Medical Marijuana

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 29, 2010                                   

CONTACT: Tony Newman 646-335-5384 or Roseanne Scotti 609-610-8243

New Jersey Medical Marijuana Law Takes Effect on October 1^st

Clock Ticking as Department of Health and Senior Services Has 90 Days to Adopt Regulations for Medical Marijuana Program

Patients, Families and Advocates Urge Department to Meet Deadline

Trenton, NJ— New Jersey’s medical marijuana law, the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, becomes effective this Friday, October 1^st. The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services will then have 90 days to adopt regulations to implement the Act.  The law passed in January after five years of intense advocacy by patients, families and advocates.  The legislation will allow patients suffering from certain debilitating and life-threatening illnesses such as cancer, HIV/AIDS, and multiple sclerosis to use and possess medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation.  The bill will also allow for the licensing of Alternative Treatment Centers where qualifying patients could safely access medical marijuana.  The program will be administered by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services.

Patients, families, and advocates have been eagerly awaiting the public release of the regulations and urging the Department of Health and Senior Services to meet the law’s deadline.

“We would appreciate it if they acted quickly on this because every day that goes by we are suffering without our medicine,” says Diane Rivera Riportella, who suffers from ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.  “People like myself with Lou Gehrig’s disease, which is taking my life away quickly, we need to have access to medical marijuana now.  Without the program being in effect, medical marijuana is difficult and dangerous to get. If it was one of their own family members, a parent or a child, would they take so long to create the regulations?”    

Earlier this year, Governor Chris Christie asked for a six-month to one-year delay in implementing the legislation.  Ultimately, the legislature passed an amendment which allowed for a three-month extension.  Even this delay caused concern among patients, families and advocates. 

“There are many seriously ill people in New Jersey waiting for the relief this important program will provide,” said Roseanne Scotti, Director of Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey.  “We know the Department of Health and Senior Services has been working on the regulations, and we urge them to move forward as quickly as possible to get this program up and running.”

Don and Gerry McGrath, who have dedicated the last five years of their lives to advocating for the passage of the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, worry that any further delay in adopting regulations would cause untold suffering for patients and families in New Jersey.  The McGraths lost their youngest son, Sean, to a rare form of cancer in 2004 when Sean was only 28 years old.  The McGraths’ story of how Sean’s doctors recommended medical marijuana and how it reduced his suffering has gained statewide attention. 

“The reason we became involved with this issue after Sean’s death was so that no other family would have to go through what we went through,” says Don McGrath.  “We had to worry constantly about being arrested or having our son arrested just because we wanted to provide him with the medicine that best relieved his nausea and wasting syndrome.  His doctors recommended medical marijuana and it provided Sean with relief and hope.”

Senator Nicholas Scutari, who was the prime sponsor of the legislation in the senate, and worked tirelessly for its passage, says, “The passage of this legislation represents significant progress and I expect the Department of Health and Senior Services to promulgate appropriate and effective regulations within the timeframe laid out in the statute. It is imperative to ensure that the ultimate goal of getting this medicine to the patients who are suffering and need relief is satisfied.”

The Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act is supported by a coalition of organizations including the Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey, the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians, the New Jersey League for Nursing, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, the New Jersey State Nurses Association, the New Jersey chapters of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and the New Jersey Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 24, 2010
CONTACT: Chris Goldstein at 215-586-3483 or [email protected]

PA: Spice/K2 Prohibition Gets Fast Track, Medical Marijuana Bills Wait

Pennsylvania saw medical marijuana bills HB 1393 and SB 1350 introduced last year. A Franklin&Marshall poll found that a whopping 80% of residents support the legislation, this was across the political spectrum.

Medical marijuana is currently the most broadly supported policy issue in Pennsylvania. Still, PA residents with serious medical conditions are waiting for the General Assembly to hold even a Committee level vote on the bills.

Since the issue is enjoying such strong backing from the voting public you’d think that medical marijuana would become positive political capital in an election year. But politicos do not know how to handle the numbers: They pop champagne bottles when their polls hit the high 30s…dare we say 40s. This whole range of 60-80 percent is new ground.

Instead of helping ill residents with an affordable, local health care alternative by legalizing cannabis therapy elected officials decided that they would rather spend their time banning something new.

This week the Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee unanimously (24-0) voted forward HB 176, a bill that would ban a new set of chemical fad drugs.

Legislators and the media are incorrectly labeling the substances “fake pot” or “synthetic marijuana” but the compounds are not at all like natural cannabis. They are more akin to chemical inhalants.

The fad drugs are sold as packets of incense with hundreds of label names like “Spice” or “K2.” Bans in other states have been completely ineffective as the ingredients are changed and access is readily available online.

Users seek an undetectable high. Because these chemicals are nothing like marijuana, users can pass all standard workplace drug screens. There are no intoxication urine tests or police field tests for the drugs. Tests would not be mandated by HB 176 and would be expensive to develop.

Some of the Spice/K2 type compounds contain synthetic cannabinoids; some contain already controlled substances. The truly dangerous part about these chemical drugs is that the ingredients are wholly unknown and the chemical recipe varies among the hundreds of brands.

Now, Harrisburg is literally creating a new drug problem in Pennsylvania where there was none previously. It is a horrifying, textbook example of why prohibition policy does not work.

As a marijuana reform advocate in Pennsylvania, I am getting a Kafkaesque front-row seat.

These politics are playing out on the streets of Pennsylvania. Residents are being told there is a legal high available, somehow like marijuana, and they are eagerly seeking it out.

HB 176 has been the most effective marketing and advertising tool for these chemical drugs, ever. There was little awareness of these Spice/K2 type chemical drugs locally before the bill was introduced to prohibit them.

The intention of HB 176’s more than thirty legislative co-sponsors is to quell the use of the Spice/K2 type drugs. Of course, the narrative taken by these legislators and the media to the public is having the opposite effect, causing a tremendous spike in interest and real-world use.

An effective deterrent might be having several Spice/K2 brands tested for their actual ingredients. Publishing the long list of strange and nasty chemicals in this stuff would keep many residents away from it.

Legislators could stand in line with overwhelming public support for a positive health solution with medical marijuana.  Natural marijuana is safe, effective, non-toxic and non-lethal. Humans have been using it for thousands of years. 

We have had doctors, severely ill residents, medical experts, religious leaders and community leaders testify in favor of medical marijuana. A flood of written testimony and emails has come in from all corners of Pennsylvania to support medical marijuana.

But, instead of heeding this call, elected officials are moving full-election year-throttle ahead with another senseless, ineffective prohibition. This could leave Pennsylvania to deal with another new drug problem, of its very own invention, for years to come.