Medical Marijuana in New Jersey
Marijuana is a drug derived from the plant, Cannabis sativa, which is part of the Cannabaceae family. Cannabis sativa has been used throughout the different parts of the world at countless times in recorded history for various reasons, such as fiber, oil, food, drug, and medicine.
Marijuana is a combination of green, brown, or gray mixture of dried, shredded leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers. It can be smoked through a cigarette or a pipe. It can also be incorporated in food and in tea. It also comes in the form of hashish, which is a concentrated and sticky black liquid form of marijuana.
The marijuana contains an active chemical called delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol or THC. It binds to certain protein receptors in the brain and serves as a catalyst for a series of cellular reactions leading to a feeling of being “high”. As it affects the brain, several health risks or health benefits may be involved.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the health risks involve short term effects such as “distorted perceptions, impaired coordination, difficulty in thinking and problem solving, and problems with learning and memory”. Also, marijuana is said to be potentially addictive. Users may develop tolerance to the effects of marijuana and may seek larger amounts to get their “high.”
On the other hand, marijuana can be used for health benefits. In New Jersey, a bill called “The New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act” has been passed and voted favorably on. It will now then go to the Senate for a vote, maybe as early as January 2009.
An organization called the Coalition for Medical Marijuana–New Jersey (CMM-NJ) has the following mission: to bring about safe and legal access to medical marijuana for New Jersey patients who are under the care of licensed physicians and nurse practitioners. It has been noted in studies that marijuana has benefits, such as treating symptoms of different diseases, including nausea as an effect of cancer chemotherapy, pain related to cancer, reduction of pressure in the eyes in patients with glaucoma, and protection of nerve damage in multiple sclerosis.
This bill on the use of medical marijuana has actually been facing a lot of criticisms lately. Which side are you on?
Tags: cancer, cannabis, cigar, cigarette, disease, Drug, drug abuse, health, marijuana, medicine, new jersey, symptoms, tea
December 26, 2008 at 9:23 pmKen Wolski, RN
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As the newspaper article from The Times of Trenton (NJ) points out (below), the criticisms of NJ’s medical marijuana bill come from drug warriors (many of whom benefit financially from marijuana’s illegality) not from medical professionals, and certainly not from patients.
Ken Wolski, RN
Medical marijuana finally gains ground
Monday, December 22, 2008
Those who favor a sensible and compassionate approach to the use of illegal drugs in New Jersey must continually contend with a tough bunch of hard-liners at the Statehouse.
It took more than a decade for them to win approval for a cautious test of programs that give intravenous drug users access to clean needles to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS and other blood-borne diseases.
And they’ve been trying for nearly four years to legalize the medical use of marijuana under tight restrictions for sufferers who could benefit from its use. Once again, they’re butting heads with legislative drug warriors for whom any policy other than banning the stuff represents — like the pool table Professor Hill warned the people of River City about — “the road to degradation.”
Still, progress happens. Last week, the Senate Health Committee approved S119, the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, to allow chronically ill patients who are certified by a doctor to petition the Department of Human Services to allow them to smoke marijuana as a palliative. Approved patients would receive an ID card allowing them to grow up to six marijuana plants or obtain the drug at an alternative medicine center.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Linden, cleared the committee by a 5-1 vote, with two abstentions. After hearing testimony, sometimes passionate, from both sides, the majority was persuaded that marijuana appears to have significant value for easing the suffering of victims of multiple sclerosis, cancer, HIV/AIDS and other debilitating diseases when conventional medicine doesn’t work .
Thirteen states, including Sarah Palin’s Alaska, already authorize doctors to prescribe marijuana under specified conditions. These laws are fiercely opposed by the Bush Justice Department, which has ignored them in its zealous enforcement of the federal ban on the sale or possession of pot. The incoming Obama administration is considered likely to be much less hostile, though.
What encourages advocates in New Jersey is the bipartisan nature of the effort to bring change to the state. Although Republicans tend to oppose medical marijuana — Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, R-Westfield, cast the sole “no” vote in the Senate committee — it has significant GOP support, as well.
Sen. Bill Baroni, R-Hamilton, who voted “yes” on S119, told The Courier-Post that he had spent the weekend before the committee meeting reading literature on both sides of the argument.
“The people who are asking us to do this today, these are people who can’t play piggyback with their 3-year-old,” Baroni said. “These are people who get up every day and battle HIV/AIDS. They are people who wonder if their chemotherapy is going to work. I can’t look at those folks and let them be perhaps the only ones who don’t have the ability to have less pain.”
The bill’s Assembly version, A804, is co-sponsored by Reed Gusciora, D-Princeton Borough, one of the most liberal members of the Legislature, and Michael Patrick Carroll, R-Morris Township, one of the most conservative.
“There is no such thing as an evil plant,” Carroll has said. “If a doctor using his or her best medical judgment thinks marijuana is the best thing for the patient, he or she should be allowed to prescribe it. Use it as medical science decides it should be used.”
The road ahead is uncertain. Next year is an election year, and even though there’s strong evidence that medical marijuana is favored by the public, the issue is certain to be part of the campaign debate.
S119 has yet to be scheduled for a Senate floor vote, and A804 still awaits hearings in the Assembly Health Committee. Still, Gusciora is cautiously optimistic that the bill eventually will reach Gov. Jon Corzine, who has promised to sign it.
Approval of the proposal by the Senate committee “will provide political cover” for wavering legislators, Gusciora said. “It will show that the sky won’t fall on anyone voting ‘yes.’”
George Amick can be reached at gamick@njtimes.com.
©2008 Times of Trenton
© 2008 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.
http://www.nj.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/columns-0/122992231581920.xml&coll=5
December 29, 2008 at 8:55 pmVirtualTest
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Thanks for sharing, Mr. Wolski.
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Mr. Ken Wolski is the Chief Executive Officer of Coalition for Medical Marijuana–New Jersey.
April 17, 2009 at 9:01 pmjeff pinter
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I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
April 30, 2010 at 5:55 amc.thorn
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i have been using marijuana for over 40 yrs, i have never taken more then two puffs, as i don’t beliefe in abuse, only a some help with the illinesses that have been their all my life. i will never use anthing but pure and never use, any added additives. i have never used this natural drug, unless needed, and months have passed w/out the need.
i thank you for your time. today is 4-18-2010,
may i have an update to the bill