May 22, 2008 9:45 am US/Eastern
N.J. Considering Medical Marijuana Bill
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) ―
Patients suffering from cancer, AIDS, multiple
sclerosis and other life-threatening illnesses would be allowed to use
marijuana to alleviate their symptoms under a measure to be considered Thursday
by New Jersey
lawmakers.
The Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act is
scheduled to be debated before an Assembly health panel.
Twelve states already allow the use of medical
marijuana for chronically ill patients.
The measure would permit certain patients to
register with the Department of Health and Human Services to legally possess
and use the drug, which has been shown to relieve nausea from chemotherapy, muscle
spasms and chronic pain and to reverse appetite loss.
"It does not make sense for many of New Jersey's citizens to
suffer when there is a viable way to ease their pain," said bill sponsor Reed
Gusciora, D-Mercer.
Gusciora said there is no evidence of increased
drug use in the dozen states that already allow for medical marijuana.
The New
Jersey bill enjoys bipartisan sponsorship.
Republican Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll of Morris County said it is key for doctors to be permitted to use their
judgment.
"If you can go to your doctor and get a
derivative of the poppy to treat pain, why can't you get a derivative of the
cannabis plant to treat your symptoms," Carroll asked. "If a doctor using his
or her best medical judgment thinks marijuana is the best thing for the
patient, he or she should be allowed to recommend it."
Medical marijuana bills have been introduced
before in New Jersey,
but have failed to advance.
However, a Senate health panel heard from
television personality Montel Williams and other advocates two years ago during
an information session. Williams, a registered medical marijuana user in California, said he
turned to marijuana to relieve debilitating knee and foot pain after trying
Oxycontin and a variety of other drugs to no avail.
The bill now pending would allow patients to
use marijuana medicinally by smoking it, eating it or taking it in tablets as prescribed
by a doctor. The amount of marijuana a patient could possess would be capped at
1 ounce and patients would be issued cards identifying them as registered
medical marijuana users.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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