Pubdate: Sun, 17 Jan 2010
Source: Gloucester County Times (NJ)
Weboage: http://mapinc.org/url/j0LOoBO0
Copyright: 2010 Gloucester County Times
Contact:  http://www.nj.com/gloucester/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1153
Author: Lucas K. Murray
Cited: Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey http://www.cmmnj.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - U.S.)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW READY TO BURN IN NEW JERSEY

This week Gov. Jon Corzine is expected to sign into law a measure 
that will allow for the use of marijuana as prescribed by physicians. 
It will also give the Garden State a green crop of another kind D 
legal weed, making it the 14th state in the nation to legalize the 
drug for medicinal purposes.

Does it mean that New Jersey is going to plunge deep into the throes 
of reefer madness?

Those who have championed the cause, like Ken Wolski, Chief Executive 
Officer of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana-New Jersey, say that's 
not likely.

"It is of my professional opinion that marijuana is a safe, 
therapeutic agent for a wide variety of symptoms, diseases and 
conditions," Wolski said. "No drug is without risks. There is a 
slight potential for addiction, but it's certainly less addictive 
than many drugs currently prescribed by doctors."

He compared to the addiction factor on the level of that of caffeine. 
He claims many times the dangers associated with it are incurred by 
naive users.

"No one has ever died from an overdose of marijuana, so in that sense 
it's a lot less dangerous than something that's over the counter," Wolski said.

Earlier this month, both the Assembly and the Senate passed the New 
Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act with the Assembly 
passing the bill 48-14, and the Senate 25-13. Corzine's action this 
week would make New Jersey the 14th state to institute similar 
measures. Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, 
Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington previously approved legalizing 
prescription marijuana.

Under New Jersey's legislation, strict limits would be placed on just 
who can possess the previously illegal substance.

Only residents of the state will be permitted to obtain it and only 
through one of six "alternative treatment centers." They will have to 
secure an ID card issued by the state Department of Health after 
being recommended by a physician.

Conditions that make a patient eligible to receive medical marijuana 
include HIV/AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, Lou Gehrig's disease and multiple 
sclerosis.

State Sen. Stephen Sweeney praised Sen. Nicholas Scutari, the bill's 
Senate co-sponsor for what he called "tenacious efforts to have the 
bill clear hurdles to make it to Corzine's desk. He lent his name as 
well as one of the bill's sponsors. "The important thing is that 
people who are suffering will actually be able to get some relief," 
Sweeney said. "It's actually a bill of compassion for people who are 
gravely ill or struggling with enormous pain."

"We're very grateful that we got the legislation through," Wolski 
said. "It's very important that New Jersey recognizes that marijuana 
is medicine. The feds have been denying it for 40 years and has been 
denying it to this day."

However, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has a different 
take on taking cannabis for health's sake. The DEA's Web site views 
marijuana as a "dangerous, addictive drug that poses significant 
heath threat to users" and that it "has no medical value that can't 
be met more effectively by legal drugs."

Furthermore the DEA claims medical marijuana proponents use the term 
as a "red herring in effort to advocate broader legalization of drug use."

Dr. Craig Wax, family practitioner out of Mullica Hill, who also 
hosts the weekly medical radio show and Webcast "Your Health 
Matters," concurred with a 2008 American College of Physicians report 
that advocated rigorous scientific evaluation of the potential 
therapeutic benefits of medical marijuana.

"I'm not for the method of smoking any compound or substance as a 
medical treatment because the side products when you burn something 
in the presence of oxygen are somewhat unpredictable," Wax said.

He added that more than 200 potentially toxic substances like cyanide 
and arsenic are released when tobacco is smoked. Plant compounds, he 
explained, whether it be marijuana or tobacco can worsen or cause 
vascular disease.

For Wax, the question for society is what are acceptable measures to 
help with pain relief or reduce symptoms of a chronic health problem.

"I think that it's too risky and not a controlled application of one 
medicinal substance. It's tempting to think that something that 
people use for illegal recreation would be useful in a medicinal 
context, but at what price with all that's known and what's unknown?" 
Wax asked.

A bigger question, he agreed, might be the impression its use leaves 
on young people.

"At one point in time, someone deemed it should be illegal," Wax said.

Statistically, the percentage of high school seniors who have used 
marijuana in their lifetime is on a downward swing. Just a decade ago 
nearly half of all seniors said they used the drug.

That number for 2008 was only about 43 percent, according to numbers 
from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health conducted by the 
National Institute on Drug Abuse. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake