Pubdate: Thu, 12 Dec 2013
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
Copyright: 2013 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc
Contact:  http://www.philly.com/inquirer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/340
Author: Jan Hefler

N.J. BILL TO WIDEN MEDICAL-POT LAW

Proposal Would Let Child Patients Obtain Edible Marijuana From Other States.

As news cameras clicked, the parents of a 2-year-old girl with severe 
epilepsy arrived at South Jersey's first medical marijuana dispensary 
to buy her an ounce when it opened six weeks ago.

But the green buds sold by the Compassionate Care Foundation clinic 
in Egg Harbor Township ended up being worthless to them, because 
Vivian Wilson cannot smoke. Brian Wilson of Scotch Plains said he 
tried reducing the marijuana to an oil for his daughter so she could 
ingest it - which is how some epileptic children in Colorado take it 
- - but he found out there were no medical laboratories in the state 
that were able to test it to determine its safety and the dosing.

A bill scheduled to be introduced Thursday in the Health and Senior 
Services Committee of the Assembly would allow Wilson and others to 
buy marijuana oil directly from a dispensary in Colorado or in other 
states where parents have reported success with the drug. Called the 
marijuana reciprocity bill, it would permit registered patients in 
New Jersey to purchase cannabis at out-of-state licensed dispensaries 
and would also permit nonresidents to purchase it in New Jersey as 
long as they had a license elsewhere and a doctor's approval. Amounts 
would be restricted.

But in a news conference this month, Gov. Christie said he would veto 
such a bill, saying it would expand the state's tightly regulated 
medical marijuana program. "Here's what the advocates [of medical 
marijuana] want. They want legalization of marijuana in New Jersey," 
he said. "It will not happen on my watch, ever."

Wilson and his wife, Meghan, along with other medical marijuana 
advocates, began battling with Christie last summer when Christie 
hinted he might veto a bill that had proposed lifting the state's ban 
on marijuana edibles. "Please don't let my daughter die, governor," 
Brian Wilson implored Christie at a campaign stop in Scotch Plains in 
August when he was running for governor. Christie said he was not 
inclined to support marijuana for children, but at that time, Vivian 
Wilson had already been issued a state license by the Department of 
Health. Three doctors had approved her taking it in an effort to stop 
her frequent and life-threatening seizures.

The video went viral, and Christie signed the bill after the 
Legislature agreed to make changes. He wanted the edibles limited to 
children, sparking criticism from advocates that elderly patients 
would be deprived the chance to take cannabis in edible form. He also 
had the legislators restore a requirement that children get two to 
three doctors to sign off on the drug, including a psychiatrist, 
though few in that specialty have been found by the Wilsons to be 
willing to do so.

Christie said that in the future, he would not approve amendments to 
the program "under any circumstances."

Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D., Union), the prime sponsor of the 
reciprocity bill, said the bill did not call for legalization of the 
drug for recreational use, but enabled sick children to get the 
medicine they needed. She said Christie's remarks showed he was 
"turning his back on these sick children," whose conditions did not 
improve with traditional drugs.

Stender said a 15-month-old North Jersey girl who had seizures for 
six hours died over the Thanksgiving holiday while waiting to receive 
state approval to take cannabis. The parents, she said, spent months 
obtaining the required doctors' approvals and were waiting for a 
reply to their application when the baby was hospitalized.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom