See that Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl, the one about the end of Prohibition? It was meant to be - and it was - an attempt to stir our emotions about how wonderful a nice, cold beer tastes, and how silly it was this all-American beverage was kept out of the hands of normal, law-abiding people due to a lunatic law.

Well, it got me thinking about a lunatic law currently on our books, and how one day we'll look at back at it through the same emotional, old-timey prism Budweiser took us through.

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John Ray Wilson has multiple sclerosis. No one disputes that.

Marijuana can help relieve the symptoms of MS. No one disputes that - and that's why MS sufferers are among those qualified to use pot under New Jersey's long-delayed medical-marijuana program.

Wilson, who was arrested in 2008 after a National Guard helicopter spotted 17 marijuana plants growing behind his rented house in Franklin Township, was not distributing the drug. It was for personal use, to relieve his symptoms. No one disputes that.

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Regarding the Jan. 13 editorial, "Medical marijuana/A tough road":

Not only should medical marijuana be made available to patients in need, but adult recreational use should be regulated. Drug policies modeled after alcohol prohibition have given rise to a youth-oriented black market. Illegal drug dealers don't ID for age, but they do recruit minors immune to adult sentences. So much for protecting the children.

Throwing more money at the problem is no solution. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime.

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Has Pot Issue Prompted Proposed Millstone Law?

Law Would Underscore That Officials' Oaths of Office Prohibit Violating Federal Statutes

MILLSTONE - Although township officials aren't admitting that it has anything to do with medical marijuana, the timing of a proposed ordinance regarding faithful adherence to the oath of office raises the question of its actual intent.

The Township Committee introduced the ordinance by a 4-0 vote at its Jan. 18 meeting. A public hearing on the ordinance is scheduled for Feb. 15.

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It's shameful that chronically ill people in South Jersey still can't get marijuana for medicinal purposes, even though the state law that allows it was signed two years ago.

Gov. Chris Christie, never a big fan of this law that preceded him into office, at first delayed the strict regulations that were to govern the production, sale and access. There were to be six sites initially, with a couple of them in South Jersey.

The operators were eventually granted approval, but then they ran into a problem that even the law's strongest advocates didn't expect: "Not in my backyard" (NIMBY) syndrome. The dispensaries can't find a home. In South Jersey, the two chosen organizations have met local regulatory opposition in Maple Shade, Westampton Township and even Camden. And these are supposed to be tax-paying enterprises.

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MOUNT OLIVE TWP. - Michael Erickson, Jim DeMaio and Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, R-Morris, are all getting more than a little impatient.

Erickson, formerly of Budd Lake, DeMaio of Mendham and Carroll are outspoken advocates of providing marijuana to help ease the pain and symptoms of a variety of serious illnesses such as cancer, fibromyalgia, ALS, multiple sclerosis and chronic pain.

But two years have passed since the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act was approved and not one ill person has been helped.

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TRENTON - Princeton resident Vanessa Waltz thought the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act would be flourishing by now.

The law allows for New Jersey residents suffering from cancer, AIDS, Crohn's disease and other serious conditions to obtain and use therapeutic cannabis with a doctor's prescription.

But two years after Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed the medical pot act into law, the program remains inactive.

Waltz said she has Stage 3 cancer, and is out of work.

"My job is fighting my cancer," she said. "If the marijuana program began operating, it would give me a great sense of relief."

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TRENTON - Prominent defense attorney William Buckman, well known for the State Police racial profiling case in the 1990s, is prepping a civil lawsuit against the state health department for delaying New Jersey's medical marijuana program.

Buckman will co-counsel the litigation along with Anne Davis, the director of the New Jersey chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

The announcement came today during a noon press conference on the Statehouse steps in Trenton attended by a small group of patients, advocates and leaders of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana in New Jersey. The event was called to commemorate the two-year anniversary of Gov. Jon Corzine's signing of the Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act.

The program has largely languished with not one of the state's six planned medical marijuana centers being anywhere close to opening.

Buckman said he hopes the "strategy of litigation" will put an end to the administration's "foot dragging."

[end]

By now, the owners of an empty storefront in Montclair expected to be dispensing medical marijuana to hundreds of cancer and multiple sclerosis patients suffering from demoralizing pain.

Instead, brown paper covers the windows, and the green awning still bears the name of an old business. Greenleaf Compassion Center officials have spent more than $80,000, all while they wait for the go-ahead.

As the two-year anniversary of Gov. Jon Corzine signing New Jersey's medical marijuana act approaches on Wednesday, one thing is clear: The health department isn't close to opening the first dispensary.

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To the Editor:

Recently, I received a form letter asking for support of the Drug Policy Alliance in its efforts to end the "oewar on drugs" and replace it with a sensible policy that works. In addition to the request for money, many very disturbing facts were presented. These numbers can be found on the Internet at its website, www.drugpolicy.org/facts.

Annual spending by the United States in the war on drugs is more than $51 billion.

In 2009 there were 1,663,600 arrests for non-violent drug charges.

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Two years ago, the New Jersey medical marijuana law was passed. The point was to stop arresting seriously ill residents and provide a safe access method for doctor-recommended cannabis.

But the program has struggled to operate under heavy restrictions. The six alternative treatment centers, approved by New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, are being given yet another hurdle. Westampton officials turned down a land-use variance in a 4-3 vote, joining other municipalities around the state that have refused the centers.

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A New Jersey assemblyman, saying he feels a "moral obligation" to help alleviate the pain and suffering of "deathly ill" people, plans to introduce legislation to make it easier for medical marijuana businesses to get local zoning approvals.

Since October, governing bodies in Maple Shade, Westampton, Upper Freehold, and Camden have rejected plans for pot farms and marijuana dispensaries. The votes were taken after crowds of residents at town meetings expressed fears of increased crime and a stigma against their communities.

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As New Jersey trudges slowly toward distributing legal medical marijuana, some towns might need a nudge to help them do the right thing - in the name of greater good.

The state's medical marijuana law is two years old, but medicinal pot is not yet available to New Jersey patients. The next step is to open growing and dispensing facilities throughout the state.

Already, though, municipalities are putting zoning laws on the books that effectively bar these perfectly legal medical centers from their borders. It's a "Reefer Madness" hysteria that is based on nonexistent fears - that facilities will lure both criminals and federal drug raids.

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The effort to legalize the medical use of marijuana in New Jersey has been a long, tough struggle.

The legislation was drafted to be the strictest in the nation. It was passed a full two years ago and signed into law in the final days of the Corzine administration.

The Christie administration delayed writing regulations to implement the law, and it wasn't until November that the Department of Health and Senior Services finalized the state's rules.

Now, efforts to bring medical marijuana to sick people who need it are facing another unfortunate hurdle. Nonprofit groups trying to find places to grow or distribute legal marijuana are up against local residents who don't want such facilities in their towns.

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The proposed location of a medical marijuana facility at 120 Hancock Lane is inappropriate, as recently decided by Westampton's Land Development Board.

Growing marijuana is not like growing corn. It is not an "agricultural crop" to be sold at a roadside stand. Marijuana is a federal and state Schedule I controlled substance, having "high potential for abuse" with "lack of accepted safety for use ... under medical supervision" (NJAC 8:65-10.1). Marijuana use or possession under federal law is illegal.

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CAMDEN -- On any number of corners, in any corner of Camden City, you'll find a place to or find someone who knows where to buy marijuana. The practice is illegal, but a move to allow the legal growth, cultivation and production of marijuana products in multiple forms received an initial rejection from the city Monday night.

Camden's Zoning Board of Adjustment deemed a zoning designation of "office light industrial" for two buildings in an area off of Federal Street and Newton Avenue does not include cannabis production.

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Re: "Camden medical pot site pushed" (C-P, Nov. 26).

For the past year, I've been working to establish a medical marijuana growing/processing facility and an alternative treatment center (dispensary) here in Camden. I'm working with Camden property owner Ilan Zaken, who owns two ideal buildings at 11th Street and Wright Avenue in the Gateway office light industrial zone.

Our application for interpretation relief will be heard by the Camden zoning board on Feb. 6. We're arguing that our proposed use, the growing/processing facility only, is a permitted use in this zone. A dispensary use variance application would also be heard on Feb. 6.

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I write in reference to the thoughtful letter "Marijuana proscription causes nothing but pain" (Jan. 1).

Is there any legitimate reason that a natural herb that has never killed anybody should be classified the same as heroin? I think not. Marijuana is a good substitute for potentially deadly painkillers such as Vicodin and is also a substitute for alcohol.

The pharmaceutical industry knows this, and so does the alcohol industry, and this is probably why marijuana remains a criminalized substance.

- -- Kirk Muse,

Mesa, Ariz.

[end]

WESTAMPTON -- New Jersey may have legalized marijuana for medical purposes, but members of a township land use board decided it shouldn't be grown and dispensed from a Hancock Lane warehouse that is near an age-restricted housing development.

Compassionate Care Foundation Inc. had sought the township Land Development Board's approval to open a medical marijuana growing and dispensing operation in the 40,000 square-foot warehouse off Hancock Lane.

The group is one of six nonprofit groups selected by the state Department of Health and Senior Services to grow and dispense medical marijuana to patients with debilitating illnesses.

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If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be fully legal and there would be no medical marijuana debate (op-ed, "Upper Freehold takes cover behind flawed federal law," Dec. 28).

Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco.

Marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents.

The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican immigration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rage have been counterproductive at best. Americans did not even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched federal bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda.

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