NJ Weed Restrictions: A Buzz Kill?

New Jersey voted yes to medical marijuana for those suffering from chronic illnesses this week, but promised to make laws governing the drug the least chill in the nation. This means no home growing, no driving high and no more than two ounces per month. The marijuana will only be available at state-regulated dispensaries, which may be expensive to open and operate. With the red tape piling up, will all these restrictions keep weed from those in need?

Card-holding patients will pick up their medicine at "alternative treatment centers," nonprofit or for-profit establishments licensed to grow and distribute marijuana. It’s a tricky business since the dispensaries will need to tailor-fit cannabis strains to appropriate ailments. "During the course of the day, they want to use an energetic strain that keeps people sharp, and at night a different one," marijuana expert Chris Conrad, who teaches at "Oaksterdam University" told the NY Post. "The legislators probably do not realize the sheer number of strains the dispensaries will need to carry." Roseanne Scotti, director of Drug Policy Alliance of New Jersey, is concerned, "if it is too costly and too restrictive, people may not want to open centers."

In other medical marijuana news, NJ may pass the joint to NY. A fledgling medical-marijuana bill passed the New York Assembly's Health Committee yesterday, though its future is far from certain. "If a patient and their physician are in agreement that the most effective way of controlling their symptoms is marijuana, government should not stand in the way of treatment," said Assemblyman Richard Gottfried.

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By Sabrina Jaszi in News on January 13, 2010 12:15 PM

Comments [rss]

jaycjay

Love this paragraph from the linked Post article:

Outgoing Gov. Jon Corzine is expected to leave office on a high note, when he signs the bill into law. But after that, state officials will need to hash out details.

JenChungsBaby

Stop bogarting my medicine dude!

wingedearth

Anti-marijuana laws are a senseless intrusion of government into personal choice, and they only serve to help organized crime. And banning home growing causes America's wealth to be exported.

NannyState

There's no evidence of organized crime in NJ. Wait...

Guest

thanks. now i have the theme music from the sopranos playing in my head.

Mordicai

I like that it is okay to prescribe stuff like thorazine, but prescribe weed--- WOAH. HOLD UP THERE! SRZ BIZNESS.

Snoopy

I got the munchies just reading about this.

Guest

2 ounce a month? an ounce is enough for me.

if weed ever became completely legal, i'd be a model user.

FranklinBluth

"no driving high" - you probably shouldn't do this anyway.

smitty

Why is Oaksterdam University in quotation marks? It's an actual school with a building in downtown Oakland, CA.

jibbly

It sounds totally made up, like those fake college tshirts H&M and Old Navy use to print up.

SP

jibbly has apparently never learned to use the Google.

http://www.oaksterdamuniversity.com/

If you still doubt that it's real:

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/mile-high-cuisine/

smitty

It's not, it's a real place. I've walked past it a hundred times.

dirty hipster

Yeah, weed is sooo bad yet I could go into a doctor now and get a shit ton of xanax and hydrocodone, which apparently are A-OK

SP

This will all be moot when, at the latest in November, California fully legalizes and regulates marijuana in the same manner as alcohol and tobacco are. My guess is we will see nationwide legalization in the next 5 - 10 years.