Pubdate: Sat, 17 Aug 2013
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2013 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Kate Zernike

CHRISTIE AMENDS MEDICAL MARIJUANA RESTRICTIONS

Trying to straddle a potentially dangerous social issue, Gov. Chris 
Christie agreed on Friday to expand New Jersey's medical marijuana 
program, but stopped short of what parents of children with 
life-threatening diseases say is necessary to improve their access to 
treatment.

Mr. Christie would allow medical marijuana dispensaries to provide 
edible marijuana, but only for children. Parents say the edible 
product provides the benefits but not the high of marijuana, and 
makes it easier to treat children who are too impaired to smoke. Mr. 
Christie also eliminated a part of the law that limits to three the 
number of strains of marijuana that dispensaries can cultivate.

But the Legislature had approved a bill aligning regulations for 
children with what is required for adults in the program, which is 
already considered the nation's strictest. Children, like adults, 
could be prescribed marijuana by a doctor registered with the state, 
under the proposal.

Mr. Christie vetoed that part of the legislation, keeping in place 
the requirement that parents have letters of support from a 
pediatrician and a psychiatrist as well as a prescription from a 
doctor registered in the program. Of about 250 doctors on the state 
registry, 2 are pediatricians and 16 are psychiatrists.

Parents who had lobbied for the bill said that requirement would make 
it harder to obtain medical marijuana because pediatricians and 
psychiatrists often know so little about the program that they do not 
want to support it, and finding a registered doctor willing to 
prescribe to a child is already difficult.

"It's forcing people to shop around for physicians, and parents of 
sick kids don't have time for that," said Meghan Wilson, whose 
2-year-old daughter, Vivian, suffers from Dravet syndrome, which 
causes prolonged seizures so severe that she cannot be in the 
sunshine or near brightly colored objects. "It's putting undue burden 
on parents who are already at their wits' end," she said.

Vivian sleeps wearing an alarm that monitors her heart rate and 
oxygen levels. Parents in other states have found that a particular 
strain of medical marijuana greatly reduces the frequency and 
duration of seizures for children with Dravet's.

Mr. Christie, a Republican who is considered a leading contender for 
his party's presidential nomination in 2016, was pushed to make his 
decision in the national spotlight this week after Vivian's father, 
Brian, confronted him during what was supposed to be a victory lap at 
a diner in Scotch Plains, N.J., where the mayor was endorsing the 
governor's bid for re-election.

Mr. Christie's motorcade arrived to bright pink signs and several 
dozen people urging him to sign the bill expanding medical marijuana. 
Mr. Wilson, who lives there, had written "father and voter" on his 
T-shirt. He waited in the diner for three hours to confront Mr. 
Christie - saying he would have brought Vivian, but she was sick.

Mr. Christie largely ignored the signs and Mr. Wilson while he posed 
for photos. When Mr. Wilson finally got his chance to ask the 
governor whether he would sign the bill, Mr. Christie replied, "These 
are complicated issues."

As Mr. Wilson persisted, Mr. Christie replied, "Listen, I know you 
think it's simple. It's simple for you, it's not simple for me. I've 
read everything that you have put in front of me and I'll have a 
decision by Friday. I wish the best for you, your daughter and your 
family, and I'm going to do what I think is best for the people of 
the state, all the people of the state."

As the governor turned away, Mr. Wilson pleaded, in a scene captured 
on widely disseminated news videos, "Please don't let my daughter 
die, Governor."

Mr. Christie inherited the medical marijuana program from his 
predecessor, Jon S. Corzine, who signed the law authorizing it in the 
waning hours of his administration. Mr. Christie has made no secret 
of disliking it. His health department spent two years coming up with 
regulations restricting how and where medical marijuana could be 
provided, and only one dispensary has opened so far. The governor 
waited nearly two months to decide what to do about the bill on 
medical marijuana for children, which would have become law on Monday 
if he had not acted on it.

"He feels it will reflect poorly on him in the presidential election 
because if he signs it people will say, 'He's the man who gave pot to 
tots,' " said Ms. Wilson, who manages clinical drug trials for a 
large pharmaceutical company. "I think it will reflect poorly if he 
doesn't sign it because people will say, 'You're the guy who wanted 
that kid to die.' "

Mr. Christie said he was "acting with the belief that parents, and 
not government regulators, are best suited to decide how to care for 
their children" - a line that could signal reassurance to 
conservative voters, who may dislike medical marijuana but dislike 
government control even more, especially when it comes to how they 
raise their children.

The governor's refusal to expand the program was criticized by 
legislators, who had approved the measure with a large, bipartisan majority.

"It's unfortunate that these families were forced to wait nearly two 
months while this legislation languished on the governor's desk, and 
now he is prolonging their suffering by telling them they must wait 
even longer," Assemblywoman Linda Stender, who sponsored the bill, said.

Other states allow medical marijuana for children, and parents swear 
by its power to relieve their children's debilitating conditions. But 
it has not been without controversy.

In California, the first state to legalize medical marijuana, doctors 
have reported concerns about the high number of prescriptions to 
children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, when the 
active ingredient in marijuana can, some say, aggravate its symptoms.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom