Medical Marijuana: New Jersey Senate to Vote on Bill Monday
A bill that would legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes is set for a Monday vote in the New Jersey Senate. The Senate floor vote comes after the bill was approved by the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee in December.
Jim Miller, husband of well-known patient/activist the late Cheryl Miller, at CMMNJ press conference introducing Sen. Scutari's first medical marijuana bill
The New Jersey legislature has had medical marijuana legislation before it since 2005, when Sen. Nick Scutari (D-Linden) first introduced a bill. The bill had hearings in June 2006 and last December, when it passed out of committee on a 6-1 vote.
"The bill is very conservative," said Ken Wolski, RN, executive director of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana-New Jersey. "No medical marijuana state has a smaller plant limit or possession amount. Still, it will help a tremendous number of patients here."
If the bill passes the Senate Monday, it then goes to the Assembly, where it must be approved by the health committee and then the Assembly as a whole. Gov. Jon Corzine (D) has said repeatedly that he supports medical marijuana and would sign a bill that makes it to his desk.
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Use the whole plant
Comment posted by Moonrider on Sun, 02/22/2009 - 8:35pmI hope they remember to take into account that growing plants weigh about 4 times more than the useable dried cannabis that will be harvested from them, what with the water weight and the non-useable parts (roots, stalk, stems, seeds, and what they call "shake").
The excess seeds (after keeping enough to grow the next crop) could be used as food, or have their oil extracted for cooking or biofuel; the root, stalk and stems could be sent somewhere to be used as fibers in textiles and for rope; and the "shake" could be used as a food source for grazing/browsing animals, or bedding. The whole plant can be utilized in one manner or another. Sounds like a win-win situation to me, I hope my state takes advantage of it before some other state does, we've already legalized medical marijuana and our legislature is considering a decrim bill.
I'm pro-choice on EVERYTHING!