teaching Hospitals, declared, "The program not only will make New Jersey a model for the nation in how to implement a safe and sane medical marijuana program, it could bring significant new dollars to the teaching hospitals to fund graduate medical education, therein addressing New Jersey's physician manpower shortage."
No additional burden
Goldstein said the hospitals already handled all classes of legal drugs, so marijuana would pose no additional security burden for them. Scutari accepted the concept, but fretted that giving Rutgers and the hospitals a permanent monopoly on what could be a lucrative business would be unfair. He wanted to open the program to private entrepreneurs after a period of time.
The governor publicly reserved comment.
But then, ka-boom, the scheme fell apart. Robert Goodman, dean of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, noted that possession and sale of marijuana remain federal offenses, regardless of state policy on its medical use. Almost everything the school does involves federal funding, millions of dollars of it. The university simply cannot endanger those funds by violating the law, Goodman said.
We were sincerely interested in the opportunity, but we had external counsel and our folks look into it, and it became totally clear we could not do this," he said.
The governor has until the end of the year to come up with an alternate plan. He could start with the teaching hospitals. They are presumably still interested in participating, if the state provides legal cover. What he needs are some farmers, with secure greenhouses, to grow the stuff. They shouldn't be hard to find.
NewsHawk: MedicalNeed: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: North Jersey Local News, Sports, Classifieds, Jobs, Better Living - NorthJersey.com
Author: JAMES AHEARN
Contact: North Jersey Local News, Sports, Classifieds, Jobs, Better Living - NorthJersey.com
Copyright: © 2010 North Jersey Media Group
Website:NorthJersey.com: Ahearn: Pot gambit by Christie team founders
To go back to January, on Jon Corzine's last day as governor he signed into law a bill that would make this state the 14th to let patients use marijuana to relieve pain.
The New Jersey distribution plan was the most restrictive of any of them. For openers, patients would not be allowed to grow pot for their own use. They would have to obtain it from one of just six non-profit dispensaries to be established: two in North Jersey, two in Central Jersey and two in South Jersey.
A new governor, Republican Chris Christie, took office. As a former U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, he had taken a tough line on the matter last fall in campaigning for election.
Recreational use
He said then that the still-pending bill might encourage recreational use. He cited California, where such vaguely defined ailments as anxiety and chronic pain qualified for marijuana treatment. However, the New Jersey bill had closed that loophole.
It authorized physicians to prescribe marijuana for six specific diseases: cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, Lou Gehrig's disease and muscular dystrophy. In addition, a doctor could prescribe it whenever a patient had less than a year to live.
In sum, if New Jersey was going to get into medical marijuana, the new law looked to be as restrictive as it could be and still work. After assuming office, Christie took time to look into the matter. His spokesman, Michael Drewniak, said in early June that the governor was impressed. He had concluded that the law was good, in fact, that it was very good.
Wow. Talk about a turnaround! It appears to have been the only time Christie bestowed unreserved praise on an accomplishment of Corzine, his Democratic predecessor.
Within a couple of weeks, there had been further developments. They involved the state administration and Rutgers, the state university. More specifically, they involved the university's School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and the associated Agricultural Experiment Station.
Under consideration was a novel idea: Amend the law to designate the school as the sole grower of medical marijuana in New Jersey, and let hospitals do the dispensing.
It is unclear just who came up with the plan. Christie insists that it was Rutgers, that it would not have occurred to him. The university has refused to get into a public dispute with the pugnacious governor, who controls how much state aid it gets.
However, the concept surfaced when Poonam Alaigh, Christie's health commissioner, ran the idea past Sen. Nicholas Scutari, the Union County Democrat who was chief sponsor of the law. He didn't reject it out of hand.
Role for hospitals
Then, in mid-July, hospitals got into the act. The 16 largest teaching hospitals in the state sought designation as official dispensers of the marijuana that Rutgers was to grow. The 16 included Hackensack University Medical Center, St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson and Morristown Memorial Hospital.
Richard Goldstein, executive director of the state Council of Teaching Hospitals, declared, "The program not only will make New Jersey a model for the nation in how to implement a safe and sane medical marijuana program, it could bring significant new dollars to the teaching hospitals to fund graduate medical education, therein addressing New Jersey's physician manpower shortage."
No additional burden
Goldstein said the hospitals already handled all classes of legal drugs, so marijuana would pose no additional security burden for them. Scutari accepted the concept, but fretted that giving Rutgers and the hospitals a permanent monopoly on what could be a lucrative business would be unfair. He wanted to open the program to private entrepreneurs after a period of time.
The governor publicly reserved comment.
But then, ka-boom, the scheme fell apart. Robert Goodman, dean of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, noted that possession and sale of marijuana remain federal offenses, regardless of state policy on its medical use. Almost everything the school does involves federal funding, millions of dollars of it. The university simply cannot endanger those funds by violating the law, Goodman said.
We were sincerely interested in the opportunity, but we had external counsel and our folks look into it, and it became totally clear we could not do this," he said.
The governor has until the end of the year to come up with an alternate plan. He could start with the teaching hospitals. They are presumably still interested in participating, if the state provides legal cover. What he needs are some farmers, with secure greenhouses, to grow the stuff. They shouldn't be hard to find.
NewsHawk: MedicalNeed: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: North Jersey Local News, Sports, Classifieds, Jobs, Better Living - NorthJersey.com
Author: JAMES AHEARN
Contact: North Jersey Local News, Sports, Classifieds, Jobs, Better Living - NorthJersey.com
Copyright: © 2010 North Jersey Media Group
Website:NorthJersey.com: Ahearn: Pot gambit by Christie team founders
