2009 Medical cannabis rally (by C. Freitag)
Plans to make amendments to the state’s new medical marijuana law are getting serious. In an interview with the Philadelphia Weekly NJ state Senator Nicholas Scutari said that some extension to the law’s implementation is likely to occur. Patients anticipating legal access this year would have to wait until mid-2011.
"I've given it some consideration and I am probably going to give them some additional time, but not [the six to nine months] they are asking for," Scutari tells PW. "I just think it makes sense." Read the full PW article with more quotes
But in a phone call yesterday afternoon DHSS Deputy Commissioner Dr. Susan Walsh sought to assure me that progress was being made, internally, on the medical marijuana program. “We are working on it. I have weekly staff meetings and get reports on it.”
Dr. Walsh went on to deliver a statement very similar to what a CMMNJ Board member received via email and apologized for giving a few, what she termed as, “non answers.”
Governor Christie and the NJ Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) have asked for a 6-12 month delay for putting the law into place.
Extending the implementation deadline would require an amendment to be passed in the Senate and the Assembly in the next two weeks.
Additional changes to the most restrictive medical marijuana law in the nation are also being proposed along with the delay.
The full language of any proposed amendment legislation is not available yet.
The arguments being presented recently to legislators from NJ DHSS Commissioner and the Governor’s Counsel have not yet been shared with advocacy groups or the public.
Senator Scutari sponsored the medical marijuana bill in New Jersey and has since become one of its most vocal supporters. Scutari and Senator Raymond Lesniak, called on the Governor to pardon John Wilson, an MS patient who was convicted of cultivating cannabis.
Advocacy groups are appealing for the medical cannabis law to be put into practice this year, as the language requires.
The Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey and NORML-NJ are holding a press conference in Jersey City on June 17th at 1PM in front of City Hall. Read Media Advisory
More about medical marijuana in New Jersey at www.cmmnj.org
Read the full text of NJ's medical marijuana law http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2008/Bills/PL09/307_.HTM
by Chris Goldstein, the Philadephia NORML Examiner. Chris is on the Board of Directors at CMMNJ. He may be contacted through media@cmmnj.org
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