Christie Administration Has Been Responsive on Issue

I was surprised and saddened to see the editorial Wednesday titled "Med marijuana: What's the deal?" The Asbury Park Press' editorial board is typically thorough and factually accurate, but in this instance it couldn't be more off the mark.

While this program appeared to get off to a slow start, we have seen real, and substantial, progress over the past year, particularly the past few months.

The problem right now isn't the program or the progress. The problem is the Press' lack of factual followup. The same day the editorial appeared in the Press, an article ran in The Wall Street Journal titled, "Legal for some, pot crops up in N.J.," highlighting the headway being made in our program.

[continues 518 words]

The dope dealers of the future may be dues-paying members of AFSCME or CWA and have civil service protection. Or - they may be politically connected contractors who supply government with marijuana, cocaine, heroin, hypodermic needles, what-have-you. Yes, government is moving in on the narcotics-trafficking turf. And not to shut it down. To grab a piece of the action.

You see this trend developing in small ways in places like New Jersey where government programs are already dispensing "medical" marijuana and supplying needles to heroin addicts.

[continues 466 words]

Regarding "Time to exhale" (Editorials, May 20):

The drug war is largely a war on marijuana smokers. In 2010, there were 853,839 marijuana arrests in the United States, almost 90 percent for simple possession. At a time when state and local governments are laying off police, firefighters and teachers, this country continues to spend enormous public resources criminalizing Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis. The end result of this ongoing culture war is not lower rates of use.

The United States has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. Decriminalization is a long overdue step in the right direction. Taxing and regulating marijuana would render the drug war obsolete. As long as organized crime controls distribution, marijuana consumers will come into contact with sellers of hard drugs like methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin. This "gateway" is a direct result of marijuana prohibition.

Robert Sharpe

Arlington, Va., May 21

The writer is a policy analyst with Common Sense for Drug Policy, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group.

[end]

TRENTON - Drug-free school zones were shrunk. Marijuana was legalized for medicinal purposes, though still isn't available yet. And now lawmakers are mulling whether to make the penalties for possessing a small amount of pot - enough to roll around 30 joints - akin to a parking ticket.

A quarter-century after New Jersey stepped up its "war on drugs" and swelled its prison system though mandatory-minimum sentences, the state clearly is moving in the opposite direction - though advocates for the changes insist they don't want drugs legalized, only punished more moderately.

[continues 1443 words]

Well, seems time for another shot at the stupidity of drug laws, yeah? Especially after New Jersey legislators seem to have some momentum to get a law decriminalizing marijuana possession up to about a half-ounce.

While that's all well and good, why don't we take it to it's logical conclusion: Legalize everything.

You ask me, illegal drugs are only a problem because they are illegal. If you agree with me, you may as well stop reading now. Go fishing or something. If you don't agree with me, I'm now going to hammer you over the head with statistics. Read on. The first three, which I've numbered for your convenience, are courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control.

[continues 622 words]

The Assembly Judiciary Committee today will hold a first-ever hearing on a bill to decriminalize possession of a small amount of marijuana and make it a summary offense similar to a parking ticket. It's only a modest step. Because this is New Jersey, however, where official attitudes toward drug use have been puritanical, it's noteworthy.

The bill, A1465, sponsored by Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Trenton) and 17 co-sponsors, would make possession of 15 grams or less of pot punishable by a fine of $150 for a first violation, $200 for a second violation and $500 for a third. Right now, possession of this amount is a disorderly persons offense, carrying a punishment of up to a $1,000 fine and six months in jail. A conviction also results in a criminal record that can't be expunged for at least five years.

[continues 712 words]

We have the natty kingpins of the HBO series "Boardwalk Empire" to remind us why Prohibition failed in this state. And someday, surely, we'll look back on our marijuana laws with the same sense of absurdity.

Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Mercer) already does. He's proposed a bill to decriminalize marijuana, up for consideration today. It has 18 co-sponsors and is said to have made it further in the Legislature than any similar measure so far. It would make possession of a little bit of pot the equivalent of a traffic ticket, with a small fine that brings no criminal record.

[continues 329 words]

GETTING arrested for possessing small amounts of marijuana will no longer be a crime under a bill now pending in the Legislature. Rather than facing a $1,000 fine and six months in jail, those with less than 15 grams of marijuana - a little more than half an ounce - would be fined $150 for their first offense and up to $500 for repeated violations.

This bill is a sensible response to the prevalence of marijuana use in today's society. An estimated 100 million Americans have smoked marijuana, and about 25 million have done so in the last year, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. If the bill passes, New Jersey would be following 14 other states, including New York and Connecticut, which have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of the drug. The bill has bipartisan support, which suggests it has a good chance of passing.

[continues 278 words]

More than 22,000 people are arrested every year in New Jersey for simple possession of marijuana. The results of these arrests can be devastating.

Currently, possession of two ounces or less of marijuana is a disorderly persons offense that carries a penalty of up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Additional fines of more than $600 may also be imposed under the existing law.

Currently, a conviction also results in a criminal record that cannot be expunged for at least five years.

[continues 362 words]

The proposal to eliminate potential jail time and decrease fines for those caught with small amounts of marijuana is long overdue and a welcomed dose of common sense from Trenton legislators.

Before refer madness takes hold for those prone to panic over anything marijuana related --- mellow out for a moment.

It is important to remember that decriminalizing marijuana does not equal legalizing marijuana. Possession of marijuana would still be illegal for those who lack a physician's approval under New Jersey's yet-to-be enacted medical marijuana law. The punishment, however, would more appropriately fit the crime.

[continues 262 words]

VINELAND -- City officials say they turned down a recent proposal by a local resident who wanted to grow medical marijuana.

Mayor Robert Romano and Sandy Forosisky, the city's director of redevelopment, said the consensus was a firm "no."

"I wasn't in favor of it," Romano said. "No matter where we would put it, there would be a big security issue. I don't know what would be beneficial about it."

Forosisky agreed. "We had no interest," she said.

"We had gotten a phone call and we were asked whether Vineland would be interested in growing medical marijuana,'' Forosisky said. "We said Vineland did not want to be one of the first towns growing medical marijuana in the state."

[continues 257 words]

THE PATH toward start-up of New Jersey's medical marijuana law has been a slow and painful march, beset by one roadblock after another. Already one of the most stringent laws in the nation, the Garden State version has been further hindered by Governor Christie, who was never excited about its prospects in the first place.

Bureaucratic foot-dragging has dogged the process from Day One, as have repeated skirmishes with legislators about how the law should be implemented. Extensive paperwork has been thrown in at every turn.

[continues 369 words]

PLUMSTED - Support for medical marijuana may be gaining ground, as four Republican Committeemen voted in favor of an ordinance Wednesday that could permit a medical marijuana facility to be constructed in Plumsted.

Under the ordinance, a state-approved medical marijuana company could apply before the township Land Use Board to place a cultivation center within the town's light industrial zone 1.

The ordinance reverses a December action by the five-member Township Committee that blocked applications before the Land Use Board that are not in compliance with federal law. Federal law does not yet recognize the use of medically-prescribed marijuana, although New Jersey law does.

[continues 145 words]

Sick people still in pain after two years will have to wait even longer, thanks to delays in opening New Jersey's legal medical marijuana centers.

Some municipalities have put up zoning laws to bar them from opening, based on irrational fears that they'll lure criminals and federal drug raids. And Gov. Chris Christie seems to be deliberately dawdling, because he doesn't like this law, passed in the Corzine era.

Now, the head of Greenleaf Compassion Center in Montclair is now threatening to quit. And Joe Stevens' frustration is understandable, considering how he's been strung along.

[continues 224 words]

The ongoing municipal "Reefer Madness" has to stop.

The last thing chronically and terminally ill residents of New Jersey need is more delay in easing their suffering. Jackson could be -- and should be -- the place where hysteria gives way to reason.

Breakwater Alternative Treatment Center wants to build an enclosed medical marijuana cultivation facility on a 12- to 15-acre site in Jackson. Earlier this week, Township Council members, apparently jittery, failed to act on the nonprofit organization's request to give the Zoning Board some guidance on how to proceed.

[continues 358 words]

Jeffrey Pollack is a physician who practices in Atlantic County.

MARY E. O'Dowd, commissioner of the state Department of Health and Senior Services, attempted to defend the state's actions, or lack thereof, in "Medicinal pot program must be done right" (Other Views, Jan. 25).

However, the original plan, designed to be a serious and legitimate medically driven plan to benefit a narrow list of qualified patients, based on science and medical consensus, has so far failed to deliver.

I agree the DHSS needs to proceed cautiously. However, the two-year delay is not "cautiously proceeding"; it is seriously impeding implementation of the law. This is unacceptable.

[continues 481 words]

MOUNT HOLLY - A medical-marijuana supplier is dropping its legal fight to run a facility in Westampton.

Compassionate Care Foundation Inc. instead plans to grow and sell medical marijuana from a site in Egg Harbor Township, an attorney for the firm said Friday. The nonprofit will drop a lawsuit it had filed over a proposed site in Westampton, said the lawyer, Steven D. Weinstein.

The Egg Harbor Township facility, expected to open in Atlantic County later this year, would be South Jersey's first outlet for medical marijuana. A second state-approved supplier for the region, Compassionate Sciences ATC, has yet to find a home.

[continues 230 words]

Former Gov. John S. Corzine signed the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act in January 2010, effectively making the state the 14th in the country to legalize marijuana for medical purposes. Yet in the two years that followed, little progress was made regarding efforts to open up dispensaries or growing facilities within the state.

Since the law's signing, state-approved centers beginning operations have faced a sluggish response from both the state's health department and a certain unwillingness to accommodate their facilities from N.J. townships. Only two out of the six centers have found homes thus far, including Greenleaf Compassion Center in Montclair, and more recently, Compassionate Care Foundation in Egg Harbor Township.

[continues 273 words]

Medicinal marijuana may be coming to Egg Harbor Township later this year, as a nonprofit group is planning to open one of the first treatment facilities in the state more than two years after the treatment was signed into law.

The proposed site would be in an 85,000-square-foot leased building in the Offshore Commercial Park, off Delilah Road, about a quarter-mile west of the Garden State Parkway.

Leo B. Schoffer, an attorney, long-time developer and philanthropist who sits on the Richard Stockton College board of trustees, owns the building.

[continues 715 words]

The Harvest and Dispensary for the Gravely Ill Will Be in Egg Harbor Township.

South Jersey's first pot farm and dispensary is expected to open in Egg Harbor Township in the fall, 21/ 2 years after the state legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes. The Philadelphia Inquirer

None of six dispensaries authorized by the state has yet opened for business.

The Atlantic County town recently issued the facility a zoning permit, a prize that proved to be elusive in a string of other South Jersey towns after residents packed local meeting halls to protest.

[continues 643 words]