Gov expresses surprise that sponsors, advocates are criticizing proposal
Medical marijuana advocates rally at the statehouse to encourage Gov Chris Christie to give up his request to delay enactment of the state's medical marijuana, in this June 2010 photo.TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie today defended the strict rules his administration proposed this week for the state’s medical marijuana program, saying they’ll ensure "distribution is medicinal, not recreational."
The governor expressed surprise that the law’s sponsors and advocates are criticizing the proposal considering what people said during legislative hearings.
"I heard they wanted a restrictive program that was going to cover just those people who truly had exhausted every other alternative. If people fit that criteria, they are going to be able to access this program," Christie told reporters at the Statehouse in Trenton.
The biggest objection is the decision to designate only two growers and four nonprofit dispensaries or "alternative treatment centers" to sell the pot. The law called for six dispensaries to grow and sell the drug with the option to add more.
The change not only "violates the legislative intent of the bill but it also means that we will be limiting the availability of this treatment alternative to only a select few," Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Mercer) said today.
In a letter to Health and Senior Services Commissioner Poonam Alaigh, Gusciora asked for an opportunity to rethink some of the ideas. "I am concerned about treatment centers having to wait for supplies from cultivation centers, about the safety of the transport of the product from cultivation centers to treatment centers, and about true access to patients."
Patients and advocates also blasted the administration’s idea of limiting the strains of the versatile plant to three, and capping the THC level, the main active ingredient, at 10 percent.
"This is appalling and will hurt patients in a big way," Michael Olivieri said, an Oradell native who moved to California to legally use medical marijuana to alleviate the symptoms of muscular dystrophy. "There are different health benefits for each strain. Some are good for sleep, some for pain, some for appetite stimulation. Patients need to be able to access and try the type that works best for their symptoms."
Capping the THC potency at 10 percent was based on what American researchers have used to study the beneficial aspects of marijuana, Deputy Health Commissioner Susan Walsh said.
Christie also defended the rules describing the relationship patients must have with a doctor vouching for the severity of their illness. A doctor must have been treating a patient for a year, seen the patient at least four times, or be a hospice doctor who has reviewed the terminal patient’s records, Walsh said.
"We want to avoid what it has become in other states, where there are physicians that are just mills that write prescriptions for medical marijuana for people who don’t really need it," Christie said.
The rules, found at www.state.nj.us/health/med_marijuana.shtml.