NEW JERSEY'S MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROGRAM NEEDS DIRECTION, CLEAR THINKING

Who will grow it?

Who will dispense it?

Who will make money on it?

Just six months after the New Jersey Legislature passed a bill to
legalize marijuana for people with a demonstrated medical need, the
still-to-be-inaugurated program is bogging down in the rule making.

The legislation called for certified nonprofit organizations to
procure the drug and make it available at convenient locations around
the state. Legislators insisted upon safeguards -- such as
prohibiting storefront pot shops -- to prevent the Garden State from
becoming the wrong kind of garden state.

California and Colorado are examples of how too-easy medical pot laws
lead to de facto legalization.

Now, however, Gov. Chris Christie and legislative leaders are
entertaining proposals that would drastically alter the legislative
intent for cultivation and delivery. The state's teaching hospitals
are seeking to become the exclusive dispensers of medical marijuana,
promising to provide an added level of security. The proposal by the
New Jersey Council of Teaching Hospitals envisions Rutgers
University's School of Environmental and Biological Sciences becoming
the sole legal grower in the state.

While these ideas are worth considering -- the hospitals say they'd
go after research dollars and revenue to train physicians -- they
also threaten to delay relief to people who have been waiting to
treat symptoms of cancer, multiple sclerosis, AIDS and other health
afflictions. Postponing this for possibly a year or more sentences
them to unnecessary suffering and encourages them to take the law
into their own hands in a state that, on their behalf, has legalized
medical pot.

Also, this comes as a surprise to some people at Rutgers. Robert
Goodman, dean of the Rutgers agricultural experiment station, which
develops strains of seeds for commercial use, said he doesn't want to
be the official grower of marijuana or any other product.

Only 16 of the 40 teaching hospitals in the state would be designated
as dispensaries. That's a concern for those who don't live close to a
teaching hospital, including residents of Warren and Hunterdon counties.

Legislators deserve credit for insisting on a medical marijuana
program that won't devolve into a Cheech and Chong movie. But
sequestering this process in a hospital/university setting, run by
people who don't necessarily agree with the assignment or the goals,
sounds like a prescription for a bad public service.

The state needs to provide for secure marijuana dispensaries in each
county. Placing too many obstacles in front of sick people will cause
the "private" market to compete for their business -- and win, if it
has better service and pain relief. That's not what anyone in Trenton intended.