Christine Green
New Member
Trenton - The state Health Department has appointed a panel of physicians and other health professionals to decide whether New Jersey's medical marijuana program should admit more patients, according to a state report released Friday.
Patients and their advocates have been demanding the Christie administration create the panel for nearly as long as the six-year-old law has existed. They want to expand the number of conditions that would allow patients to get medical marijuana, such as post traumatic stress disorder, lupus, and chronic pain associated with more diseases.
But until the panel was in place, a review could not begin.
News of the panel and its members was included in the health department's annual report for the medicinal marijuana program that was posted on the state website Friday. The report did not say when the panel would convene. A health department spokeswoman did not respond immediately to questions.
Roseanne Scotti, director of the Drug Policy Alliance in New Jersey, said advocates are "very excited" the panel has been established.
"Now, the many patients who were left out of the original legislation will have the opportunity to advocate that their serious conditions, such as PTSD, are added to the list of conditions for which medical marijuana is available."
Former Health Commissioner Mary O'Dowd said last year when the 2014 annual report was released that she would begin the search for panelists. Acting Health Commissioner Cathleen Bennett declined a request to be interviewed.
State law recognizes six diseases that qualify patients for medical marijuana if their doctors recommend it: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's disease; multiple sclerosis; terminal cancer; muscular dystrophy; inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn's disease; and any terminal illness with a prognosis less than a year.
People with seizure disorders, including epilepsy, intractable skeletal muscular spasticity and glaucoma also qualify if conventional medicine has failed. People with HIV and AIDS and cancer qualify, too, if they suffer from severe and chronic pain, vomiting and nausea and wasting syndrome.
The medical panel consists of Stewart A. Berkowitz, president of the State Board of Medical Examiners; anesthesiologist Alex Bekker; psychiatrists and addiction medicine specialists Cheryl Kennedy and Petros Levounis; pediatric oncologist Jessica Ann Scerbo; Mary L. Johansen who holds a PhD in nursing; pharmacist Mary M. Bridgeman; and pain management pharmacology specialist Stephanie Zarus.
"The next step is for panel to have an organizational meeting to discuss the process for evaluating petitions," health department spokeswoman Dawn Thomas said. The department will publish a notice in the NJ Register, a bi-weekly publication containing state rules and announcement, as to when the public can submit petitions, she said.
There were 6,126 active patients in the medical marijuana program in 2015, the report said.
Scotti said she was "heartened by the growth of the program in terms of the numbers of patients now getting access to medical marijuana and the number of physicians registered with the program."
"More work needs to be done, though," she added. "The process for adding conditions must be opened quickly."
News Moderator: Christine Green 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: New Panel to Determine If More N.J. Patients Can Get Medical Marijuana
Author: Susan K. Livio
Contact: Media for NJ.com
Photo Credit: Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger
Website: NJ.com
Patients and their advocates have been demanding the Christie administration create the panel for nearly as long as the six-year-old law has existed. They want to expand the number of conditions that would allow patients to get medical marijuana, such as post traumatic stress disorder, lupus, and chronic pain associated with more diseases.
But until the panel was in place, a review could not begin.
News of the panel and its members was included in the health department's annual report for the medicinal marijuana program that was posted on the state website Friday. The report did not say when the panel would convene. A health department spokeswoman did not respond immediately to questions.
Roseanne Scotti, director of the Drug Policy Alliance in New Jersey, said advocates are "very excited" the panel has been established.
"Now, the many patients who were left out of the original legislation will have the opportunity to advocate that their serious conditions, such as PTSD, are added to the list of conditions for which medical marijuana is available."
Former Health Commissioner Mary O'Dowd said last year when the 2014 annual report was released that she would begin the search for panelists. Acting Health Commissioner Cathleen Bennett declined a request to be interviewed.
State law recognizes six diseases that qualify patients for medical marijuana if their doctors recommend it: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's disease; multiple sclerosis; terminal cancer; muscular dystrophy; inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn's disease; and any terminal illness with a prognosis less than a year.
People with seizure disorders, including epilepsy, intractable skeletal muscular spasticity and glaucoma also qualify if conventional medicine has failed. People with HIV and AIDS and cancer qualify, too, if they suffer from severe and chronic pain, vomiting and nausea and wasting syndrome.
The medical panel consists of Stewart A. Berkowitz, president of the State Board of Medical Examiners; anesthesiologist Alex Bekker; psychiatrists and addiction medicine specialists Cheryl Kennedy and Petros Levounis; pediatric oncologist Jessica Ann Scerbo; Mary L. Johansen who holds a PhD in nursing; pharmacist Mary M. Bridgeman; and pain management pharmacology specialist Stephanie Zarus.
"The next step is for panel to have an organizational meeting to discuss the process for evaluating petitions," health department spokeswoman Dawn Thomas said. The department will publish a notice in the NJ Register, a bi-weekly publication containing state rules and announcement, as to when the public can submit petitions, she said.
There were 6,126 active patients in the medical marijuana program in 2015, the report said.
Scotti said she was "heartened by the growth of the program in terms of the numbers of patients now getting access to medical marijuana and the number of physicians registered with the program."
"More work needs to be done, though," she added. "The process for adding conditions must be opened quickly."
News Moderator: Christine Green 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: New Panel to Determine If More N.J. Patients Can Get Medical Marijuana
Author: Susan K. Livio
Contact: Media for NJ.com
Photo Credit: Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger
Website: NJ.com
