PROPER PRECAUTIONS ON MARIJUANA BILL

As New Jersey lawmakers consider taking the bold step of legalizing
marijuana for medical use, they're showing an abundance of caution
about the details.

An Assembly committee made major changes to the bill approved by the
state Senate earlier this year. It would make New Jersey the 14th
state to allow marijuana to be grown and prescribed for medicinal
purposes, but under the strictest conditions of any of those states.
To use marijuana legally, a patient would have to have one of five
specific diseases; get a recommendation from his or her doctor and
permission from the state health department; obtain the drug from an
approved grower and only in amounts of an ounce or less per month.

Those stringent provisions should eliminate concerns that this bill
amounts to back-door legalization of a recreational drug. Still,
Assembly members facing re-election in November may be reluctant to
give opponents any chance to label them as "soft on drugs."

We hope they give voters more credit for recognizing that using
marijuana to relieve the side effects of chemotherapy or the symptoms
of other serious diseases should not be a crime.