The Lack of Science Behind New Jersey's Medical Cannabis Laws

As New Jersey continues to revise its medical cannabis laws, the feasibility of implementing the law may be impossible. The Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) claims that they are following science but do not site a single scientific study. DHSS claims that the law is similar to the program at the University of Mississippi (UMiss), justifying the proposed 10% THC limit in Cannabis plants grown for New Jersey’s program. It’s true that the UMiss program doesn’t usually provide Cannabis cigarettes with more than 10% THC. However, the New Jersey regulators leave out the reasoning behind this. The reason UMiss doesn’t supply Cannabis cigarettes with high THC content is because the mixture will get stuck in the cigarette rolling machine.

"The cigarettes are not made here, unless there's a requirement for high-potency material, which doesn't lend itself to mechanized production of cigarettes, because it gets resinous and gums the machine. We use a small hand roller for that," says ElSohly. "But if we need them in bulk, like say 60,000 cigarettes, we have a subcontract with a company in North Carolina."

Other differences exist between New Jersey’s draft regulations and the Federal program. For instance, under the Federal program Dr. Elsohly can process Cannabis into cigarettes, patches, suppositories, etc. in order to fit specific patient needs. Dr.Elsohly also grows high potency varieties for research and in doing so has discovered new cannabinoids. Every government sponsored Medical Cannabis program in the world allows the Cannabis plant to be homogenized and thus standardized.

The New Jersey DHSS is ignoring logic, it’s practically science fiction spoken as health policy. For instance, the NJ DHSS failed to acknowledge that THC content can vary within varieties, and even within a plant itself. When asked what the producer would do if the crop tested over 10% THC, Dr. Walsh of DHSS responded, “The plants would have to be destroyed.” This leaves the ATC (Alternative Treatment Center) grower in the position of great financial risk and patients with limited supply as it would take another three month cycle to produce a replacement crop of what had been destroyed.

The cannabis plant does not produce uniform amounts of cannabinoids in its flowers. This is basic high school biology! Light helps plants grow, and the parts of a plant that are exposed to more light, on the top of the plant, become more developed than the fruits on the lower branches. So, in theory a Cannabis plant could have 15% THC on the very top flowers but a mere 3% level on the lower branches.

"But there's obviously a physical limit to how much THC the plant can produce," said Dr. ElSohly. Implying that high potency varieties are rare.

According to Dr.Walsh of NJ DHSS, under New Jerseys proposed regulations a plant that has 10% THC flowers would have to be destroyed immediately.In the rest of the world, I refer to as 'reality', the plant is ground up and a Cannabis mixture is prepared at the desired THC level. If the material is going to be processed then there is no need for THC limits, testing each plant, or destroying potent medicine. The desired THC level can be reached by mixing low and high potency plant materials. This is also how GW pharmaceuticals makes the Cannabis spray, Sativex. Sativex is a mixture of two cannabis varieties that have been processed and standardized.

The plant material needs to be tested in large batches like the University of Mississippi and every other Medical Cannabis program in the world. No ATC will be able to test each individual plant or small numbers of plants. The costs alone of setting up and running a lab in New Jersey would be in the millions. Furthermore, New Jersey can’t protect the ATCs or associated laboratories from the blunt force of the DEA.

Statement's like Dr.Walsh's, imply that under the regulations being proposed in New Jersey, that every plant would need to be tested. This is not only extremely inefficient and wasteful but it also demonstrates  ignorance when it comes to regulating medicines and plant products.

"The market demands higher potency all the time, and the higher-potency marijuana is more expensive and creates less bulk," Dr. ElSohly said in the Memphis Flyer.

No other regulations exist like this. Even opium has less regulations than Cannabis. Is every poppy plant from Tanzania or Afghanistan tested for opiate levels before it’s shipped to the U.S.? No, of course not. Raw opium flowers are shipped in pressed bricks to laboratories for processing before it's delivered to hospitals and pharmaceutical companies.