NJ Pols Strike Medical Marijuana Deal, Patients Unhappy

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Princeton), a key sponsor of Garden State medical marijuana legislation, have announced a deal to end the impasse over the implementation of the state's medical marijuana law. But the medical marijuana community and patient advocates are saying not so fast.

The state legislature passed a medical marijuana law at the end of last year, and it was signed into law by outgoing Gov. Jon Corzine (D) days before he left office. Since then, Gov. Christie and his minions in state government have sought first to delay the implementation of the law and then to impose onerous and unnecessary restrictions on the way the program would operate.

That led to public hearings last month and passage of a resolution harshly critical of the proposed regulations on November 22. But now Gusciora has agreed to a compromise with the governor. Under the agreement, the state would see six growing and distribution sites instead of the two grows and four dispensaries that Christie had wanted.

New Jersey would also become the first medical marijuana state to impose potency restrictions on the medicine. Under the agreement, medical marijuana can contain no more than 10% THC. The agreement also requires patients with three nonfatal conditions -- seizures, glaucoma, and muscle spasms -- to exhaust all other treatments before receiving medical marijuana. And it requires doctors to attest that they have "provided education for the patients on the lack of scientific consensus for the use of medical marijuana." The agreement also undoes a provision that would have allowed for home delivery of medical marijuana to patients.

The agreement is "the best way to move forward on a responsible, medically based program that will avoid the significant fraud and criminal diversion that other states have experienced," Christie said. 

But patient advocates are not so sure. While welcoming the increase in the number of grows and dispensaries (back to the levels mandated by the law) and the removal of language requiring that all patients exhaust all other treatment options before using medical marijuana, the Coalition for Medical Marijuana-New Jersey also had a long list of problems with the agreement hammered out by Christie and Gusciora.

The cap on THC levels is "arbitrary, capricious, and inappropriate," the group said. A requirement that physicians register with the state in order to recommend medical marijuana is "unnecessary, outside the scope of the law, and will have a chilling effect on the program," the group continued. The compromise also blocks out all pain patients except those suffering from cancer and HIV/AIDS.

"Tens of thousands of New Jersey pain patients who have waited for the Compassionate Use Act to take effect will now find that the very law that was passed to protect them and provide them relief still does not protect them," the group said. "Medical decisions about this program are being made not in the realm of science, but in the realm of politics. The Health Department should function for public health, not a political agenda."

It's not completely a done deal. While, thanks to Gusciora, the Assembly has signed on, the Senate has to vote on a resolution demanding substantive changes in the regulations. That vote is set for next week and could force a month-long reevaluation of the health department's proposed regulations. Look for advocates to continue to fight to get the best -- not the most restrictive -- regulations possible.