Pubdate: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 Source: Burlington County Times (NJ) Copyright: 2013 Calkins Newspapers. Inc. Contact: https://phillyburbs-dot-com.bloxcms-ny1.com/contact/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2128 Author: Terry Stern MEDICAL MARIJUANA DELAYS PUNISH PATIENTS Gov. Chris Christie plays politics in delaying the state's medical marijuana program. He fights to keep children from being able to have edible forms of the medicine. He fights to restrict the kinds of medical cannabis permitted. He fights to restrict the number of distribution points and greatly restricts the licenses he grants to grow. More of our licensees are cronies or tied to the pharmaceutical industry than in any other state. Medical cannabis patients don't count these delays in months or years. They count them in seizures, unhealthy pounds dropped, PTSD suicides, days of vomiting, intractable pain and crippling spasms. They count them in addictions to legal painkillers and AIDS and cancer deaths. Clearly, the governor does not understand this. The only way to consider delaying medical treatments is to deny the seriousness of medical cannabis patients' illnesses and the efficacy of cannabis treatments. In insisting on this ill-informed view, he defaults on his responsibility. As governor, the Compassionate Medical Marijuana Use Act ostensibly binds him to respect both. Terry Stern Pennsauken - --- MAP posted-by: Matt