As a gubernatorial candidate Republican Chris Christie began to endorse the concept of medical cannabis. Now as the elected Governor of New Jersey he voiced his support for the state’s new medical marijuana law "as written" in a statement released yesterday and reported by NJ.com.
That’s welcome news to potential patients in the program. Stephen Cuspilich of Burlington County who suffers from Crohn’s Disease spoke to the Philadelphia NORML Examiner today. “I need it to eat. I don’t get to even feel a high. It takes just few puffs on the vaporizer. The pain and the nausea, they get suppressed right away.”
Potential patients around New Jersey were upset by news this week that the Christie administration was seeking a 6 to 12 month delay in implementing the medical marijuana law.
Along with Crohn’s, a degenerative intestinal condition, Cuspilich lives with other medical conditions that leave him in severe pain. He is currently prescribed narcotic, opiate-based, pain medication.
In the past Stephen used the underground market to find relief with cannabis but he was arrested for minor possession in 2007. The NJ native then became active in the effort to pass the medical marijuana law by attending monthly meetings of The Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey (CMMNJ). Cuspilich was one of the many potential patients who testified before committee hearings at the state legislature.
“The doctors are great and they have tried everything to help me. I’ve had so many surgeries…but the marijuana is the one thing that really does help and I’ve been honest about that. I don’t want to take all these pills anymore,” he said this week.
Crohn’s Disease is a qualifying condition under the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act that became law in January.
Stephen and hundreds of other potentially qualifying medical marijuana patients reported to local advocates that they have been having private conversations with their doctors already. Many residents of New Jersey living with HIV, MS, cancer or other conditions are quietly waiting for the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) to create the regulations for implementing the law.
Patient care groups, such as the New Jersey State Nurses Association and Hospice and Palliative care networks were vocally supportive of the law. These and other medical professionals have also been waiting to see the DHSS regulations for cannabis therapy.
Dr. Poonam Alaigh, the new commissioner at DHSS, called the medical marijuana program a “top priority” yesterday during testimony in Trenton this week.
Medical marijuana advocates point out that with the support of the Governor Christie and the ranking given by Dr. Alaigh there should be no cause for any delay in putting the law into place. As passed, the law stated that draft regulations are to be issued by July.
More information about medical marijuana in New Jersey is available at www.cmmnj.org
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Comments
There is now enough research to fill a box car that has been published in Medical Journals from the AMA and all over the world ~ Yet even Hillary Clinton recently told a Medical Marijuana Patient in a wheel chair that she (Hillary) knew of no research that supported the effacacy of Cannabis and then she turned her back on the patient and a room of supporters and walked out ~ Under the administration of President Bill Clinton many more were prosecuted than even under President Bush ~ Yet later out of office President Clinton told Rolling Stone Magazine that the laws against Cannabis needed to be reformed ~ Same with President Obama and also Persident Carter~ What happens to these people while they sit in positions of power? ~
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