I have this hangnail that is causing me much pain.

NJ's New Medical Marijuana Law Goes on the Road
By Brian Thompson
NBCNewYork.com
updated 12:17 p.m. ET, Sat., April 24, 2010

There's no start date yet, but there's plenty of interest in New Jersey's brand new medical marijuana law.

At a town hall meeting in Jersey City sponsored by the Coalition for Medical Marijuana, about 20 people showed up to find out how the law will work.

Some were patients, like Crohns Disease sufferer Eric Schwaglih, who wanted to know if his doctor in New York City can authorize him to register in New Jersey's new program. (He can't.)

"If my doctor remains in New York, that could be a problem," Schwaglih said.

Another questioner asked if health insurance will cover the cost. (It won't.)

There were several questions about when medical marijuana can be legally sold. August or September appears to be the earliest possible date according to Ken Wolski, co-founder of the coalition.

"My biggest fear is that there's going to be an unreasonable delay in the implementation of this law," feared Wolski, who should know, after saying he served 25 years in the state government bureaucracy.

The reality is that under the law, the state has at least six months to come up with the rules for running the program, and picking the six non-profit Alternative Treatment Centers authorized to be the first to grow and sell the marijuana. The law specifically prohibits patients from growing their own, or buying it anywhere other than at an accredited center.

Then the ATCs still have to set up shop, including growing their marijuana, presumably from seed.

After those first six ATC's start operating, private businessmen and women can apply to open their own outlets.

Tim Snyder is interested in doing that. Currently an IT project manager, he has already researched much of the law.

"I think it's kind of a neat time to get in on the ground when there's a lot of excitement, a lot of interest and there's probably a lot of support," Snyder said.

That kind of attitude has advocates excited.

"The folks who are gonna be serious about this aren't just business people, they wanna see patients get served by this program," said the coalition's Chris Goldstein.

Follow Brian Thompson on Twitter @brian4NY

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36752723/ns/local_news-new_york_ny/

It is encouraging to have the initiative make it this far. The legalization debate is not rational, and by that I mean it is utterly irrational to argue against decriminalization at the least. But at this point, I suspect there is far, far too much money to be made by keeping the laws on the books than by changing them. At my most cynical, I suspect that successful drug dealers/czars/whatever-they're-called have plenty of politicians on the payroll whose job it is to be outspoken about beefing up enforcement, not giving in to the criminals, and accusing anyone who wants to rethink the drug laws of being a pinko liberal traitor. What a mess.

this is wonderful.

Quote:

This article confirms that drug violence would go down with legalization.

http://www.asylum.com/2010/01/20/nj-m ... es-drug-dealers-paranoid/

Jan 20th 2010 By Emerald Catron

NJ Medical Marijuana Makes Drug Dealers Paranoid

In New Jersey medical marijuana is going to be selling for $125 per ounce. An OUNCE! Drug dealers in NYC who were willing to talk to the Daily News sell an ounce for $500. What is this strange glaucoma-y feeling that's coming over us? And why is it coupled with a desire to move to Jersey City?

Drug dealers and conservatives are worried that people will be taking the train across the Hudson to by pot from people who are dying of cancer. You know, because when you're dying of cancer the first thing you want to do is sell your medicine.

Dealers are worried that they can't compete with such low prices (a weed "public option") and one speculated that lowering costs would cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars, which would be just awful -- how will he keep himself in oversize, diamond-encrusted watches and pit bull farms?

The New York Assembly passed medical marijuana legislation in 2007 and 2008, but it has yet to reach the Senate floor. Hurry up already -- we don't want to go to Hoboken!

At This School, It?s Marijuana in Every Class

The New York Times
By TAMAR LEWIN
November 28, 2009

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. ? At most colleges, marijuana is very much an extracurricular matter. But at Med Grow Cannabis College, marijuana is the curriculum: the history, the horticulture and the legal how-to?s of Michigan?s new medical marijuana program.

Nick Tennant, 24, the founder of Med Grow Cannabis College, something of a trade school for medical marijuana growers. Marijuana plants at Med Grow, in a Detroit suburb. Michigan has registered about 2,400 ?caregivers? to grow marijuana.

?This state needs jobs, and we think medical marijuana can stimulate the state economy with hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars,? said Nick Tennant, the 24-year-old founder of the college, which is actually a burgeoning business (no baccalaureates here) operating from a few bare-bones rooms in a Detroit suburb.

The six-week, $485 primer on medical marijuana is a cross between an agricultural extension class covering the growing cycle, nutrients and light requirements (?It?s harvest time when half the trichomes have turned amber and half are white?) and a gathering of serious potheads, sharing stories of their best highs (?Smoke that and you are ... medicated!?).

The only required reading: ?Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower?s Bible? by Jorge Cervantes.

Even though the business of growing medical marijuana is legal under Michigan?s new law, there is enough nervousness about the enterprise that most students at a recent class did not want their names or photographs used. An instructor also asked not to be identified.

?My wife works for the government,? one student said, ?and I told my mother-in-law I was going to a small-business class.?

While California?s medical marijuana program, the country?s oldest, is now big business, with hundreds of dispensaries in Los Angeles alone, the Michigan program, which started in April, is more representative of what is happening in other states that have legalized medical marijuana.

Under the Michigan law, patients whose doctors certify their medical need for marijuana can grow up to 12 cannabis plants themselves or name a ?caregiver? who will grow the plants and sell the product. Anyone over 21 with no felony drug convictions can be a caregiver for up to five patients. So far, the Department of Community Health has registered about 5,800 patients and 2,400 caregivers.

For Mr. Tennant, who is certified as both a caregiver and a patient ? he said he has stomach problems and anxiety ? Med Grow replaces the auto detailing business he started straight out of high school, only to see it founder when the economy contracted. Med Grow began offering its course in September, with new classes starting every month.

On a recent Tuesday, two teachers led a four-hour class, starting with Todd Alton, a botanist who provided no tasting samples as he talked the students through a list of cannabis recipes, including crockpot cannabutter, chocolate canna-ganache and greenies (the cannabis alternative to brownies).

The second instructor, who would not give his name, took the class through the growing cycle, the harvest and the curing techniques to increase marijuana?s potency.

Mr. Tennant said he saw the school as the hub of a larger business that will sell supplies to its graduate medical marijuana growers, offer workshops and provide a network for both patient and caregiver referrals. Already, Med Grow is a gathering place for those interested in medical marijuana. The whiteboard in the reception room lists names and numbers of several patients looking for caregivers, and a caregiver looking for patients.

The students are a diverse group: white and black, some in their 20s, some much older, some employed, some not. Some keep their class attendance, and their growing plans, close to the chest.

?I?ve just told a couple of people I can trust,? said Jeffery Butler, 27. ?It?s a business opportunity, but some people are still going to look at you funny. But I?m going to do it anyway.?

Scott Austin, an unemployed 41-year-old student, said he and two partners were planning to go into medical marijuana together.

?I never smoked marijuana in my life,? he said. ?I heard about this at a business expo a couple of months ago.?

Because the Michigan program is so new, gray areas in the law have not been tested, creating real concern for some students. For example, it is not legal to start growing marijuana before being officially named a caregiver to a certified patient, but patients who are sick, certified and ready to buy marijuana generally do not want to wait through the months of the growing cycle until a crop is ready. So for the time being, coordinating entry into the business feels to some like a kind of Catch-22.

Students say they are getting all kinds of extra help and ideas from going to class.

?I want to learn all the little tricks, everything I can,? said Sue Maxwell, a student who drives each week from her home four hours north of Detroit. ?It?s a big investment, and I want to do it right.?

Ms. Maxwell, who works at a bakery, is already a caregiver ? in the old, nondrug sense of the word ? to a few older people for whom she thinks medical marijuana might be a real boon.

?I fix their meals, and I help with housekeeping,? Ms. Maxwell said. ?I have an 85-year-old lady who has no appetite. I don?t know if she?d have any interest in medical marijuana, but I bet it would help her.?

Ms. Maxwell said her plan to grow marijuana was slow in hatching.

?We were talking at the bakery all summer,? she said. ?Just joking around, I said: ?I?m going to grow medical marijuana. I?m a gardener, I?ve always dreamed of having a greenhouse, I think it would be great.? And then I suddenly thought, hey, I really am going to grow medical marijuana.?

Arnold lived on a houseboat over here when he was starting out - shortly after that picture was taken - it is rumored that he was a kept man...

Not sure what it has to do with anything but...

You might want to go west...

Change.org is doing an online petition to legalize Marijuana. Anyone on this site that feels Marijuana should be legal should sign the petition.
http://criminaljustice.change.org/actions/view/legalize_marijuana

Quote:

Dude, like put down the bong. This passed the Senate. The assembly still is yet to vote, and then the governor still has to sign the bill.

http://www.nj.com/gloucester/index.ss ... 35454926100760.xml&coll=8


Since the bill passed now , how long will it actually take effect?
does this mean the penalty for weed will be less since people who r sick can smoke it? and say if i wanna toke a blunt and say well i am in pain...

Marijuana being illegal is the Dumbest #*$(ing law on earth, and is based on racism and lies.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/topstor ... rijuna_pondered_in_j.html


Medical marijuna pondered in Jersey
by Susan K. Livio/The Star-Ledger Sunday December 14, 2008, 12:01 PM
Three years after it was introduced in the Legislature, the proposal to legalize marijuana for medical use in New Jersey gets its first test in a Senate committee Monday in what is expected to be a contentious process that will spill into an election year.

New Jersey would become the 14th state to create a sanctioned medical marijuana program, although the upcoming vote in the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee is just the first step. The prime Senate sponsor of the bill (A804/S119) said he feels confident.

"This is groundbreaking stuff, and I'm excited about the prospect of taking the next step," Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) said.

The New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act would require the state Department of Health and Senior Services to evaluate requests from physicians who recommend marijuana to their patients to help alleviate a "debilitating medical condition," defined as cancer, glaucoma, HIV and AIDS, or chronic illnesses that cause "wasting syndrome, severe or chronic pain, seizures and severe and persistent muscle spasms."

Patients the health department deems worthy would receive a state identification card verifying their enrollment. Patients, and their primary caretakers who do not have a history of drug convictions, "shall not be subject to arrest, prosecution or penalty" provided they possess the card and no more than six marijuana plants and 1 ounce of "usable marijuana."

Opponents refuse to concede medical marijuana has wide support anywhere -- in the Legislature or among the public. They intend to argue lawmakers ought to be concerned from a consumer standpoint.

"Legislators, out of the goodness of their hearts, listen to these people," said David Evans, an attorney and executive director of the Drug Free Schools Coalition, a national group. "But many people don't look beyond the compassion argument."

The bill up for a vote tomorrow has been changed to reflect concerns about how patients would legally obtain the drug, which would remain an illegal substance in all other circumstances.

The bill allows the state health department to license "medical marijuana alternative treatment centers," a new entity that would cultivate and deliver the drug to participating patients, according to the amendment.

Otherwise, patients might choose to grow their own or "go to the black market," said Roseanne Scotti of the Drug Policy Alliance of New Jersey, one of the major proponents of the bill. These licensed growing centers have worked in Oregon, she said.

Scotti, whose organization also was a major supporter of needle exchange legislation that passed after 13 years of lobbying, said she expects this bill to be a much easier sell.

"Legislators understand anyone can be in this position and have one of these diseases," Scotti said. At public hearings held in June 2006 and May 2008 "regular people testified. ... They said 'I do this because this is the only way they will have a quality of life.'"

Gerry and Don McGrath of Robbinsville will testify, as they have before, about how their son, Sean, regained his appetite and reduced his suffering before he died from cancer four years ago.

"I strongly believe that once members of the Senate Health Committee listen objectively to stories like ours on Monday, they will vote yes on the bill, bringing it closer to becoming law and help those currently suffering in New Jersey," Don McGrath said.

Evans said some people may attest to marijuana's nausea- and pain-curbing abilities, but this is no substitute for Food and Drug Administration approval. "They may feel better, but you have to make sure it is safe. There are no proper studies about dose, how many times do you take it," Evans said. "Once this bill is approved, you can smoke your head off all day long."

The FDA has approved Marinol, a pill made from a synthetic version of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana found to relieve nausea and vomiting. "This is approved for medical treatment, so what's the problem?" John Tomicki, executive director of the League of American Families. "I doubt whether this bill will ever see daylight."

The movement to expand medical marijuana laws has been slow but steady, activists say.

Michigan voters recently approved a ballot initiative in November permitting a medical marijuana program, becoming the 13th state to legalize the practice.

Medical marijuana programs are also legal in Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington

Susan Livio may be reached at slivio@starledger.com.